Forums > Health and Nutrition > pulled hamstring
- Anya
mr train you are a pain, your words - they make me go insane
they strike my ever-thinking brain like little drops of acid rain
oh, to my life you are a bane; crazy, mixed up, mr train - r2e
I have a pulled hamstring. On the mild side. ( and I don't even know how I did it) I can still run, but it's sort of painful. So, I've been off for 4 days, trying to heal it. I planned to run 5 miles tomorrow. How bad is it to run with a pulled muscle? Will it get worse?
There is a difference between inflamed hamstrings and "pulled" hamstrings. If it is in fact "pulled"--which I actually don't think it is if you can still run depending on how "painful" when you say it's sort of "painful"--you really shouldn't be doing anything that aggrevate it. Try to find an alternative exercise to maintain your fitness.
There's always some discomfort but don't confuse a kind of "pain" that would come with, say, massaging a scar tissue. It's painful but, if you don't do it, you can't break it down. I just recently hurt my calf and I've been doing stationary bike and NordicTrack. With NT, my calf "hurts comfortably good". You konw that feeling--it's not getting worse but you feel nice "pull" and it sort of stretches out. If it's "painful", you shouldn't do that. So you need to determine "the pain that's getting worse" and "the pain that feels good".
I certainly wouldn't bother with "a planned 5 mile" when you are hurt at any degree whatsoever. It is stupid to try to stick with "a plan" when you are hurt. Scratch it and just go for an EASY jog for a couple of miles or walk. What I would do is; massage the area to try to break down the scar tissue; put on extra pants (I don't know how warm where you live right now is but, even if it's pretty warm, wear extra pants because this would increase the blood flow) and go for a brisk walk. Walking, possibly more so than running, stretches muscles in your legs and, as long as it's not the excess, it's good for problems like hamstring or calf problem. Make sure you ice the area when you get home almost immdediately. This warm-cold combination would help you get rid of scar tissue quickly.
One factor to consider. Is it a running injury or did you pull it another way? "PULLED" can mean a lot and is generic term for sore hamstring. It could mean inflammation, it could mean a tweak, it could mean muscle damage......The criteria I follow to assess an injury and amount of damage done is to test strength.
If that muscle is weaker, there is more damage. The best test is to go to a gym and do a one leg hamstring curl. Choose a light weight and rep out on good leg and then on sore leg. If you choose a wrong weight. Recover 5 min and repeat test. If a noticable difference in strength between legs, you have some muscle damage and should take it easy for a while and cross train or easy running. Each person is individual. The next time you do try a run though, get it warmed up with heating pad or preferrably moist heat and active dynamic warm up. Then test it out and ice after. You should be icing now BTW.
A Saucy Wench
If that muscle is weaker, there is more damage. The best test is to go to a gym and do a one leg hamstring curl. Choose a light weight and rep out on good leg and then on sore leg. If you choose a wrong weight. Recover 5 min and repeat test. If a noticable difference in strength between legs, you have some muscle damage and should take it easy for a while and cross train or easy running.
Or some nerve damage which is totally unrelated to the muscle and isnt bothered at all by running and in fact running makes it better. (see me who lost nearly 9 months of decent running and a crap load of fitness because I thought I had a hamstring injury) I still cant curl jack on my left leg, but I can run. Although not fast for too long. But the more miles I run the happier it is.
Sometimes too much rest is as bad as too much work. Warm it up well (walk cycle, whatever) , go out easy notice the difference between pain (sharp and grabbing) and achy (burning, weak, fatigued). If running is painful do other cardio to keep the muscle ACTIVE but not damaged. Walk, cycle , rowing machine. You dont want the muscle to heal in a total rest state or you could possibly have scar tissue to break up when you start again and no matter HOW long you rest it will hurt when you start again.
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds" - Captain Hammer
"I don't care how old I live! I just want to be LIVING while I am living - Jack LaLanne. "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7I failed the 12 minute run at 15...BQ'd at 38
The criteria I follow to assess an injury and amount of damage done is to test strength. If that muscle is weaker, there is more damage. The best test is to go to a gym and do a one leg hamstring curl. Choose a light weight and rep out on good leg and then on sore leg. If you choose a wrong weight. Recover 5 min and repeat test. If a noticable difference in strength between legs, you have some muscle damage and should take it easy for a while and cross train or easy running.
Tchuck:
This is pretty interesting. In fact, I was just going to come back and add one thing: "Don't try to see if it's still hruts by stretching or something like that to further damage it". Wouldn't "strength test" like this possibly hurt more?
This is from my life's lesson; when I hurt my Achilles, I was talking to Dick Quax and I told him; "Well, it didn't really hurt today when I did some strides..." He threw his arms up, laughing, and said; "Yeah, sure... Let's hurt it to see if it still hurts...!" How true!
Also, in regards to this "planned 5 miler" thing; I think I shared this story elsewhere but, when I was coaching at Hitachi and we went to a 2-week long training camp. As soon as we got to the hotel, one of the girls (we brought 2 girls for this particular camp) complained some sore quads. We did all the budgetting and planning and all... At that moment, I was thinking, "Man, we're gonna throw all that away?" So I asked the head coach; "What are we going to do?" He simply said; "What CAN we do?" For 2 weeks during the entire training camp, she "walked". Another very valuable lesson I've had.
Tchuck: This is pretty interesting. In fact, I was just going to come back and add one thing: "Don't try to see if it's still hruts by stretching or something like that to further damage it". Wouldn't "strength test" like this possibly hurt more?
I don't think you can do anymore damage as a pull is generally a stretch in muscle/damage. I believe there is more risk with a stretch test. BUT, normally with more significant pulls we don't really even want to stretch/test it and feedback will stop us before more damage. To test strength you are shortening the muscle and if weight is light the risk of more damage is minimal. Pain should be analyzed to along with strength. I should clarify that before testing the injured leg, set the weight to lowest weight and do a couple reps to make sure no major pain/weakness. My experience is that only with more significant tears a patient can't do 10lbs (which is usually lowest weight).
Get Lost :)
I know a lot of folks who run through any injury. I love to run, but I do not love to run with acute injuries. Of course, the pain of a good, hard run is another story. I was sprinting for a train the other day and heard/felt a pop in the lateral portion of my left hamstring. I've had the exact same kind of injury there once before, under sprinting circumstances as well. It developed a tangible knot that I could feel engage every time my leg was on the downstroke even while walking. I think the muscle that was affected is responsible for braking as the foot approaches the ground. (Current thought on it, could be wrong.) Anyway, the point of this is that happened 5-6 days ago. Yesterday I could still feel the knot, though I tried to put in 1-2 miles going to the gym. It wasn't exactly painful but I knew it was close to fully healed. On days less than about 45 or 50 F, I like to jog if I'm going anywhere in my daily moving around, and it's a great way of gauging how an injury responds. Today it feels nearly there, so I'm going to give it the rest of today to heal and then hit the road tomorrow. One full week off from running for this minor injury. I've hit the stationary bike at the gym instead.
If I don't have to run, I play it safe. I almost never HAVE TO run. If I had run through my injury this week, it would likely still be hurting or possibly worsened. Not worth it at all to me. But sitting out one week every four months due to a minor injury has enabled me to run 15 out of 16 weeks in great health. That's a fantastic tradeoff to me.
Resident of Pennsyltucky
You can definitely aggravate an injury if you run on it, for a pulled hamstring especially if you extend it into anything fast where you're using full extension.
I tried to run through it and that was the end of my college track career.
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