Newf

posted: 9/8/2008 at 7:54 AM

Yes, I did do a search first. I injuried my hamstring back in May and had been runninf for over a year. I have not recovered, I would say due to my inpatience. I have stopped runnung for over 3 weeks and now do a series of stretches 3 times a day. After about a week the pain stops, (the pain is on the outside and back of left knee). I have tried introducing some basic balancing and strengthening exercises defined by my physio. These cause a flare-up in pain. How have others dealth with this injury? I know I need to continue not to run and continue stretching. Approximately how long after the pain stops ( 1 week is definetly not enough) should I consider re-introducing light strengthening? What other exercises/activities have others done to try and maintain a basic level of fitness during the recovery? Just to manage my expectations how long should I expect to be dealing with this? Thanks for any feedback

jsobo119

posted: 9/9/2008 at 6:01 AM
modified: 9/9/2008 at 6:03 AM

depends on the injury... did it come on sudden... like ouch my hamstring... or was it something that came on slowly and was an ache that got worse... if it is the second type then I would suggest deep tissue massage. If it is the sudden ouch type then good luck... btw stretching your cold muscle may be harming the healing process more than helping... -- modified to add this-- If it is the ache that got worse... (had this myself) I had a big lump in my hamstring... after several painfull massage sessions it went away... it took a couple weeks for the soreness to go away and required quite a bit of kneading... but it did get better...

Newf

posted: 9/10/2008 at 9:42 AM

It started as a slight ache, I noticed after a HM in May. Seen the finished and sprinted. (Yes, I now know that was stupid) I thought it was just DOMS and continued to run. Pain got worse, thought it was ITBS. Slowed down ran less and went to massage and physio. Pain persists. Finally I have stopped running now for 3+ weeks and am doing the stretching recommended by physio. The stretching helps. But I find when I start any strengthening of the left leg, (when I am pain free) I get an immediate flare-up that takes about 4-5 days for the pain to leave. I know I can run through the pain but it is not getting any better. It is very frustrating. I seem to be in a persistant cycle of getting to no pain, feeling okay to start to the next stage and ouch I am back to nursing the leg back.

runman1984

posted: 9/10/2008 at 10:10 PM

I'm just getting over a hamstring injury myself. I also hurt mine in May and seemed to recover from it fairly quick (I've strained mine many times before - then I started regular stretching and it seemed to help). I did another workout in July and re-injured the leg again. Strained it so bad that I couldn't even tie/untie my shoes. I hate to say it, but the best thing I've found is just to give it a complete rest. I've found that the injury just needs to quiet down before you can really start with strengthening and running. I know this goes against popular advice, but I even stopped stretching it for a day or two. For me this actually helped. It was so irritated that any attempt at stretching caused the hamstring to tighten more and cramp. Once the pain subsided a little, I began to GENTLY stretch it, increasing the motion over time. IMPORTANT: Don't stretch to the point where it hurts. If you do, your going to far. I also used little cues to let me know it was OK to start running. As I said, I could barely reach my feet in the morning to tie my shoes. When I could start to do this with no pain and only slight tightness, I could tell it was getting better and I started to slowly run again. Only for a few minutes at first, then gradually increasing the time. Hamstring strains and pulls are probably the most aggrivating injury to recover from. You need to take a lot of time and patience and allow it to heal. I was inpatient about 6 years ago when I pulled my left hamstring. Took me almost 6 months to get it to fully heal. Take care and good luck, Chris

runnerclay

Consistently Slow

posted: 9/10/2008 at 10:58 PM

Quote from runman1984 on 9/10/2008 at 10:10 PM:

when I pulled my left hamstring. Took me almost 6 months to get it to fully heal. Take care and good luck, Chris

I hoping my hamstring/calf injure does not take that long. It has been almost 30 days. I can not go mre than a a mile without pain. Now I am walking a mile a day with DW. Cry

Run until the trail runs out.

SCHEDULE 2016--

The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff

unsolicited chatter

http://bkclay.blogspot.com/

Newf

posted: 9/11/2008 at 7:01 AM

Thanks for the feedback. I think I am still learning my cues of when I can progress. I have established that the pace I can progress to the next stage is alot slower than I was expecting but it is a fact I have to live with. Black eye

girmann

Giant Flaming Dork

posted: 9/12/2008 at 1:07 PM

Quote from Newf on 9/8/2008 at 7:54 AM:

Yes, I did do a search first. I injuried my hamstring back in May and had been runninf for over a year. I have not recovered, I would say due to my inpatience. I have stopped runnung for over 3 weeks and now do a series of stretches 3 times a day. After about a week the pain stops, (the pain is on the outside and back of left knee). I have tried introducing some basic balancing and strengthening exercises defined by my physio. These cause a flare-up in pain. How have others dealth with this injury? I know I need to continue not to run and continue stretching. Approximately how long after the pain stops ( 1 week is definetly not enough) should I consider re-introducing light strengthening? What other exercises/activities have others done to try and maintain a basic level of fitness during the recovery? Just to manage my expectations how long should I expect to be dealing with this? Thanks for any feedback

That's tendinitis of your semitendinosis (one of your hamstrings). This muscle happens to have the longest length of tendon in your entire body. It's an overuse injury. I did the same thing on 6/15. Still ran my HM on 6/22 (excruciatingly dumb). You can check out my log to see what it's done to my running. I tried resting for a few days (3) and then almost 2 weeks. When I could still feel the pain after that, I went to the Dr. and PT. It took some pretty significant treatments to get the inflammation under control (no steroids, though). I am still on my way back, but do not feel the pain anymore. I'm sorry that you got injured and it's going to take a while before you're back to normal. My advice is to seek a SPORTS physical therapist, as a normal one will give the standard "Stop running, choose another activity". This first thing that needs to happen is the pain needs to go away. Than means that the tendinitis is going away and that the muscle can accept stretching. Without this, all the stretching you do will cause more injury. As a matter of fact, the PT restricted me to 1x stretches/day for a while and built up from there, because doing too much at a time would cause a re-injury. But don't take my word for it, go see someone.

http://xkcd.com/621/

girmann

Giant Flaming Dork

posted: 9/12/2008 at 1:17 PM

Quote from Newf on 9/11/2008 at 7:01 AM:

Thanks for the feedback. I think I am still learning my cues of when I can progress. I have established that the pace I can progress to the next stage is alot slower than I was expecting but it is a fact I have to live with.

Looking at your log, I noticed that you made a pretty big jump in milage at the end of March. You were running ~12miles/wk for most of that year that you were running and then jumped up to 20+mpw. This is a pretty standard way to get an overuse injury. It doesn't so much have to do with your pace as it does the volume of training. 10% increases in mileage is a good rule of thumb. Try not to increase your speed and your mileage at the same time. If you don't have the time to dedicate to 10% increases in mileage/week, it's better to put off the races than to risk an overuse injury like this (I know, I did the same thing as you did. Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment)

http://xkcd.com/621/

Newf

posted: 9/15/2008 at 12:35 PM

The PT I am seeing is a runner as is the RMT. They have it to the muscle imbalance. Specifically, my gluts are weak. Imagine that I have a weak ass. Smile

Anyway, I have a series of stretches to do 3x daily (these help a lot). I also, have some some exercises to strenghten the gluts. I can not do squats or lunges or other hamstring strengthening yet because they cause an immediate flare-up. I also, started walking briskly yesterday on the treadmill. I am anxious for this to get better but I ~~must~~ will be patient.

Seeking Advice/Confirmation on Hamstring Injury Recovery (Read 763 times)

unsolicited chatter