I have hurt my hamstring tendon and i have tendinitis. I am recovering and i was doing just a little jogging. My question is, is it ok if there is a little soreness after a workout or is that aggravating it?
James,
I’m no expert but i’m old enough to know the difference between being sore and aggravating an injury. Your alot younger, but whether you know it or not, you know the difference too. Look at it this way. Lets say for whatever reason, family vacation, christmas hollidaz etc. you did no physical training at all, no running, no lifting, no nothing for a week or two. Then you go out and do whatever sport you have a passion for, lets use sprinting as an example. And instead of taking it easy, you decide to make up for your time off by busting your ass all afternoon at the track, no injury, just a hard afternoon on the track. The next morning you wake up sore as hell right?? Thats a good sore, in an odd way it actually does feel good, a kinda good pain. And as you get back into your schedule it goes away. An aggravating pain from an unhealed injury just plain feels different and it doesn’t go away and it doesn’t feel good and when you try to go back to your schedule it gets worse and doesn’t go away.
Your body will tell you alot better than doctor will.
I work with boxers, we see alot of little injuries, separated shoulders, broken hands, noses etc. When a guy has a broken hand, he don’t sit on his ass waiting for it to heal, he works on his punches with his good hand. Sometimes we have guyz make real improvements with the skill of their good hand that they wouldn’t have made if they hadn’t injured the other one. Whats a trip is when the guyz who really want it, actually do some sparring with one hand. But it makes no sense to start banging a heavy bag with a partially healed hand.
Let your leg heal and funnel your energy in another positive direction.
td
v. Good reply
ok. only thing is that i have been injured for a while now but im trying to recover. I was told to try to start getting a little active but if it aggravates it, dont do anything. After doing some exercises, the injured area is just a little bit sore. Its not a soreness from working out alot but it dosent hurt too much at all. Should i keep on doing some of my exercises or stop?
James,
O.k.
This is all the more i’ll say. You should know by now if the soreness your feeling is from lack of activity, or lack of healing. If you really don’t know, then go ahead and start ramping up your workload. Your body will scream the answer to your question. If its healed, and your simply sore from inactivity the soreness will quickly go away. Especially at your age with all them damn hormones going crazy. If its not healed, and you start ramping up, your body will let you know by increasing the pain. Its really that simple.
Last bit of advise. After too many rounds of sparring and hitting the bags etc. the doc’s had to go in and cut off a half inch of my AC joint bone in my left shoulder. Couldn’t do nothin for 6 weeks for the first time in twenty years and that drove me nuts. I found an article by the powerlifter Louis Simmons (the man behind the Westside Barbell Club and famous Westside style of weight training) He had had a terrible spinal injury and they told him he wouldn’t lift again and that he needed surgery, but he rehabed himself slowly. The thing i remember was that he said just plain walking is one of the best ways to rehabilitate a bad back or for that matter just about any injury. So thats what i did. I couldn’t run because of the jolting it would do to the shoulder, couldn’t hit the bags with my right hand for the same reason. So i’d go for 1 or 2 hour walks. And now when i a tweak a knee, or strain my back etc. thats what i do.Walk until i’m pain free, then i start back in and listen to my body.
td
TD gives some great advice, especially when he says to “listen” to your body, despite what alot people think, many athletes experienced or not, do not do this. I would also suggest and I have said this many times in other rehab related posts, as well as Charlie, to get in that pool. Hydrotherapy is one of the best therapy modalities for almost all injuries. Do a search for Hydrotherapy, it should give some good results form previous posts.