hey guys just wondering if I could get some opinions on a recurring injury i’m having. Im fairly new to sprinting & within my first month of sprinting i’ve pulled my right hip flexor 3 times (possibly due to being overly strong & or tight) is there any other possible reasons for this? I’ve a slight lordosis & always thought due to alot of heavy straight leg sit ups my hip flexors were hypertonic. my gym lifts are as follows:
conventional deadlift 210kg
full back squat 155kg
front squat 125kg
rack gm (parallel) 110kg
straight leg sit up (bar behind neck) 32.5kg
all lifts done at 82.5-85kg
is there anything here im missing? i’ve dropped all hip flexor work & started to bring in more posterior chain work (gm’s/bulgarian split squats/sumo deads) & stretching my quads/hip flexors everyday. In terms of sprinting i’ve started with a very small amount of sprinting, 1 all out effort with 1-3 runs at 80-90% working on form (mainly because im spending majority of my time waiting for my leg to heal)!
do you do any other core work? You said the pulls occurred within the first month, i’m guessing you didn’t devote nearly enough time to healing before starting to sprint again!
you could introduce some hurdle mobility and more core work in the future, and if i were you I would not only stretch the flexors but also especially your glutes, piriformis, and hamstrings as tightness in the opposing muscles can cause problems that show up completely elsewhere.
Stop and rest that bad boy, don’t let that thing get worse, rest it, ease back in, do some stretching movements. You need to do some sumo deads light then work your way up in weight. Stretch your hip flexor EVERY DAY, before EVERY practice you attempt to do. Make sure you warm up your hip flexor very well to.
Even thou you might feel totally fine after 4 weeks (off from sprinting), be aware that scar-tissue will regain its total pull-strength after six weeks. So when you start again, do it gradually and carefully.
There’s plenty of information here concerning rehabilitation; the search function is pretty useful.
well before this I stuck to heavy weight leg raises &/or incline weighted sit ups (funnily enough I can still do these without a problem so possibly rectus femoris as it only hurts when the knee AND hip extends???) but now i’ve switched & started hitting up standing sit ups. I also have done heavy (50-60kg) side bends too in the past so I dont see as my obliques are weak. The only noticable tightness in the lower body is my external rotators (which are extremely tight) apart from that im pretty flexible. I didnt really consider those being a problem but i’ll get stuck in to those old crossover stretchs again, thanks!
KingsRevenge:
Im trying to rest it as much as possible, the only problem is it feels fine after a week so I go back & do another all out attempt, set a personal best & pull it again! The thing is is when im warm I dont really feel as bad, i guess I just need to be a little more conservative with my attempts & not so impatient…
Blur, happy to hear you’ve dropped the idea of strengthening your hip flexors. Yes, you do need to stretch them every day and they do play a role in sprinting, but they do not need to be any stronger than they are currently. Think about their role. Their job is to lift your knees when you run. You do this easily and they will always be strong enough to do their job efficiently. It is when you start to specifically focus on them that they become tight and therefore inhibit your progress. The tightness brought on by trying to make them strong limits your range of movement. Keep stretching and listen to your body. It will tell you when you need to rest.
Make sure you do leg swings, side to side and front and back both legs, you don’t want one leg to get some stretching that another leg is getting. Umm, I’m going to search for an article on groin stuff you can do that I liked doing, mainly the sumo deadlifts helped me the best and the squad leg jump thing.
KingsRevenge: cheers buddy, nice link. I think my sumo’s are pretty strong, have done 2xbwx5 off a 4" block (cluster) before but it is weaker than my conventional so maybe it could do with alittle more work. I do alittle of the front leg swings as part of a (brief) dynamic warm up, have never tried the side to side though, will do.
gpot: i’ve read opinions on this where swing leg doesnt differ from intermeidate to elite by very much time at all, maybe 0.2 (cant remember the source) yet in supertraining the ratio’s siff gives are 3:1 on hip extensors/flexors for elite 10.0s 100m russian sprinters. This is the only reason while I continued direct hip flexor work. It was only the constant pulls which made me think to drop them completely. I have continued core work with heavy standing sit ups & occasional saxon side bends, does any body have information on rotational work beneficial for sprinting (rockpile drill/russian twists etc.)? I know yessis reccommends rotational work but in his book (explosive running) the workouts are pretty bootleg & seemed to be geared towards beginners. I currently do none of this as I have very little time left after current workouts & didnt consider this priority.
In the GPP DVD, Charlie says “since so much of sprinting is rotational about the hip, then exercises that tend to pull across the hip tend to be favoured”
The point I was trying to make to your question above, or rather the point Charlie makes in his DVD, is that “rotational” work around the hips is desired! Perhaps as a general idea and something to keep in mind, as I am not sure if this directly fits to your problem -didn’t have time to read again all the above, sorry!
You can have a pretty good “rotational” workout with a medicine ball (e.g., abs in different positions, throws from sides, etc).