Great post… I also pulled a hammie 4 days ago…
When is a good time to start this process, gofast?
This is my progress so far:
Day 1: pulled the hammie on a 5th rep 80m.
Applied ice almost immediately
Kept icing throughout the evening.
Voltaren puncture before sleep.
Day 2 (Friday):
Just a bit of biking (transportation purposes), which felt almost completely fine (98%), unlike the day before.
Voltaren puncture before sleep and votaren + icey/hot cream
Day 3 (Saturday):
Biked to the gym pain-free.
Gym: Upper body workout and abs.
EMS: glutes and calves (pulsing)
Biked back.
Voltaren pill before sleep and votaren + icey/hot cream
Day 4 (Sunday):
Biked to the gym pain free.
Treadmill @4.5-5km/hr: alternating walking with jogging for 25’. No problems
40min of drills: (a whole lot of single leg A skips, also ended up doing running A skips with no problems. Satisfied =) )
abdominals and stretching (but not the hammie)
30min swimming (breastroke)
30min SPA (sauna+cold, hydromassage)
Biking more this day, no problems.
(stopped the voltaren because now I need to know if it’s masking any pain)
votaren + icey/hot cream
Day 5 (Monday) - today
this morning:
15min jogging with no problems
10min drills on grass
7 x 30-40m strides (grass). Just some tightness here, so then walked home.
How do you know you pulled your hamstring? If so, this would be extremely mild with such fast recovery to enable biking, drills etc. Do you know that it was not neural tension?
I’m pretty sure it’s a first degree, I know a muscle pull when I feel it (I’ve had a few).
The first day biking was not ok, but I was trying not to use the injured muscle.
Drills were on day 4, so it’s not so soon if you think about it.
Andd I have an EMS (and also did those strong anti-inflammatory injections)
Right I see. I will let Gofast answer your question but you would usually start running after you can jog without pain.
Another session that Charlie advised was back to back 10m sprints for running after a hamstring injury, starting slow and building up to near maximum once able. This way, the fitness and power of the sprint could be maintained without putting the hamstring under too much stress(the swing phase is less dynamic). I believe you can do several hundred metres in total with this session. I tried it once and was impressed.
I have used Charlies 10 x10 x 10m hamstring protocol with great success with hamstring tears. You just do the 10m runs at a pace where you feel no pain which is usually begins at a shuffle, turn around and go again. After about 3-4 workouts I can usually go at a much faster pace and be back in about 2-3 weeks.
It’s a very intelligent work out really. It gave me the idea of my warm up which (after the usual drills and strides on grass) involves starting with 3 x 10m sprints before I gradually increase the distance to 40m before starting the proper session. This way I get a feel for anything that may not be quite right in the hams without risking a full blown sprint. It also seems to warm me up more efficiently.
Sounds good… I as of recently have moved all my tempo work to the bike as I’m on my feet for over 6 hours each day and have not secured adequate means of recovery for my ankles. I’ve tried maintaining field based tempo but have run into inflammation and the like.
I’m having trouble differentiating between the sensation of ‘slight inflammation’ and ‘hamstring being just a bit stressed from work, which is natural, since it just underwent a pull’.
Or shall there be absolutely 0 sensation?
I don’t think you need to foam roll the hamstring if you are getting therapy which is a must to help it heal…massage especially, needles some rehab work etc.
Stef, there should be a slight tightness in the hammy but that should have disappeared by about day 7-10 I would have thought. If not you need your therapist to be getting into it a little with some massage.
You have to get some massage on it to help break up the scar tissue that will have formed. If you don’t the chances of pulling it again are pretty high.
Scar tissue can breakdown and align well with agressive foam rolling and stretching but the therapist may improve the situation by breaking it down more so. If you do choose to go to a therapist seek out the best from recommendations. Most therapists are average (like most tradesmen) and you can visit several times with the hope of correct diagnosis and intervention but you cannot be certain you have had this.
To add, seeing a therapist should not just be about massage, these days the whole body approach to sports injury is out there and should be used. With the best therapists there will be less trial and error with diagnosis and treatment and you can actually save money. Most hamstring injuries are prone to reocurrence because there are underlying issues which have not been addressed, it is rarely just local weakness in the muscle.
On Friday I tweaked my hamstring on set 2 of some flying 30’s. Our local track was closed for a High School track meet so I was running on grass but in my spikes. I just felt it tighten up so luckily caught it early. Weird thing is there is no pain at all duration palpation and rolling. I can lunge, squat etc. unweighted and slow running. I have a session booked with my therapist on Monday. I am assuming then that is is minor but very deep. Will it be too soon to keep the blood flow by the 10x10m drills mentioned in a previous post tomorrow or wait for the therapist to give me the diagnosis?
Diagnosis - no tears - minor strain. IMS to release tension in biceps femoris. Told to easy into the rehab of easy runs and drills mentioned in previous posts with icing and keep it lengthened and re treat again next week and see where it is.
Thanks
(I’ve had a few).