Hi,
I am fifteen and have tendinitis in my hamstring. I guess it is chronic because I have had it for nearly a year now. I have recently been stretching it and it heals up pretty quick. It doesn’t hurt at all after three days and I cant feel it and then I start doing some small exercises. Then about fifteen mins. later it flares up. The only exercise that dosent hurt it is cycling. My question is, should I wait alot longer than three days, even if it stops hurting and should i start cycling? when do i do strengthinig exercise? What am i doing wrong?
what are you doing for those three days? ice, therapy…?
Tendinitis likes being rubbed… it needs to be massaged - helps a lot.
It wont hurt cycling as the hammy doesnt come into play much. You can do cycling. Also try swimming, not running in water - it will put too much pressure on hammy.
Tendinitis also likes rest. From experience, you end up getting yourself into more bother if you just rest 3 days and try again, if you say its been going for a year, then it is time to try something different. Give it longer than three days. Basically you can do whatever you can do without pain.
I know for calf tendinitis (or achilles tendinosis) you can do exercises to help it, strengthening exercises where the muscle is worked in a cocentric manner, rather than eccentris - not sure if you do this for the hammy. May pay you, after a year, to see a specialist
Cycling during this difficult time seems safe, especially since you say that its not aggrevating the injury further. Los also brings up an excellent point, that I always recommend to injured ppl, to get into the pool.
Best piece of advice would be is to listen to your body and adjust accordingly. Also, get it checked out by a physio or chiro, since it has been an issue for almost a year.
the first day I ice it and the other two days i stretch.
how should i know when i can start training because it feels better after a couple of days? how long should i wait to be safe.
Well, it depends what sort of training you will be doing. You cant just jump straight in and do speed work, it will flare up again. If it is fine to walk after 3 days, try jogging for 5mins, then the next day try 10mins etc… if after all that is fine, increase the tempo… you cant just jump straight in the deep end, otherwise you will continually have the same problem every 3 days
Take a full week off. It’s not like your speed is going to fly out the window.
James, it’s important to consider some of the possible causes of the inflammation. If you’re 15 years old, you may simply be going through a period of rapid growth. The muscles may be growing at a disproportionate rate and you may be getting tenosynovitis - that’s inflammation of the synovial sheath that may surround a particular aspect of a muscle and tendon.
Your body may simply need TIME to adapt to these changes you are going through.
Another concern is the fact that your body may be more prone to inflammation than others (this is more “biochemical”, rather than the “structural” scenario I discussed above). When I was your age, my eating habits were terrible - I didn’t know better, and my parents certainly weren’t qualified nutritionists, or anything. It was more an issue of my body’s constitution. Consider the following recommendations (especially #4):
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Wobenzyme. Ask around for this product. You may have to go to a few health food stores and ask if they have this product or you may want to order it on-line if you can find a way to get someone to send it to you. This is a great enzyme product that helps to reduce inflammation without screwing around with COX I and COX II inhibitors, and such. It’s safe.
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Pro-Lean powder. I’ve used this product with great success in my practice for athletes with both tenosynovitis/tendonitis and with bursitis and other joint problems. It seems to work in really tough cases that get repeated aggravation from training, but no aggravation from non-strenuous exercise. It’s designed to minimize inflammation, and it provides some key collagen-based nutrients to propel the connective tissue regenerative process. Find it at www.silsco.com. It’s really safe, too.
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Fish and evening primrose oil may replace some essential fatty acids that your body may not be producing in adequate amounts. You may want to consider something from UDO or SEARS LAB to cover bases there - if that is, indeed. where your problem lies. Fairly safe, unless you take too much without taking some Vitamin E and Coenzyme Q10.
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You should try and eliminate all starches from your diet for about 1.5 to 2 weeks. I have found with great consistency that many cases of chronic inflammation take a very positive turn if people simply make an effort to replace bread, potatoes, cookies, cereals and other foods made of flour with salads, cheese, legumes (as in bean salads), a little more meat/chicken/fish, and vegetables for a little while. Give this one a chance and see what happens. You may be surprised.
thanx alot!
I do have a good diet but i do eat some sort of starch with every meal i eat. i will try to cut down on that. These four things help the healing process right?
An important note though is that when i injured it it was a sudden pop right in the insertion area in my hamstring below my butt. after a while i went to a doctor and he said it developed into tendinitis. If i stretch and eat right without too much exercise how long would you guess it would take me to get back into sports?
That’s tough to speculate on. When you say “POP”, two things come to mind. ONE: You could have had some residual muscle tension that might have released while you were running or exercising, causing you to “adjust” yourself in and around the sacroiliac joint. TWO: The other would be a muscle tear or strain or sprain of some sort. Was this a one-time “POP”, or does it happen frequently?
One would have to be able to differentiate between the two to feel comfortable offering further intensive rehab advice.
Without seeing or being hands-on, further speculation on my behalf is risky. The other guys offered good, solid conservative and safe advice in the areas of physical therapy. I would take this info with you and possibly visit a doctor who works directly with athletes for more specifics.
If you do follow my and the others’ advice, you should notice that your healing time improves and inflammation subsides a little more over the next couple of weeks. If it doesn’t, I may have been on the wrong track - then, seek more advice. These issues are like detective work. Sometimes, only by eliminating possibilities are you able to ‘corner’ the problem. A lot of doctors have a tough time admitting things like that.
How was the tendon pain diagnosed? Did you have scans? Is there visible inflammation? Non-rupture tendon pain comes in four categories, one of which is tendinitis. Successful treatment depends on the correct diagnosis. Eccentrics (unloaded) and stretching are standard treatment though, the commencement of which depends on the severity of the pain.
It was a one time pop and it hasnt happened since.
Also i ahve had two x-rays and they told me i had a pelvic avulsion and then i had an mri and they said it was the tendon and it had developed into tendinitis.???
hopefully this will help you or give you an idea to answering my previous question(how long will it take) and what could speed up recovery time. I do the “tennis ball” massage thing where you sit on a tennis ball and it kind of gets inflamed though
(just a little)
thanx alot
If there is clear inflammation visible in the MRI that should be a good indicator of the condition. If it was me I would get the specialist to show me on the picture of the MRI, even if he/she assumed I was unable to understand it :rolleyes: . On another thread before you thought you had sciatica? Then you said your doctor said there was a bone fragment pulled off (osteochondritis dissecans). Pelvic avulsion fracture as well or not? Which muscle/tendon of muscle, and was it on the MRI as well? 
??
The length of time of recovery cannot be predicted accurately with these things, just in terms a guess in terms of weeks or months at the best. Progress is made depending on results. A physio can give you the appropriate exercises. Basically from a guide to tendon injuries I read, you will have to reduce your activities to those that don’t cause pain (apart from the appropriate rehab exercises) and progress back into them as rehab shows results. Follow the rest of the advice on this thread as above also.
What does it feel like to have a pop in your hip? :eek: Was it definately in your hip or could it have been just to the side of your sarcum (lowest vertebrae) Do you get the pain during normal day to day activities or just when sprinting? I’m not trying to diagnose, just seeing if you have similar hip pain that I’ve had.
Well the pop occured when i was sprinting in football practice and it immedieatly stopped me from running. it was more of a tear kind of pop. it was not so much in my hip but right below my buttocks where the hamstring meets the the hip. Now if i do the tennis ball massage thing and i try to then stretch it, i feel a pop. the pop isnt the same though; it is more of a “two muscles or something rubbing together pop” and they sort of pop back into place and then im ok.
Also this is what the doctors told me. Most of this is confusing to me as well because they changed their dianosis so much but i will try.
well i first went and they made me take an x ray. they told me i had a pelvic avulsion and they put me in physical therapy for four weeks, and they were treating me for tendinitis. then i stupidly still jogged on it and it didnt get any better. i went back and the took another x ray and said it was a pelvic avulsion again. then i took an mri and when the results came in they said it was inflamed and there was a small tear in my tendon ( tendinitis).
i dont know why they changed what they said everytime but i feel i have tendonitis.
hopefully this will help you guys a little.
james
i have a question…
When rehabilitating tendinitis is it ok if there is just a little inflamation or is that still going to stop the healing process?
I think I’ll take a page from Einstein’s book: It’s all relative.
There is probably always inflammation going on in the body at some level. In a sense, it’s one of several ways the body “reorganizes” stuff from a place of excess to a place of deficiency. Some amino acids from one tissue get broken down to band-aid another tissue that’s screaming for help.
Inflammation is a problem only when the body is having a problem controlling it. A classic example of inflammation out of control is food sensitivity. The body reacts to food when IT THINKS it is a bug, rather than food. The body’s innate sense of self can be distorted - especially when cortisol production is below normal - into thinking things that are coming into the body (food particles) might attack the body instead of be nutritious. In these cases, inflammation errupts to destroy these bad things, and blows it up and everything around it (even good tissue) in the process.
It sounds like you may be on the sensitive end of the scale. Your body may trigger inflammation easier than others. Diet can make a big difference in that case - so can restoring normal traction and function to the various components of that ailing joint.
Also i was wondering how much of an effect does rehab and strengthing exercises have to do with recovery with tendonitis? I would like to start but i am scared it might become a little inflamed…
Test it out. Start slow and work your way up to a tolerable activity. If the problem recurs, ask around for some professional in your neck of the woods who can give you some hands-on therepy and advice…