I’ve been struggling with a hamstring injury for the past 2 and half months. Every time I squat and deadlift, I experience a very sharp pain in 2 parts of my hamstring: the part directly between my glutes and my hamstring (which is the more severe one) and the part of my hamstring near my knee.
Only my right hamstring is injured. I feel the pain most at the bottom position and also when locking out to finish the motion for both squat and deadlift.
I have tried:
-using ice packs and heat
-doing piriformis stretches
-foam rolling my hamstring and glutes with a very hard ball
-taking a 1 month rest in which I only did empty bar front squats to keep my legs active
-hip mobility drills
-glute activation exercises
-traditional chinese medicine with acupuncture
-deep tissue massage with a sports massage therapist
-ibuprofen pills
While they help reduce the pain slightly, my injury has shown no signs of recovering and it’s getting worse with each passing day. Just a week after returning from my 1 month rest, and after deloading to really light weights (an almost 40% deload), it’s now equally as bad as before I took the rest. Does anyone have a similar experience? And can anyone advise me on this? Thanks a lot in advance!
Had a very similar nagging injury that pissed me off to end. Like you I tried everything to little or no relief. Mine was only near the glute. What finally helped was good old fashioned rest. I didn’t stretch it, I didn’t do soft tissue work on it, I didn’t do any exercises that cause even had a slight discomfort. All I did for legs was sled work and focused on upper body.
After a month or so it felt a lot better and I started doing light stretches (very light), also started doing light 20 rep sets of hamstring curls then (making sure that absolutely zero discomfort could be felt). After about 3 months I was back to normal.
Regular heat pads during all this time also helped speed things up in my opinion. I would highly recommend NOT using ibuprofin or ice. Both reduce healing, not help it.
Can you feel a hardened bit of tissue in the painful area? It might be hard as the glute/ham is big, but if you really press on the sore spot, is there something there? If so you need to break it up, and it will hurt until you do. Get a trained ART person or just do it yourself.
If not, you just need to pump blood into it until it heals and avoid the exercises that make it feel worse, pump hamstring curls like Typhoon said. I wouldn’t take a month off first though. You want to keep it moving. Most of my mistakes in life have been resting completely.
Everyone suggested I should rest. However, I just came back from a 1 month rest from squats and DLs and used a HUGE deload but it didn’t really do me any good. Are u guys saying I should take another long rest again? What exercises can I use to replace squats and DLs while resting? I don’t want to totally neglect lower body training. I’m on Madcow 5x5, so there aren’t really many exercises that I can use as replacement.
[quote]LarryH wrote:
What was the cause of the injury? Is it from overuse or was it something more traumatic?
[/quote]
I’m not sure of the cause, but the injury started one day when I was squatting about 2 and half months ago. The weight wasn’t heavy (it was quite light actually) but during 1 of the reps, I felt like I pulled something in my right hamstring. No pain on that day. But when I squatted again 2 days later, it started hurting and since then, the pain has been getting worse.
Funny thing is, even before that day when I pulled that thing in my hamstring, I occasionally feel something twitching a little around that area. I can’t remember how long I have felt that twitching.
[quote]Zames Lee wrote:
Thanks to everyone for replying.
Are u guys saying I should take another long rest again? What exercises can I use to replace squats and DLs while resting? I don’t want to totally neglect lower body training.
Thank you once again.[/quote]
Like I said before, I tried a lot of stuff and even took long rests before but I tried to stretch and do soft tissue work on the area which didn’t really let it heal. A month COMPLETELY off is what helped. I maintained leg strength/size with sled work specifically reverse drags. They caused no discomfort and I lost nothing but a bit of strength, which to me was very impressive.
[quote]Zames Lee wrote:
Thanks to everyone for replying.
Are u guys saying I should take another long rest again? What exercises can I use to replace squats and DLs while resting? I don’t want to totally neglect lower body training.
Thank you once again.[/quote]
Like I said before, I tried a lot of stuff and even took long rests before but I tried to stretch and do soft tissue work on the area which didn’t really let it heal. A month COMPLETELY off is what helped. I maintained leg strength/size with sled work specifically reverse drags. They caused no discomfort and I lost nothing but a bit of strength, which to me was very impressive. [/quote]
Ok, think I’ll have to try that. Sled work seems cool anyway. Thanks for your help.
Can anyone give me some advice and insights on the Bill Starr squat rehab protocol? Should I do it for my condition, and how should I implement it together with my normal Madcow 5x5 routine?
Well, I just went to see a doctor and after doing a simple ‘test’ and asking me some questions, she suspected that it may be a tendon issue/strain and has referred me to the sports medicine department of a hospital, where I will be further examined by an orthopedic doctor. Will keep u guys updated on the progress.
Thanks for this, i hurt my hamstring in that spot dead lifting. This is the second week since.
I have laid off the legs. I do calf raises and cardio. I would not advise doing anything that makes that area hurt. It’s already f’ed up, why make it worse.