I just strained my hamstring about an hour ago doing dead lifts. Its not too bad but there is definitely some inflammation. I know about R.I.C.E. and I have been doing that but is there any other things I can do for it?
Also I figure that there may be some structural reasoning to why I pulled it after warming up pretty well. Although I would definitely say my development would be more hamstring/glute dominant. Any input/suggestions?
Go and get Arnica Gel or Traumeel (traumed gel.) Put either one on at least 4-5 times a day. Dont smother it and dont rub too hard…just gentle enough to the touch.
DONT stretch…if you stretch anything stretch your hip flexors as long as you have no pain in the hammie.
Compress from bottom up…and dont train lower back or hammies for a little…hammies can linger for awhile and throw off the rest of your pelvic structure.
SP
How does Arnica gel or Traumeel work? I’ve never heard of those.
[quote]strongFB wrote:
Go and get Arnica Gel or Traumeel (traumed gel.) Put either one on at least 4-5 times a day. Dont smother it and dont rub too hard…just gentle enough to the touch.
DONT stretch…if you stretch anything stretch your hip flexors as long as you have no pain in the hammie.
Compress from bottom up…and dont train lower back or hammies for a little…hammies can linger for awhile and throw off the rest of your pelvic structure.
SP[/quote]
I had the opposite way work for me. Whenever I did not stretch them or train them I would strain mine soon as I came back.
I found rice good for the first 2 or 3 days, then LIGHT to normal stretching and I worked mine using stiff legged deadlifts starting at a very light weight.
Theres no way of really telling why you pulled yours, if you weren’t using a weight that you never used before. But MOST hamstring pulls are from a deep fatigue. Not just one day fatigue either, like squatting heavy on monday, deadlifting heavy on wednsday and not eating enough in between type of fatigue.
Thanks for the advice, I think I’ll try the arnica. And now that you mention it I think this week of training did possibly beat up on my posterior chain a little too much w/o enough recovery. I squatted and did the rest of my quad dominant training on one day, then with only one day of rest did my sprints at the track, and then went back the next day and do my deads. I didn’t use a weight I normally wouldn’t use but I would normally rest my lower body completly after sprint.
So I think I’ll try the arnica and do some foam roller work after the inflammation stops completley.
After destroying my right posterior chain side, I did not stretch. I used ice for days and then started to get blood flow back into the area by stationary bicycling. The day I started this, my near constant cramps and pain disappeared.
But my injury was severe. I couldn’t walk for days, and I couldn’t do a calf raise to save my life, as well as activate any glute action.
So, ride a bicycle and see how you feel. By the way, check this out:
In addition to what others have said, this article may help you out some.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/hamstring_injuries.htm
-LH
Yeah I think I’m suffering from the can’t stop myself from doing too much syndrome either. The weather is not helping going out to the track, seeing the women is great motivation for sprinting too much.
When your legs are back, the warm weather can make you run a little faster than your legs are used to. Try to spring at 85-90% instead of 100. If you even look at track athletes you notice majority of time when they workout they are not sprinting 100%