What did I do to my hamstring? Can I go back to working out?!
Question: It's been bothering me for weeks. Stupidly, I've ignored it and continued to run, bike and lift weights. I'm not inflexible-I stretch often throughout the day. BUT no matter what I'm doing- standing, walking, sitting-there's a dull ache in my hamstring, close to the back of my knee. What happened? What can I do? AND most importantly, when/how can I return to exercising (I've been off for almost a week and it's driving me crazy!)?
Answers: It's been bothering me for weeks. Stupidly, I've ignored it and continued to run, bike and lift weights. I'm not inflexible-I stretch often throughout the day. BUT no matter what I'm doing- standing, walking, sitting-there's a dull ache in my hamstring, close to the back of my knee. What happened? What can I do? AND most importantly, when/how can I return to exercising (I've been off for almost a week and it's driving me crazy!)?
They told us in sport medicine to start treating the inflammation in an injury immediately. Get some ice, put it in a small ziplock bag (there's one that's just a bit smaller than the quart/liter sized bag) and put it on the sore spot for at least 20 minutes. Do it now.
You should have done this as soon as you started feeling sore, even before you went to sleep that night. Do it as soon as possible. Now that you have waited so long, it will take longer to heal. Everytime you stretch it out, fluid and inflammation are seeping through the tear and making it worse. Ice it down, let it warm up back to the normal temperature, and do it again. The alternating hot and cold will help get that swelling down. Do not use heat. The heat will feel good and soothing but it will aggravate the injury and make it worse. The stiffness and swelling are the worst things that can happen in an injury. Something like an icy-hot ointment would work nicely.
Any time you get an injury make a mental note: ice it down as soon as possible. It will heal more quickly and more easily and save you a lot of grieve. Now you'll have to keep off the injury until it stops aching. I think it needs time to heal. You haven't rested, you haven't treated it and now you may have to see a doctor if it doesn't respond well to treatment. I hope it's not one of your knee ligaments and I hope you don't need surgery. That would be most unfortunate.
I hope this makes you feel better.
ok i get a lot of hamstring injuries while playing sport and yours sounds like a a grade one hamstring strain. There may be a sensation of cramp or tightness and a slight feeling of pain when the muscles are stretched or contracted. If this is correct it is a simple matter of relaxing it, NO WORKING OUT lol, These hamstring injuries usually take around 3 weeks to fully heal but do NOT rush yourself. I did this twice when i pulled my hamstring and it ended up being a lot worse. If it keeps getting hurt/torn surgery may be required so do not carry out an vigorous activity until there is absolutely no feeling of pain :)