Don’t know how but I’ve never had a hamstring injury until now. Great timing too - I have a race in 10 days. Who knows the best way to heal a hamstring quickly? Thanks for the help…
So, let’s say I have access to massage, an ultrasound, ice, rollers, balls, sticks, etc. What’s the fastest way to heal this thing?
Last weekend on a sprint tri felt a twinge but thought nothing of it. Two days later noticed a “feeling” in my hammy, deep, mid-way down the leg, slightly to the lateral side. Does not hurt to run or bike but hurts to stretch when I bend over straight-legged. Can feel a tightness, a lump, and some pain when I dig into it by hand.
When stretching does not feel like the stretch you would feel after a hard race… it feels “wrong” where stretching sore muscles, however uncomfortable feels “right” if that makes any sense.
I’m good with injury management, but never had to manage a hamstring problem, so I’m not too knowlegable.
I suspect stretching is bad at this point… let the tissue remodel before stretching it.
Same with running or biking… it may not feel bad during, but I think it’s not helping.
To use the ultrasound: put gel (not GU, it should have gel with it, bluish stuff) on the metal part. Rub in an area 2-3 square inches over the spot for 5-7 min… but do NOT stay on one spot. Ultrasound will not burn skin but can burn the periosteum (outer shell) of bone, if it hits it for long enough - critical to keep moving it around in circles. And keep the area relatively small, over the hurt spot.
That can help break up scar tissue, get cells aligned (they’re all polarized and stuff).
If you have a tight spot that’s painful, a massage to break up that knot might help - or, with a foam roller, rest right on it. Which btw will hurt like hell, but pressure stops the muscle spindles from firing and then the muscle relaxes.
tell me more about this cell aligning stuff
is this robust science or speculation?
To use the ultrasound: put gel (not GU, it should have gel with it, bluish stuff) on the metal part. Rub in an area 2-3 square inches over the spot for 5-7 min… but do NOT stay on one spot. Ultrasound will not burn skin but can burn the periosteum (outer shell) of bone, if it hits it for long enough - critical to keep moving it around in circles. And keep the area relatively small, over the hurt spot.
That can help break up scar tissue, get cells aligned (they’re all polarized and stuff).
If you have a tight spot that’s painful, a massage to break up that knot might help - or, with a foam roller, rest right on it. Which btw will hurt like hell, but pressure stops the muscle spindles from firing and then the muscle relaxes.
here we go, second time today I am thinking aloud.
The cell alignment might be iontophoresis or the electrode things (I forgot what that one was called).
I worked as a PT aide for a bit this fall/winter.
Anyway, cells can get out of alignment. Like, if you get a concussion, all the bad effects from it are from the cells misaligning, and the synapses between neurons getting too big or too small for the signals to pass over them.
I do remember a PT telling me that some of the treatments re-align cells and it helps with healing. Maybe it’s part of the breaking up scar tissue thing (which is what cross friction massage, and ultrasounds, do)
Maybe someone who’s actually a PT, and not just an aide, can chime in
chuckle… I guess I should have been more clear. I know how to use the ultrasound, and I know what to use it on… I’ve had it for years. What I don’t know is how to APPLY what I know and in combination with what other healing methods to heal the hammy as fast as possible, how often, etc.
That’s a good idea that I didn’t think of… foam rollers. Do you think I should give it a few days to heal the injury before doing the scar tissue stuff?
(also, I’m not really sure if I"m being a wimp… as I said, I’ve never had a hammy injury. Calf injuries I get all the time, so I know exactly when and when not to run, how to heal, etc.)
start with the ultrasound now, that won’t hurt it.
How is it that you have access to all this stuff… but not PTs around to ask? Best if you could get someone to evaluate the injury for it (aside from a 22 yo on an internet forum
I’ve had multiple PTs tell me about “realigning” the muscle cells… when you get tears or trauma of some sort they are all jumbled up, still there but jumbled. Healing, stretching, etc. the cells gradually realign.
I liken this to the point when bones are healing but they’re “sticky”, not all the way healed yet.
no, i have had a couple injuries where PTs waved the ultrasound wand over it and ive always been highly skeptical of it.
could it be modern acupuncture? I don’t know =)
I’ve had multiple PTs tell me about “realigning” the muscle cells… when you get tears or trauma of some sort they are all jumbled up, still there but jumbled. Healing, stretching, etc. the cells gradually realign.
I liken this to the point when bones are healing but they’re “sticky”, not all the way healed yet.
Not really, providing you don’t over do it. Stretching may actually be beneficial at this stage but do it very gently in the beginning, stopping if it starts to hurt.
Same with running or biking…
Same with #1
Undecided on ultrasound.
Been using it for 25 yrs. It works very well sometimes.
Undecided on massage, cross-grain or otherwise.
Should help, but again gentle at first and build up your tolerence.
Ice is probably a good thing at this point.
As a general rule of thumb, ice an acute injury for the first 72 hrs. Heat after that.
tell me more about this cell aligning stuff
is this robust science or speculation?
To use the ultrasound: put gel (not GU, it should have gel with it, bluish stuff) on the metal part. Rub in an area 2-3 square inches over the spot for 5-7 min… but do NOT stay on one spot. Ultrasound will not burn skin but can burn the periosteum (outer shell) of bone, if it hits it for long enough - critical to keep moving it around in circles. And keep the area relatively small, over the hurt spot.
That can help break up scar tissue, get cells aligned (they’re all polarized and stuff).
If you have a tight spot that’s painful, a massage to break up that knot might help - or, with a foam roller, rest right on it. Which btw will hurt like hell, but pressure stops the muscle spindles from firing and then the muscle relaxes.
It's speculation.
Cells don’t have many degrees of freedom because there’s a lot of extracellular and intracellular structure present. There’s no reason an injury would cause a cell to “misalign” and there’s certainly no reason a cell would align with a sound wave.
Ultrasound can break things up, or provide mild stress to stimulate growth and blood flow.
not a PT but had a similar sounding hammy issue in Nov, ice/rest the first few days when it was acute and then ez foam roller and stretching (neither until it was painful and very gentle stretching), ez cycling on the trainer actually seemed to help (increase blood flow and warm up the muscle) if there is no pain from the cycling I would assume that as long as you are keeping it easy it would be benficial (think about NFL players with hammy injuries always riding a stationary to keep it warm on the sidelines) also contrasting ice/heat (3 min ice pack, 3 min heating pad for 30 min) a few times a day is supposed to increase blood flow/healing.
Maybe I can help…I’m not an physician but a PT. I would always defer to an physician for consultation as well…
Firstly, rest is going to be the key as well as minimizing the inflammation that is caused with tissue injury. The inflammation phase can be tricky: if you continue to workout you can keep your body in this inflammation phase prolonging your injury and healing time.
There are various modalities for inflammation and yes, ultrasound is one of them. It sounds like you have your own machine? Standard ultrasound gel is one way of utilizing this modality, but, if you had access to it (and ideally a referral from a physician), you could use phonophoresis gel on the injured site. This gel is a .4% dexamethasone concentrate (a mild steroid) which means it will help to decrease the inflammation. Likewise, you could have iontophoresis: this is a form of electrical stimulation utilizing the same .4% dexamethasone liquid (in this case) driven to the injured site via a negative charge. Ice of course is also a suggestion.
Massage may help as well to help realign muscle fibers and reduce scar tissue. The massage should be mild at first in combination with the modalities. Again rest is the key to allow for adequate healing.
The real question is: how did this happen? Are you training too intensely with little rest? Not enough stretching? Possible muscle imbalance? If you keep a log, you will want to reflect back and see what type of progression you experienced that lead to the injury. You might heal a bit for this upcoming race, but you do run the risk of re-injuring the hamstring, and further prolonging the injury. You might want to ask yourself how important this race is to allow the hammy to heal. A slow progression back into training will be important. You may also want to have either 1) your running gait evaluated and/or 2) your bike fit checked.
well, respect the advice of a high mileage runners… that’s what I was looking for. They are the ones who typically know. They get hurt alot (relative to the general population), they hate to miss runs, they learn the tricks of the trade to get healed quickly.
when you break your first collarbone you will learn all about this.
Think about it, what happens between the point of a tear or break and total healing? It doesn’t happen instantly… there is a transitional period where the bone is sticky or the muscle cells are uncoordinated or out of alignment.
Great points, thanks. I am familiar w/ Iontostim and gel… don’t have access to it at the moment.
How it happened… first of all, let me say that in the last 3 years I’ve sometimes felt a “feeling” when running very hard (5km race pace or faster ) in my right hammy that always used to either go away, work it self out, or slow me down after which it would go away. I’m thinking now this was scar tissue. I am a high milage runner w/ good stretching habits and also a high mileage cyclist w/ good positions on road and tri bikes.
OK, I’m the idiot, I know this. After 12 weeks of intervals and steady state runs, started a new workout last Wednesday… hill tempo on the treadmill, felt a new feeling in my legs after. Then did my long run Friday, no issues. Then, did a 5k/30k/5k duathlon on Saturday. Took the 5k runs easy, but felt a twinge during both 5ks and the bike. Felt nothing after… or the day after. Did my usual long ride Sunday. Starting tightening up on Tuesday.
I actually think it was the Wednesday workout and not the race after long run that did it, combined with first time on the tri bike this season.
At any rate, I’m 5 days on and am massaging, lightly stretching, heat ice contrasting, and ultrasounding. No running or cycling until the weekend I think. The race is important, so I am going to heal as much as possible to get there healthy.
OK, you may not want to hear about this but hamstrings take time to recover from. If you back at it to early you can do more damage and set yourself back.
I played college lacrosse and came back to early and it set me back big time. Made the whole season a waste. I am not a PT, but I can tell you what the athletic trainers did for me.
Iced for initial injury
After initial injury
Before training activity heat pack. After heat pack wrap it and then light stretch. After activity, apply cold to reduce any swelling
I am surprised no one here mentioned wrapping it.
