Hamstring pulls
 

No, I didn't pull it riding.

Two weeks ago, pulled my right hammy rounding third in a recreational softball league.

Tonight, I'm worried about the right one, and I pull the left sprinting to second on a grounder. I actually heard a pop on this one today. Just finished icing it for an hour or so. I couldn't tell you what grade of strain it is...not bad enough that a a visit to the dr is in order. Can't straighten it, and if I walk on it wrong it kind of collapses under me.

So, several questions come to mind.

Why am I pulling hamstrings so easily? My legs are in pretty decent shape, but not tiny. I'm a clyde and they're pretty much entirely muscle. Am I just not stretching and warming up adequately? I gotta admit I've been bad about daily stretching lately, and I can feel my muscles tightening up. How can I avoid this in the future.

What's my best approach for healing this thing up as quickly a possible?

Is biking helpful or harmful for a hamstring injury? Last time I skipped a day of riding, but was back on two days later. Riding doesn't seem to hit my hamstrings too hard, so I had no problem with some moderate riding. I'll probably try to ride on Friday. But does cycling cause any issues with hamstrings?

Thanks, for any info you can provide or point me to.

Are you a little older? It's not rare that adults who have been active all their lives exhibit some signs of tendinopathy or weakening of the tendon. The more common forms of tendonipathy are of the rotator cuff or achilles heel type.

I do not want to be the bringer of bad news, but hearing a pop is normally associated with a grade 2 hamstring pull.

Which part of the hamstring have you pulled? do you know exactly what motion caused the tearing? the hamstrings made up of three different muscle groups if you can isolate what muscle(s) is/are torn then you can isolate what caused it and how to treat it.

There are many reasons for pulled muscles and cycling has been used as a sort of 'rehab' for severe hamstring pulls. It definitely uses the muscle but not to the degree other sports like running etc

From your post i would say if your having severe difficulties waking or unable to walk without support then its possibly a grade 2. If its a grade 3 (which is quite rare) then you need to see a pro. In the mean time i would use cold therapy, compression can sometimes help decrease intra-muscular bleeding but its also important that as soon as you can do a stretching & strengthening routine, you do so. For someone as active as you, you really need to promote correct orientation and re-alignment so to speak.
If you have a physio friend or family member or can get access to sports massages that specialise in muscle repair then that'd be great, its a very good way of reducing scarring which can later cause more pulls.

As far as why you pulling that's a hard questions. Muscle fatigue causes poor form and overloading hence the pulls, age naturally is a cause of more pulls if you don't use a proper stretching routine, muscle imbalances (biggie for cyclist) can cause pulls, flexibility is another big cause, previous scarring increases the risk massively and things like dehydration i believe is known to increase the risk. So all in all you gotta keep on top of these things. Definitely start stretching!!

All in all, stretch, look for muscle imbalances,stretch, keep hydrated, stretch, try not to tire yourself out, stretch, improve your flexibility if your worried (its always a good thing to do anyway) and stretch... Seriously though, stretching and a good warm up will help you no end.

Thanks for the replies. I am 43, btw.

Definitely not a grade 3. Can't tell which motion caused it, as I was sprinting at the time -- so not sure if it was the push off or the lifting my leg up, but I think it was the lifting/rasing my leg rapidly to take another step.

Had a compression wrap on it while I slept. Can straighten it to about 10 degrees of bend without much pain, then it starts to hurt pretty good. The act of sitting down is probably the hardeest thing right now -- once I'm sitting i'm ok, but getting there really causes some pain.

I would also agree that there is some muscle imbalance. Over the winter, my primary exercise is the gym on the elliptical and bike, and of course skiing as much as I can. Come spring I ditch the gym and most of my exercise is riding. I'll have to focus on strengthening my hamstrings a bit more.

BTW, I'm not sure what muscle it is....but I'd say it feels like it is directly in the center of the back of my thigh. Center from top to bottom, and left/right.

Thanks. No riding today...and it's a beautiful morning too : ( This is definitely worse than the pull I had two weeks ago on the other leg.

Center of thigh is good. :)

From your description it sounds like the Biceps Femoris which i think is where most hamstring injuries occur. The hamstring group is made up of an additional two "semi" muscles which help with the medial/internal rotation (towards body) so if this doesn’t cause any additional discomfort then it might be further proof that the Biceps Femoris is the culprit.

Either way use RICE and you’ll be good in no time. :thumb:

Rice?

Rest Ice Compression Elevation

But I think it's not practical to keep it elevated for extended periods of time. Use advil if you can.

Kuan is right, its not very practical. Elevation is to reduce swelling but if you feel more comfortable using an anti-inflammatory or you own method then feel free to substitute.

Rest is the key to be honest, Icing the area and using compression is vital immediately after and if I remember correctly up to about 72 hours. After which you should have a decent amount of mobility and could probably start massaging the affected areas. In your case getting someone else to help is ideal.

The main reason starting massage early is to help reduce the scaring caused by the tear, heat and ultrasound are used and help but in my experience deep tissue massage is best. To be honest at this stage with damage already done and after a few days of RICE I'd advise you not to stretch, you want to focus on applying heat (if that takes your fancy) and massaging the area, it may be tender and sore but start light and work your way into it gradually getting deeper into the tissue to break down the scarring and hopefully reduce the risk of repeating the injury/and or the shortening/weakening of the muscle.

After you feel better and have no problems start stretching to help prevent pulling it again.

Hope it works out for ya :thumb:

Thanks for all the advice guys. Deep massage is painful for me even when I'm not injured, I'm sure it will hurt like hell right now. I massaged it just a bit earlier myself and it hurt a lot. I can walk, on a bent leg, but if I try to straighten and extend it out a bit it collapses under me.

Will rest it. Tempted to go for a short ride...but I live on a big hill, so probably not a good idea. Thannks again.

I agree with all, but if you really want to ice and elevate for a longer time, consider doing it at night just when you're heading for bed. I have had so many injuries lately (aggressive boxing training!) and trying to ice during the day is just impossible, but icing at night is so much better! I will wrap up my hurt areas with ice packs and pretty much get to bed. Strangely, I don't like using anti-inflammatories or anything like that. I used to massage, but I feel like overall, it irritates the offending area more than it hurts, so I cut back significantly on that.

koffee

Yup, Icing can be a pain just like elevating the area and I think a lot of people do it at night or if they're sitting down to watch a film etc. A decent icing pack is a good purchase to be honest. I had a friend who used to get ice cubes, wrap them up in a towel and tie it around his leg when he'd been injured (which was most of the time, he did kick-boxing and wasn't very good at it :P) anyway after the film he was watching or nap he was taking he'd end up with a big wet patch on his sofa. Needless to say he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Maybe you were massaging a bit too hard or to early but then some people just don't like it or benefit as much as others it's down to what works for you really, heh much like everything else in the world.

I used to be a competitive martial artist and can attest that hamstring pulls really suck.

Ultimately, it takes rest to heal them. It's easy to warm things up and work out, but you may just delay real healing. I'd think that if you could cycle at a low intensity without pain it would probably be a good thing...

I was getting professional massages- deep tissue. But I leave that now for those days when I'm feeling 100% and just want to go in and have my tissue broken up a little to release the toxins. If I'm injured (happens a lot lately- gettin' old!), then I hold back on massages and focus on the ice therapy... with ice packs more than ice, of course. As you pointed out, filling with ice cubes ain't the smartest thing in the world. It just makes you look like you got potty pants. ;)

koffee

If you can ride without pain, ride; but take it easy. And I definitely would not recommend getting out of the saddle to climb or accelerate.

Cyclists who don't stretch can have a tendency to shorten their hamstrings. This in turn can cause all sorts of other problems, whether or not the hamstrings themselves give trouble. So as others have said, once you've fixed the immediate problem, get into a routine of stretching your hamstrings (and your quads, I'd suggest) before and after you ride.

Good advice. I'd also recommend also stretching the glutes (piriformis) and lower back also.

koffee

with all the talk about stretching out of the way, you really should strengthen the hamstrings and glutes. gradual, long-term strengthening of the muscle will also make the connective tissue more resilient. For pulling hamstrings while running, that could be due to weakness in hammies and/or glutes, or glute inactivity leading to over recruitment of the hammies. We all do squats or some variation; deadlifts and hip raises are also a must to maintain balance across the hip.

Personally, I've had the best luck with ibuprofen for halting inflammatory processes. I've iced, gotten little results, and took one large dose (1000 mg) and was noticeably better the next day. It's worked on a few sprains, and most recently a lumbar strain. Think I'll do a century tomorrow, in fact.

this is more than a hamstring issue. sorry. see a doc

I had something similar happen 3 years ago - I was rounding 3rd base and heard a pop and it felt like I'd been punched in the leg. But mine was in the calf, not the hamstring. The part I'd be concerned about was the pop you heard. It may be a more serious pull that may be 2 weeks or so before you can start getting back to normal, not just a couple of days. With mine, I had trouble walking for 5 days and had a limp for over a week and a half. Like the others have said, stretch, take it easy, not too hard, ease back into it. It will heal, but it may be a bit longer than you'd like or hope.

One other discovery I made - biking muscles and running muscles are not the same muscles.

Quick update - it's been several weeks, and the hamstring are feeling pretty good. I've been since about the second week after the second hamstring got hurt, and in week three was able to jog slowly. Last week I played softball and managed a moderate run with my hamstrings wrapped. No pain, no further issues.

I've been stretching more, and doing some exercises to strengthen my hamstrings to balance out the cycling. Thanks everyone for the advice.

When you're riding concentrate more on the pull up; I think pulls are due to strength imbalances as said before.

Zombie thread. Unfortunately, we haven't seen good buddy koffee here in many years.

Jesus rose from the dead about as efficiently and a lot quicker than this thread.

Hello [MENTION=78894]Carbonfiberboy[/MENTION]. I hope some woman made a man out of you. It's been 10 years since I responded to this thread. Happy 2020!

Koffee

Hey Koffee! Yes, that has happened, actually long ago, though I always try to outdo myself. Happy 2020 to you! Hope you are doing well. I'm still at it.

Well, CarbonfiberMAN, glad to see you got "turn't out", as I like to say. ;-) Glad to hear all is well. I still crush on you from afar. Let me know if you ever get your freedom, preferably by resurrecting a.thread where I posted 10+ yeara ago. Ha!

Love ya lots! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

koffee