About 5 weeks ago I was nearing the last week or 2 of this 8 week program that is phase 1 in a menshealth program called HGM advanced. It called for 3 setsx6-10 reps of a giant set of squat, incline db bench, bb rdl, pullup, then another 3 setsx6-10 reps of a giant set of dips, bb lunges, seated rows, and hanging leg raises. I had been doing perfectly fine up til the 2nd to last week, when on either my first or 2nd set of lunges, I felt a clearly noticeable pull in my left hamstring while going down.
I immediately stopped the leg workout portion of that workout, and when home iced it. Since then I took 1 week off, and started up with the second phase of the program which includes 2 leg days a week of supersetting squats with leg press, alternating 6/10 reps, goodmornings alternating with lying swiss ball leg curl 6/10 reps.
The first week of starting back up I felt a bit of a burn on it, and then on the 2nd day back for legs I eventually felt the same type of pull I felt initially. So I took a couple more days off, and yesterday did a lot of foam rolling, got in the jacuzzi before lifting, and warmed up properly. Still came on fast.
So here is what i’m FEELING…it’s fine walking around, bending over w/ straight legs at the waist also. The only time it gets tight is when i do the squatting motion w/ my legs. it hurts way up high closer to the inside, a little lower than where my glutes and hamstrings meet. it seems with every rep it just gets tighter and tighter until it has no choice but to pull.
This is very frustrating and i’m hoping there’s something i can do to resolve it. i’m willing to take time off but would like to know what to do until it gets better to speed up recovery. thanks for any help.
I have pulled both of my hamstrings in the past, and I have gotten considerably better at treating/preventing them.
The first thing it sounds like you are doing wrong is doing too much too soon. The first few days I would just ice it and do some light stretching. Then, move on to heating and aggressive stretching and foam rolling.
Continue this strategy while incorporating the stationary bike, and then some body weight movements such as squats, lunges, good mornings. DO NOT do exercises that aggravate the injury. You need it to heal, and unless you are an in season athlete that needs to get on the field ASAP, I would not recommend going so soon into lifting lower body (pre injury intensity) again.
Continue your upper body routine, but work around the injury. Do unilateral movements for lower body while you try and rest the injured leg. You can still make gains while injured if you plan it right.
When the leg starts to feel normal/no longer weak and inflexible, then gradually add in the weights. From experience, my body usually takes 2-3 weeks to get to this point. One week is probably pushing it.
Hamstrings are very touchy IMHO. Give it enough time to heal and you will be back to strength in no time. When you are healed (and while rehabbing), make sure you do glute activation exercises and really get a good warm up in. I now roll before every left, and I do a bunch of mobility drills to ensure my legs are good to go.
Pretty much what rmull61 said. I’ve torn both hamstrings, one stretching out single in softball and the other doing 8x3 on standing single leg curls. My one leg was purple for over a month.
It seems like your moveing too fast. Do a lot of stretching and icing and take anti inflammatories. Get back in to your routine slowly with very light weight and very high reps to get the blood flowing in there to heal it up. Then as you feel better move up into more weight and a regular routine. It might take a while.
By the way depending on the severity of your injury, hamstring tears are no joke. I can still feel mine twinge every so often like they’re gonna tear again if I don’t strecth out or if I’m slightly dehydrated. They never seem to heal 100%, and its’ been 20 years from my first tear and close to 10 on the second more severe tear. Good luck.
hmnnn yeah, I know you want some great advice, but I think everyone’s gonna suggest just resting until you heal up a bit, and then easing back into things.
My advice is don’t static stretch your hammies before activities, that seems to correlate w/ pulls for me. Once i stopped doing that, i stopped pulling them.
rumull had a very good point - Your glute will try to compensate for your hamstring being injured. You’ll need to do some activation exercises for both muscles to ensure that they’re firing properly, or you will risk messing up your ability to recruit those muscles properly.