Performed laying hamstring curl with feet close together. Halfway through third rep at 205lbs (previous PR was 12x205) i felt a pop halfway down my left hamstring on the outer side, immediately followed by pain.
No bruising or anything yet. This happened 10 minutes ago. I don’t know if this was a tear or not. Walking is shitty but manageable.
What are my immediate next steps to minimize damage/improve recovery?
*currently taking:
100mg test
150mg NPP
200mg mast
5mg cialis EOD
Plus a good number of standard nutritional supplements like high EFA fish oil, etc.
The safe advice is always to get it checked out if you have any doubts. That said…
It sounds like it could be a case of getting older to me, but it depends on what you call pain and pop. If I can move and use the tweaked limb normally (i.e. lift items, do normal stuff, not set a PR), I tend to take a wait and see approach with anything before heading to the doctor.
I have pretty good insurance but most of my deductible payments for the last few years have gone to stuff like MRI’s, ortho visits, x-rays and related stuff so they could rule certain things out, ultimately allowing both issues to resolve themselves with basic rehab movements and no actual treatment or actions on behalf of the doctors.
The only lifting tear I had hurt BAD anytime I’d try to fire the muscle. There was no doubt I needed to get it checked out. I could not perform a sit-up and getting out of bed was extremely difficult and painful when I had my sports hernia (rectus abdominus tear).
At age 44 events like what you describe aren’t common, but shit like that happens more and almost all of my recent injuries came doing rather routine stuff involving an occasional pop and pain, but nothing like my sports hernia.
For a hamstring pop followed by lack of swelling, discoloration and no severe pain, I’d use my judgement and err on the side of caution. If I I could still touch my toes and come back up with no severe pain, do an unweighted leg curl, squat, and generally move around okay, I’m at least sleeping on it nowadays.
Rest. Like actually rest, and go get checked out. It took me a couple of really painful lessons to figure that out. You want to do stuff and work around an injury, but when shit pops and really hurts, stop for a while.
LOL I just searched this site to see if I logged that old injury in any way and it turns out I did some stupid stuff. Luckily I didn’t hurt it more and it healed completely fine.
My insurance is good… once i meet the 6k deductible.
MRI will be a 2 week wait and $1200 here in the bastion of modern medicine that is California.
I sat in the sauna for 45 minutes trying to get it to relax. It did, but now it feels… crampy? Like it wants to tense up as hard as it can, and the more bent my leg is, the more the hamstring wants to do a curl. It feels better when stretched.
Its a dull, aching, almost DOMS feeling kind of pain at the moment. Its mostly local, but radiates down to the gastrocnemeus (spelling?) Calf muscle.
Feels like it wants to be kicked up on the couch for a while.
This sounds like a welcome to your thirties and beyond decision that you’ll need to get used to if you continue to be active. It tends to come up once a year or so for me now, but I also know my body better too.
“Do I head in and pay the deductible to learn what’s happening/not happening OR wait and see?”
Somewhat differing opinion. I’ve seriously torn my hamstring (off knee and butt) as well as ‘popped’ them around 5 times. Mostly recently in July while competing. The adrenaline kept me going, but once it dumped, I was in extreme pain. Barely could walk, pressing pedals was painful, etc.
When I got home, I got heat on it for 30 minutes then did normatech compression, then finished off with a compression sleeve. My experience is they don’t need ice to reduce swelling, but heat to promote blood flow. For about 4 weeks I couldn’t put my hamstring under a stretch. It was pain vs. feeling of stretching. After 2 weeks I was able to do leg extensions to try and pump blood to area. Around 6-8 weeks, I was mostly back.
When I really tore my hamstring, it didn’t bruise much. A few months ago I got a good bruise after a day. YMMV.
I’ve also done this a few times and know my body well. I’ve never had a doc do much. They’ll know if it’s a serious tear. If it isn’t, which sounds like not, they’ll refer you to PT. At least this is my experience.
I immediately ordered BPC157/TB500 and took for 6 weeks.
That’s the bitch with these kinds of injuries. If you need serious treatment and don’t realize it or blow it off, you won’t get that treatment if you wait and see with rest.
None of my injuries needed surgery, rest, rehab and return with caution have fixed them all except my right knee, which is presently on an unalarming trajectory of healing while I only do air squats. Deadlift and other hip hinge movements are no problem at all.
I just happened to know exactly what was screwed up in the case of the sports hernia because I forked over that deductible. No discoloration or severe swelling with that, either. Pain and pop, for sure. It was a pretty alarming pop, which I suppose only really makes sense if you’ve had unalarming pops.
You pulled a hamstring. It happens and it doesn’t have to be related to age. Kids pull hamstrings. Elite athletes in their prime pull hamstrings. It sucks and it takes a while to fully heal. This is true even with young people. A hamstring pull can keep an athlete out of action for months, even a year. It will heal though and you’ll have to train around it. There are some people on YouTube who claim to have methods to fix a pulled hamstring fast, but I have my doubts. A professional athlete who has access to the world’s best sports medicine doctors might need a couple of months to get back to training, let alone competing, but some YouTuber knows better?
Both knees are still shit, but I’ve replaced my knee sleeve with wraps. Compound Quad movements feel better than usual, though the wraps are a pain.
They hurt the most when I’m sitting with knees bent at 90*. No amount of ergonomic positioning is changing it (adjustable chair, desk, foot stool, etc.)
I’d monitor for swelling & bruising before going to the doc myself and would employ the RICE method (rest, ice, compress, elevate) however I would personally alternate hot and cold. But I’ve walked around and even trained with a fractured wrist for a week before, so more prudent advice to get it checked could be warranted.
I’d also hop on some GH peptides or even GH if your plug has it.
Only time will tell the severity of the tear. I had a similar pop in my right quad two summers ago doing bulgarian split squats with 185lb (my right leg was the elevated one so it happened under stretch). I freaked the fuck out, but was pretty much max effort front squatting within 1.5 weeks, and I had to lay off any single leg work like lunges and split squats a few months.
Worth mentioning I saw my dry needling therapist twice a week during that time. I’ve championed this modality of treatment in the past, and this is one of the experiences that really sold me on it.
I honestly never see the merit of getting imaging or seeing an ortho with these types of injuries. I prefer physios that just treat the symptoms. Interpreting imaging is laden with confirmation bias, will tell you something you pretty much already know, and your treatment moving forward will be exactly the same.
It absolutely blows my mind how many docs default is imaging as if its the holy grail of diagnosis…yet thousands of studies now show very low correlation between symptoms and image results. For instance, I’ve read estimates anywhere from 60-85% of active Olympic athletes MRI’ed at random have disc degeneration and/or herniation. Medicine in North America is one of the most anti-scientific communities I’ve ever encountered sadly.
@Andrewgen_Receptors Well, fortunately I haven’t been injured too much in my life yet, but from my judo/kickboxing years I could have one simple point - a lot of ice and rush to the doctor. I’m not a fan of “homemade” solutions, as we could easily miss some permanent damage, although recoverable, if pointed out quickly.
