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Screwed up my hamstring... during warm-up.

B

brikis98

Diamond Member
Today's workout was supposed to be 10x100m sprints, so I went to the Stanford track and did my usual warm-up: 400m jog, dynamic stretches and light bodyweight exercises. I then started to do some 50-75m dashes, starting at ~75% effort and gradually building up to full speed. About 50m into the second one, running at ~90%, I felt a pop/snap in the hamstring of my left leg and hobbled to a quick stop. For the next 10 minutes, I was in a hell of a lot of pain; I even got dizzy, nauseous and broke into a cold sweat (shock?) and just had to lay down on the bleachers near the track. Somewhat luckily, the Stanford track team was practicing at the same time, and one of their coaches saw my injury. He came up to me while I was on the bleachers and told me that the #1 priority was to get ice on my hamstring ASAP.

Fortunately, my girlfriend was with me (she was there to time my sprints) and once the nausea went away, she helped me hop over to the car and got me home. I iced for a while and then decided to see the doctor. At the doctor's, I found that the ice had helped a lot: I could straighten my leg again and even put some weight on it while I walked. While the doctor tested me, she could not see or feel any signs of a rupture and found that I could still pull and push my leg with plenty of strength. Her prognosis was that it was unlikely to be a rupture or anything serious and she gave me crutches and the usual RICE recommendation. If it gets worse in the next couple days, I have a referral to the sports medicine wing for further testing.

When I was lying on the bleachers, I was convinced that I had REALLY f*ed something up - it freaking HURT. Now, I'm feeling a bit better about my prospects and think that it's something like a tear in the muscle belly of the biceps femoris. However, this puts a real damper on my chances to participate in the CF Games qualifier at the end of March. I'm sure the hamstring will be healed by then, but if it keeps me out of the gym for a while, I won't be in any kind of shape to really compete. Only time will tell, so it is going to be an interesting next few weeks.
 
The dizzy/naseous/sweaty part was definitely a psychosomatic reaction to the injury.

Sounds like a pulled muscle hamstring. You will figure out the severity with time. Get back to working it through a full range of motion as soon as possible, even if it's just bodyweight squats.
 
Update for today: I'm able to walk pretty well, though with a limp. Using my hamstring to bend at the knee and bring my heel towards my butt feels just fine. However, bending over as if I'm trying to touch my toes is painful. So I guess the injury is closer to where the my hamstring connects to the hips. The injury is also sensitive to the touch, so I have to be careful when sitting down; figuring out a comfortable position on the toilet took a while this morning.
 
More improvements today: it is no longer as sensitive to touch and sitting is not an issue. I can now (slowly) walk up and down stairs. I'm walking more or less fine now, though occasionally I'll get a twinge of pain from taking an odd step. I can also bend over to touch my toes and go much further than yesterday, though still far from full ROM.
 
Sorry to hear about your injury, sounds like you are recovering pretty fast though, hopefully you can resume training and compete at the qualifiers, I'll be following your progress if you do.
 
Heh... first SC, now you... pretty crappy start to 2010 on the first month. Fortunately, in both cases, it turns out to be less severe than what could have been. Unfortuantely, these tend to happen in 3's so I'm gonna have to be specially more careful until the final victim is revealed. Hope ya get a speedy recovery though. 😛
 
Keep doin' what you're doing, man. Test the flexibility and tenderness each day. Utilize the new ROM you'll get each day from healing/reduced inflammation. You'll build up each day that way. Sorry to hear about this though. Messed up hammies hurt like crazy.
 
Thanks guys. Some more improvements for today: my walking is almost back to normal, I can bend over still further, and I do a full air squat. Also, when I do stretch the hamstring too far, the sharp pain has been replaced with a dull ache and tightness. I think tomorrow I will start doing very light, high rep exercises (such as squats) to get my leg moving and some blood flowing through the area.

The one odd thing is that while the injury seems to be in a spot near the top of the biceps femoris, I'm experiencing some very odd tightness on the inside of my thigh when I flex my knee. It is a tightness that feels like some muscle running along the inside of my thigh, just under the quad, is rubbing against something as it contracts - it is something like the feeling of a rope sliding along the edge of a building while you pull something up. Looking at various anatomy diagrams, it looks like it might be the gracilis muscle or something nearby. There is no pain whatsoever - it just doesn't feel right. Anyone have a clue what this could be?
 
Even when you think you are completely healed in a few weeks; give it some more time before you try to sprint. After 30 years of soccer I have more than my share of pulled/torn hamstrings and quads.
 
brikis98 said:
Heh, then my response seems awfully counter-productive from an evolutionary standpoint. No fight, no flight, just nausea and a desire to collapse.
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silence_i_kill_you_.png

:whiste:
 
crt1530 said:
The dizzy/naseous/sweaty part was definitely a psychosomatic reaction to the injury.

Sounds like a pulled muscle hamstring. You will figure out the severity with time. Get back to working it through a full range of motion as soon as possible, even if it's just bodyweight squats.
Click to expand...

it's not psychosomatic. it's somatovisceral. it's a neurological thing... it's one of the examples we give, as chiropractors, to explain to people how the nervous system can affect health without them realizing it (high blood pressure, bowel motility issues, certain stomach problems, etc.). sometimes, it's as easy as taking the pressure off the spinal nerve and/or addressing hypertonic musculature that causes the reflex.

fyi, briski, somehow, hamstrings can cause nausea. i'm not certain why... my guess is a neurological connection in the brain or overproduction of lactic acid. but if you work your hamstrings hard, you can get nauseous. it doesn't happen to everyone. i know it happens to me... if i try doing hamstring curls, i start feeling nauseous. so, your nausea probably had something to do with the fact that your hamstring was cramped out and wouldn't release, causing the reflex and/or lactic acid build-up to cause the nausea. i've had a few patients who complain about nausea from working their hamstrings to correct their lower cross syndromes or pelvic tilts. there's definitely a connection there.
 
eits said:
it's not psychosomatic. it's somatovisceral. it's a neurological thing... it's one of the examples we give, as chiropractors, to explain to people how the nervous system can affect health without them realizing it (high blood pressure, bowel motility issues, certain stomach problems, etc.). sometimes, it's as easy as taking the pressure off the spinal nerve and/or addressing hypertonic musculature that causes the reflex.

fyi, briski, somehow, hamstrings can cause nausea. i'm not certain why... my guess is a neurological connection in the brain or overproduction of lactic acid. but if you work your hamstrings hard, you can get nauseous. it doesn't happen to everyone. i know it happens to me... if i try doing hamstring curls, i start feeling nauseous. so, your nausea probably had something to do with the fact that your hamstring was cramped out and wouldn't release, causing the reflex and/or lactic acid build-up to cause the nausea. i've had a few patients who complain about nausea from working their hamstrings to correct their lower cross syndromes or pelvic tilts. there's definitely a connection there.
Click to expand...

Technically, it is likely the autonomic response to pain. Clearly, brikis had a somatic response to pain as well, but the autonomic system often approaches situations like this as fight-or-flight. Because of this, the body drains blood from the skin and gut, resulting in clammy skin and severe nausea. I wouldn't call it hamstring specific, since it happens in all scenarios of intense, threatening stimuli. Some people just have a different response.

Also, just to clear lactic acid's name - it's probably not that. Lactic acid buildup is very, very low before the lactate threshold. Since brikis was warming up, he was probably only at 40-60% VO2max. Especially since he's trained, his lactate threshold is much higher. It's not lactate that's doin' this. Also, as far as I know, lactate doesn't cause nausea. It's almost always the autonomic nervous system pulling blood from the splanchnic area.
 
Did a workout today for the first time since the injury. Obviously, all heavy lower body exercises (squats, deadlifts, o-lifts) are out of the question, but I had no issues working the upper body (oh press, pull-ups, ring work). I was also really happy to find out that, while I still can't run or jump without pain, I can row completely pain free, which will hopefully be my savior in maintaining my conditioning.
 
SociallyChallenged said:
Technically, it is likely the autonomic response to pain. Clearly, brikis had a somatic response to pain as well, but the autonomic system often approaches situations like this as fight-or-flight. Because of this, the body drains blood from the skin and gut, resulting in clammy skin and severe nausea. I wouldn't call it hamstring specific, since it happens in all scenarios of intense, threatening stimuli. Some people just have a different response.

Also, just to clear lactic acid's name - it's probably not that. Lactic acid buildup is very, very low before the lactate threshold. Since brikis was warming up, he was probably only at 40-60% VO2max. Especially since he's trained, his lactate threshold is much higher. It's not lactate that's doin' this. Also, as far as I know, lactate doesn't cause nausea. It's almost always the autonomic nervous system pulling blood from the splanchnic area.
Click to expand...

no, i understand how fight or flight works. i'm talking about the hamstring specifically. some people have a visceral connection with their hamstrings neurologically. i've talked to a neurologist before and he said that he's heard about there being a connection, but didn't know why. there haven't been any studies or anything to show it because it's such a minor detail when it comes to healthcare.

also, lactic acid can cause lactic acidosis, which causes nausea. however, i overlooked the obvious fact that briskis was just warming up... probably not lactic acid that caused the nausea. it very well could have been a simple shock response from the sudden, severe pain... i was just also pointing out the connection between hamstring exertion and nausea.
 
Hamstring is definitely feeling better today. I can jump without pain, can do burpees and after stretching for a while, was able to touch my toes again. I was also able to do hip/back extensions, but had to keep them slow, as any sort of bouncing felt uncomfortable. I'll be trying all sorts of high rep exercises - such as more hip/back extensions, air squats, lunges, maybe even good mornings - next week to flush as much blood through the area as possible.
 
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