Active flexibility issue with an old scar

[Adrien Godet]

I have not had much success researching this on internet so hopefully someone here can give me some explanation / advice.

Approximately 5cm below my left knee cap, 2 cm to the outside of the shinbone edge, I have a 15 year old, vertical scar of around 10cm length (caught a hidden barbwire while sprinting in a field!).

I guess it is the cause of an unbearable tearing pain I feel in that leg in exercises like standing front leg raise (raising the thigh first then the lower leg) or high l-sit when I start in a high tuck.

A few more elements:

- strangely, I feel a lot less pain when reaching the same ROM but with a straight leg all the way.

- it feels like the pain is deep and rubbing the skin makes no difference.

- prior hamstring/quad stretching does not seem to increase the pain-free ROM.

- passive pike flexibility: palm on floor if I can pull; active flexibility in pain-free straight front leg raise: horizontal

It made me stop v-sit training out of frustration...

Thanks for your help

[Coach Sommer]

My recommendation is to adjust your training so that the height of the final extension is based on how high you can comfortably extend the lower leg. There is nothing to gained by attempting to force this issue. If after several months of patient consistent work there has been no improvement in the pain free ROM, discontinue the inclusion of these two elements in your training.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Adrien Godet]

Thanks Coach.

Your answer motivated me to restart training this exercise.

I have split the training of v-sit in two:

- start from bent legs

- start directly with straight legs

While I actually think the pain free ROM got worse on the first version so I am training very conservatively, I am happy to see some improvements on the second one !