Hamstring injury?

Topped off my session two weeks ago with an oversplit. Felt fine during the session, nothing too intense. The next day I am super stiff in my left hamstring, much more so than usual. Over the next few days I also noticed a weird discomfort in my hamstring. I can't really explain it but it feels high up, near the glute area rather than behind the knee. The feeling is most prominent in bent leg stretches or at certain angles. If I try front splits the deeper I go the more it tugs on that higher hamstring and obviously I feel it more. I definitely know the difference between soreness and this feeling. 

I have pretty much backed off from any intense stretching... Really worried about losing my ROM at this point. Should I back off entirely or maintain light limbering? It's been two weeks now and I have had this kind of thing in the past and it took MONTHS to get back to normal even with no stretching at all. Very discouraging and frustrating. 

What can I do for rehab and prehab in the future? Strengthen hamstrings and glutes?

Hi Arthur,

Sorry to hear about your injury. Completely avoid stretching that area until you can visit with a physio and are 100% healed. Only a medical professional should guide you through a proper rehab. Working with them will hopefully speed up your recovery and get you back to stretching/training quicker.  

Second Everett on the STAYING AWAY from it till the initial inflammation is gone. You will not lose over splits in a couple weeks and it is extremely common to provoke this kind of tweak into a chronic problem

Oh yes definitely don't do anything if it is not 100% healed. I am learning the hard way. Last week my right ankle was sore. I had been stretching my ankles a lot and most probably over did it. Then the next day was my running day. I thought it's only slightly sore so I ran 2 miles. Didn't feel pain while running. Then next day it was more sore in the morning. I decided to rest by not doing any workouts. But for some not so good reason I decided to do some shopping that day and ended up walking 3+ miles at the mall. Smart eh? Lol. Then next day it was not only sore but now there was pain and I can't put much weight on it. So now I am hopping around on one leg and seeing my doctor tomorrow. Hopefully it's nothing bad, but a lesson learned  

Are you able to maintain a straight leg when doing the "vertical lunge straight" (SE22 or SE23) without any pain? If you cannot do it without pain, then I fear the worst might have happened and you might have had something happen to your hamstring. If you are able to see a professional, I'd recommend doing that to make an accurate diagnosis.

19 minutes ago, John Kiggundu said:

Are you able to maintain a straight leg when doing the "vertical lunge straight" (SE22 or SE23) without any pain? If you cannot do it without pain, then I fear the worst might have happened and you might have had something happen to your hamstring. If you are able to see a professional, I'd recommend doing that to make an accurate diagnosis.

SE22 is no problem. SE23 I can still do without pain until I try to go to my deepest ROM. It's not really that "painful" but it is a worrysome feeling. Like I know it shouldn't feel that way. It's actually starting to slowly get better, but I still remember having this problem before and it didn't fully go away for MONTHS..

3 minutes ago, Arthur Wong said:

SE22 is no problem. SE23 I can still do without pain until I try to go to my deepest ROM. It's not really that "painful" but it is a worrysome feeling. Like I know it shouldn't feel that way. It's actually starting to slowly get better, but I still remember having this problem before and it didn't fully go away for MONTHS..

In GST, anything that won't go away for months is considered an injury. If you've felt this sensation before it's because you were injured. Just my 0.02 US$.

I'll use this thread for my stretching injury-related question too if I may;)

Last week on Wednesday I've been doing a F1 Core + Front Split workout. During the MN/PE1>iM. I seemingly went down a little too fast on one rep, instantly feeling a sting on the inside of my left thigh (adductor I guess?). It wasn't super severe and the pain didn't stay after the exercise. I still felt the same area stinging when doing movements which would stretch it the next days. I've been away for a few days not doing any GST and wanted to continue today, but I still feel this stinging sensation when trying the Stiff Leg Windmill or similar movements. I compared the feeling to stretching my other leg, and it's definitely "stingier" than the normal stretching sensation, which I would rather describe as a moderate burning.

I don't think it's a "real" injury, but I guess I shouldn't do any stretching of this area as long as it's not back to completely normal, right? I don't want to miss workouts as I just started with GST, but I've gotten more careful towards injury prevention, too. 

To me it feels like the stretching equivalent to over-training a muscle in a workout and having serious muscle soreness the next days - how long would that usually take to completely recover?

23 hours ago, Ferdinand Berr said:

I don't think it's a "real" injury, but I guess I shouldn't do any stretching of this area as long as it's not back to completely normal, right?

 

Right. Rest the area completely and go visit with a physio if possible. There is no way for us to know how long it will take to recover; only a medical professional can answer that question.

Moving forward, be sure to treat your mobility and flexibility work more gently than you do your strength exercises. Don't force the stretches and be wary of pushing too hard during your iM's. Reducing the intensity will hopefully help to prevent tweaks like this from occurring again.