First Injury doing GST

Hello... I was doing Stiff Leg Windmills this morning. Did my normal limber up this morning, and the other two exercise sets, then go to the Tuck Up/Stiff Leg Windmill pair. Performed first SLM set no problem, started second set, I had the weight in my right hand, and on the second rep felt my hamstring pop. Seriously, felt like a small explosion. I walked it off, started another rep very slowly, hit the pain and stopped for the morning.

No residual pain or lack of mobility for my day-to-day activities, but every time I test it by stretching the hamstring it chirps at me. Pain is about a third of the way up the thigh (near the glute), on the groin side.

I'm looking for suggestions on how long to let it rest and when I should resume activity.

Thanks in advance for your help. --- Steve

HI Steve how much intense it was the limber before the exercise?

When an exercise like the stiff leg windmill it is performed with weights and you move from the bottom to the top it becomes a strength exercise. generally speaking, when you perform a strength exercise after stretching you have more risk of injury.

Hi Alessandro... the limber was pretty intense. I spend a lot of time on my straddle center/left/right, pike stretch, and calf stretch.

Any thought on recovery time?

Hi Steve, 

It is hard to give an estimated recovery time. I recommend you check with a physio. 

Hey Steve,

Sorry to hear about that. Like the others said, get checked out by a doctor for a diagnosis first. The recovery will probably entail some combination of rest, massage, and then gentle movement. But that will be up to you and whoever examines you to weigh in on that.

I wanted to note that in general, static stretching is something I would recommend doing after exercise, not before. Dynamic (i.e., moving without stopping) stretches are good after warming up (or as part of the warmup depending on the movement) and *before* the main workout. So that would be something like joint rotations, leg swings, light squatting, etc. If you have some tight, crabby areas a few stretches may be indicated there as needed, but don't put the hammer down. Just stretch easy. Research and some practical experience has shown that static stretching (especially intensely) before exercise is counterproductive (reduces force output and can affect joint proprioception). So you may want to save that for after the main workout.

I wish you a speedy recovery! Keep working around the injury with the other GST exercises that don't hit it. Just rest that hurt spot for a few days at least!

Matt

Matthias, thanks for the suggestions. However, I am confused a bit. I picked up the "Daily Limber" program from the Foundations class, Block 4 Lesson 21. I thought the suggestion was to do the Daily Limber prior to any workout (like Foundations.) What have I missed?

The daily limber is a great warm up! However when doing these movement it is important to remember that it is a LIMBERING routine, not an intense stretching routine. 

I wish you a speedy recovery too, Steve. Let us know how you go! 

Hi Steve, the Daily Limber is a bunch of dynamic stretches, which should probably be fine. The key point is probably in the execution. You don't want to *hold* any stretch endpoints a long time (say more than 2-3 seconds) and you don't want to push hard. From your note it sounded like you spent a bit of time going hard on on straddle, pike, etc stretches. This may or may not have caused the issue but is generally something you want to do after a workout to relax, instead of before when you want to be gearing up your nervous system for hard work.

Best,

Matt

19 minutes ago, Matthias Schwartz said:

 it sounded like you spent a bit of time going hard on on straddle, pike, etc stretches.

Bingo.

Thanks very much Matt (and Pauline).