Recovery from hamstring pull: week 7
I’m writing and publishing my (rather raw) notes on hamstring pull recovery. I hope by taking detailed notes, I can swing my own recovery towards success. And I hope the techniques, thinking patterns, and simply the story might inspire others battling against chronic physical injuries.
Notes from previous weeks: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6.
Week 7
Monday (9th of July, 2018), I took an early train to Como, and I had a chat with JP Meersseman about my adductor tightness. We focused on corrections of my posture and releasing trigger points. We adjusted C1 and C6 in my neck and released a trigger point found in my lower back.
Tuesday, PT (Fabienne): worked on various weight-lifting exercises, including a revisited TRX set. I’m skipping writing down the exact scores as I left them at the clinic. They didn’t change much since the last time I did weight-lifting exercises. We did imbalanced squats (barbell loaded with weight differing by 4kg on each side) that I found easier to do than the last time.
We also checked my hip tension/pain problem I mentioned on Tuesday in week 4. The definitive conclusion is that this is a muscle problem. The joint itself is ok. The muscles surrounding the joint are too tight.
Wednesday, PT (Luca): We started by assessing numbness of the skin region over my quad muscle. We haven’t found a definitive conclusion about the source of that numbness or how to trigger it.
We then moved to the detailed assessment according to the Z-Health program. One of the interesting discoveries is that my scar tissue from a very old injury above my knee affects the tension of my hip muscles. The link is weak, though.
Thursday, PT (Luca): we started with another detailed assessment of my adductor tension. Next, we explored the effectiveness of taping different parts of my leg, back, neck, and arm. We applied over forty pieces of tape. At the end, it looked like this:
At each step of applying a tape, we would check for any reaction from my body. We were looking for lesser tightness either in the adductor or in my hip. We found the one over my goosefoot and the one affecting my pelvic position, applied over my hips, to be the most effective at reducing tightness in the adductor. The hip problem with tight muscles remained intact.
Friday, PT (Fabienne): focused on my hip flexor (psoas) and extensor (tensor fasciae latae). The flexor work helped with my pain around the anterior superior iliac spine (above where you have a ball-shaped bone in your hip). Thursday’s taping helped a great deal with the adductor pain.
I biked to Gempen (the local hill near Basel) with a hint of pain at the end of 600m ascent. The pain was around the thigh, right above the knee.
Saturday, went for a Gempen ride. It was a bit slower than Friday one, and I had a lurking tension in my hamstring.
After the ride, I swam 500m. The swim was a struggle: I had trouble coordinating my muscles for some reason, not sure if it was due to tightness.
Sunday was the day of rest. I woke up without any adductor tension but with mild neck tension.
