This week I saw my MD and my PT. I went to check in about my tight left hamstring and my loose right hip!
The doctor confirmed that my hip is just my hip - that's how it's going to be post-surgery. He encouraged me to keep up with my hip exercises, which I do religiously.
As for my hamstring, it seemed a little tight to him, but he wasn't worried about it. He recommended reducing distance and speed and getting some dry needling. The tightness is mostly in the belly of the muscle, but some distal tightness, too, right at the junction of the tendon and muscle.
The next day I saw my PT - new one, who works with this doctor - for some dry needling. Same story from him: it didn't seem that bad (but this is hard for me to explain sometimes: I'm really flexible on my left side, usually, so being able to stretch a little beyond 90 degrees with my hamstring doesn't mean I'm "normal" - that's not normal for me. I usually can stretch much further).
The dry needling didn't seem to make a huge impact this time, but I go for two more sessions, and in the meantime I'm not running much as my PT said to take two days off after each session. I guess time will tell.
Sorry you didn't get really good answers about your hamstrings. How frustrating! Hope the PT and resting will help..
ReplyDeleteSorry you didn't get really good answers about your hamstrings. How frustrating! Hope the PT and resting will help..
ReplyDeleteHopefully a little step back will be all it takes!
ReplyDeleteI hope that some rest and the PT helps! So frustrating to keep having issues come up that prevent you from running! Take it easy! Hopefully there are other forms of exercise that you can do while your body heals.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize how important hamstring flexability was to distance running. Sure for sprints your stride needs to be long, but for distance running? I notice that when running tempo pace your stride can lengthen if not kept in check. I used to be so flexible on my left side, and now 5-6 years of neglecting to stretch that left side, I'm more injury prone.
ReplyDeleteMy hamstring is also really tender after lots of miles, but LT running is the worst.. I know that's a big reason why I try to stay away from short interval work. I hope over time I am able to regain some of the felxability.
Needles just don't sound fun...
ReplyDeleteI've had some issue with my hamstring (the left one) this year and from what I've read it's often problems with quad flexibility that's part of the issue. The physio had me doing some eccentric hamstring work to try and strengthen them and it seems to have helped.
ReplyDeleteAh, dry needling. I had a TON of that done when I moved here and started to see a PT (I went to Movement Science Center in Metairie). It wasn't a quick fix (I had it done more times than I can count), and honestly, I'm not sure that there's actual "science" behind it that proves it does anything. My coach was not onboard with the whole thing and called it "voodoo." Anyway... Truly the best thing for me was basically starting over with my running and building up EXTREMELY slowly. Like, literally, increasing my mileage 1 mile a week all summer. All VERY, VERY easy runs. No running two days in a row. No speedwork and double digit runs for quite some time. While 50 mpw used to be my norm, I'm just now getting up to that mileage after about 4-5 months of rebuilding. It's boring, but you'd be surprised at how your body can tolerate all slow miles.
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