Hi,
My right hamstring (primarily the area at back of the knee) was hurt in sparring. I'm not sure if I pulled it or it was kicked, anyway it was hurt. I rested several days and felt OK. After that I tried to stretch and felt stiffness in the area. The thing that really bothers me is that when I do high left-leg back kick (or side kick with the same alignment) I felt tensing discomfort at the area (the back of the knee). With middle section kicks it's OK.
The feeling of imbalance kinda upsets me. While my left leg is strong and steady I want to keep my training schedule, but I am not sure how I should deal with the right leg.... I would probably reduce the number of repetitions of kicks of which the right leg is the supporting leg, e.g. 12 right-leg back kicks and 6 left-leg back kicks. But I also heard aboout another theory recommanding to do the reverse - the reason is to make the injured leg when recovered stronger and catch up with the healthy leg, by putting more workload on it, so that they are balanced. Should I try this? And what are good exercises to strengthen the right hamstring in my case?
Thanks!
Wenhung
Imbalance between right / left leg
Wenhung, I know this is not the question you asked or the advise you were requesting but hamstring injuries are on my mind lately...
I am recovering from a minor hamstring pull I suffered a few weeks ago (playing football with friends in a backyard, if you must know). While I did spend a week trying to let it heal on its own I decided that the hamstring is too important to be left to chance. Therefore, I went to see my favorite sports medicine doctor in town. Good thing I went when I did. He's using massage and ultrasound to speed recovery and also to break up the scar tissue that started to form. Luckily we caught it early enough so I have not suffered any loss of flexibility and will probably not have any permanent reminders of this injury.
I would strongly recommend you get your leg checked out by a competant sports medicine doctor. It may not be a big injury and you feel like you can "work through the pain" but by not seeking treatment you may end up with permanent scar tissue in there that will not be beneficial to your sporting endevors. The time to be tough and macho is when you are in good health (although you may find that enduring some of the intense deep-tissue work required for hamstring pulls requires a toughness all its own). When you are injured, take care of yourself and make sure you heal correctly. Your doctor can advise you on how much activity you should be doing during your recovery.
Good luck. I know you don't want something like an injury to stop you but, in the grand scheme of things, a week or two or no- or reduced-training isn't really going to make a big difference.
-Mark
P.S.: My hamstring is healing rapidly thanks to the treatments. This Sunday will mark my return to tae kwon do practice. Heavy squats and running are still out of the question but I should be able to do some sparing. This after only 3 treatments.
I am recovering from a minor hamstring pull I suffered a few weeks ago (playing football with friends in a backyard, if you must know). While I did spend a week trying to let it heal on its own I decided that the hamstring is too important to be left to chance. Therefore, I went to see my favorite sports medicine doctor in town. Good thing I went when I did. He's using massage and ultrasound to speed recovery and also to break up the scar tissue that started to form. Luckily we caught it early enough so I have not suffered any loss of flexibility and will probably not have any permanent reminders of this injury.
I would strongly recommend you get your leg checked out by a competant sports medicine doctor. It may not be a big injury and you feel like you can "work through the pain" but by not seeking treatment you may end up with permanent scar tissue in there that will not be beneficial to your sporting endevors. The time to be tough and macho is when you are in good health (although you may find that enduring some of the intense deep-tissue work required for hamstring pulls requires a toughness all its own). When you are injured, take care of yourself and make sure you heal correctly. Your doctor can advise you on how much activity you should be doing during your recovery.
Good luck. I know you don't want something like an injury to stop you but, in the grand scheme of things, a week or two or no- or reduced-training isn't really going to make a big difference.
-Mark
P.S.: My hamstring is healing rapidly thanks to the treatments. This Sunday will mark my return to tae kwon do practice. Heavy squats and running are still out of the question but I should be able to do some sparing. This after only 3 treatments.
Hi, Mark,
Thank you for sharing your experience and the advice. Sports medicine is not so common and immediately available in this part of the world (Taiwan). For such injuries we take Chines therapy which includes heat treatment with some herbal stuff, acupuncture, massage, and some "electro" treatment. All of these are quite effective, but the problem is, most Chinese doctors I know do not know much about sports science. They know how to treat an injury but they do not know how to build more strength. Well, my doctor said I am OK to kick within the safe level but he is not sure about conditioning or strengthening.
The problem of my right hamstring seems to have something to do with the knee. When I flex my leg such as to raise the lower leg backward to touch the hip, there are cracking sounds coming from the right knee. After I repeat this action several times the cracking stops. I then stop for a while and resume the action and the cracking comes again. No problem with the left knee. And no sounds when I raise the right knee upward to the front. Kurz seems to have written somewhere about the cracking of the knee being weak and in need of strengthening, so I am thinking about putting some weight to the foot and repeat the lower leg flexing action as the strengthening exercise. Does this seem rational?
Wenhung
Thank you for sharing your experience and the advice. Sports medicine is not so common and immediately available in this part of the world (Taiwan). For such injuries we take Chines therapy which includes heat treatment with some herbal stuff, acupuncture, massage, and some "electro" treatment. All of these are quite effective, but the problem is, most Chinese doctors I know do not know much about sports science. They know how to treat an injury but they do not know how to build more strength. Well, my doctor said I am OK to kick within the safe level but he is not sure about conditioning or strengthening.
The problem of my right hamstring seems to have something to do with the knee. When I flex my leg such as to raise the lower leg backward to touch the hip, there are cracking sounds coming from the right knee. After I repeat this action several times the cracking stops. I then stop for a while and resume the action and the cracking comes again. No problem with the left knee. And no sounds when I raise the right knee upward to the front. Kurz seems to have written somewhere about the cracking of the knee being weak and in need of strengthening, so I am thinking about putting some weight to the foot and repeat the lower leg flexing action as the strengthening exercise. Does this seem rational?
Wenhung