# Pulled hammy .... Help!!!!



## karatekid1975 (Apr 25, 2002)

Hiya all. I need help. I pulled a hammy tonight. I need some advice on how to take care of it. What stretches can I do so it doesn't get really "stiff"? If you knew me personally, you know that I would go to class no matter what. But what can I do in class with a sore leg? How can I take care of it in class?


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## Danny (Apr 26, 2002)

My rule of thumb is if it hurts, suck it up.  If your injured, stop and heal.


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## Richard S. (Apr 26, 2002)

im sorry kid, but you are gonna have to be shot.........


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## karatekid1975 (Apr 26, 2002)

LOL. (runs) hehehehehe


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## Richard S. (Apr 26, 2002)

Kid,  how about massage to loosen the muscle then wrapping it for class? if its a bad one, ice and heat alternating for 15mins. each at night for a few days. dont rush into active stretching, youll know when its ready. meanwhile, work on your hand techs.        respects.


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## karatekid1975 (Apr 27, 2002)

Thanks Richard. Good idea


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## KenpoTess (Apr 28, 2002)

Hi Laurie 

Gee I'm an old hand at hamstring injuries.. 2nd degree tear in both multiple times over the last 9 mos~!!  First my left.. which ballooned to 2x its normal size.. major bruising and oh yeah it HURT~!  I took it easy for a few weeks.. no stretching until I felt somewhat normal again.. the swelling went down and the bruising subsided.  once it did .. very light stretching and of course no kicks during the healing period.. R.I.C.E. works~! I didn't wear a compress on mine but  that's just me.  After a month of healing I was so flexible in that leg.. but then the right hamstring 'popped' ..electrical charge zapped me deep in the muscle and a physical popping feeling.  I went back to training too soon and it popped again.. I was getting really annoyed with myself.. Now I am back to stretching.. and am gaining much more flexibility than ever before .  Not to say the way to being flexible is to tear your hamstring~!!!  
Remember.. most people tend to forget about stretching their calf muscles and quads.. without those important muscles worked .. one will always have issues with hamstring injury.. Best of luck~!!


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## karatekid1975 (Apr 28, 2002)

OMG, Tess. You are so right. I minorly tore my left hammy twice and I'm super flexible in that leg, so I actually can't wait for the right one to heal LOL


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## WaterCircleHarmony (Apr 30, 2002)

What if you get a very uncomfortable feeling (a warm buzz)  in the back of your leg when stretching? it only happens in one leg! the other one is fine and i can get much lower in straight split exercise than in the other. this happens even though i do warm up properly so it isn't that.

What do i do?


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## Nightingale (Apr 30, 2002)

if your muscles are just sore from overtraining: suck it up.

if you actually pulled a muscle, that's a tear in the muscle. Its only going to get worse until you take time off to rest it.  Think of your muscle as a rope...the more you use a damaged rope, the more it frays.  you need to stop, fix the rope, then get on with life.  same with torn/pulled muscles. you have to stop and let them heal.

Ice an injury first, to keep swelling down, twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off.  After 24 hours, IF there is no new bruising, you can stop icing.  If there is still new bruising, keep icing. That means that the injury is still bleeding.  Once the injury has stopped bleeding, then ice won't do any good.

to keep things from stiffening up...jacuzzis are always good.  Heating pads work well too.

sigh...after 13 years of karate and 6 years of ballet, I've learned WAAAAYYYYY too much about injuries.


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