Yesterday, my wife & I were headed into Houston from our place to meet with some friends for dinner. We took an Uber so she could relax and have a second drink if she wanted it. We were picked up by a relatively big guy named James, in a Ford Explorer (Just background info, not relevant to the story, but hey... it adds color).
Long story shortened, we find out that James was completing a year-long rehab on what he called a catastrophic, chain-reaction injury which had hobbled him up for quite a while.
It turns out that he'd been (he agreed with me, unwisely) playing football with his school's other (read, younger) black belts. So, he;'s running full tilt, letting his stride out, when the insertion point of his left himstring tears, pulling aaway from the inserting ligament's connection.
And here is where the chain begins... his left leg was reaching forward, striding as it started to tear., the tear completing and separating as he continues that stride. His body's reaction to the release of potential energy lifted his L-side stride out a bit when his R-leg did what it always did, but now his left leg is basically just flopping forwards and is (he's still unaware of how bad this is) is going forward to complete the next stride. But, the leg can't pull back and it hits straight, locked out left knee. Bam. He didn't go a$$ over teakettle as I thought he would have, which may have ended up being better if it did happen. His left foot slipped and the leg slid forwards as he dropped onto his but on the ground in a hurdler stretch.
Remember how people generally talk about not doing explosive, ballistic movements while stretching hamstrings and quads? I'd offer that it doesn't get much more ballistic/explosive than running full tilt, jumping up in the air and landing in a front split. Impact with the ground tore away the origin (upper) part of the same hamstring, ruptured his right side groin strained his achilles, blew his ACL AND tore one of the two calf muscles.
All in all, it took less than a second. How is that for a bad day...
Long story shortened, we find out that James was completing a year-long rehab on what he called a catastrophic, chain-reaction injury which had hobbled him up for quite a while.
It turns out that he'd been (he agreed with me, unwisely) playing football with his school's other (read, younger) black belts. So, he;'s running full tilt, letting his stride out, when the insertion point of his left himstring tears, pulling aaway from the inserting ligament's connection.
And here is where the chain begins... his left leg was reaching forward, striding as it started to tear., the tear completing and separating as he continues that stride. His body's reaction to the release of potential energy lifted his L-side stride out a bit when his R-leg did what it always did, but now his left leg is basically just flopping forwards and is (he's still unaware of how bad this is) is going forward to complete the next stride. But, the leg can't pull back and it hits straight, locked out left knee. Bam. He didn't go a$$ over teakettle as I thought he would have, which may have ended up being better if it did happen. His left foot slipped and the leg slid forwards as he dropped onto his but on the ground in a hurdler stretch.
Remember how people generally talk about not doing explosive, ballistic movements while stretching hamstrings and quads? I'd offer that it doesn't get much more ballistic/explosive than running full tilt, jumping up in the air and landing in a front split. Impact with the ground tore away the origin (upper) part of the same hamstring, ruptured his right side groin strained his achilles, blew his ACL AND tore one of the two calf muscles.
All in all, it took less than a second. How is that for a bad day...
