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Showing results for tags 'hamstring strain'.
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I have posted parts of my own story in various places, and have talked about in both the @Emmet Louis and Propane Fitness podcasts, so thought to write a concise account here. For the TL;DR crowd, here's the 'Cliff Notes' version: Rest will not repair an injury, despite rest being the most common recommendation by practitioners Fascia, the stuff we injure when we "pull" a muscle, has a half-life in the body of six months, according to Robert Schleip (pers. comm.); figures around the net span 300–500 days. If Robert* is right (he runs the fascial research lab at Ulm University), then we effectively live in a new fascial body roughly every 18 months to two years. If you rest (so do not stress the injured area) then the new chemistry simply reproduces the problem and the state/organisation of the old tissues, and the brain has no reason to change its perspective—it will not trust the part, and the propensity for re-injury remains. Strengthening the injured part is one of the most efficient ways of straightening the undifferentiated fascia that characterises a newly healing injury site; our approach to using C–R (the "C" of C–R means "contraction") is a highly efficient way and completely scalable way to strengthen any muscle in its lengthened state. In my own situation, single-leg Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) and weighted Bulgarian deadlifts (BDLs) were key. Mobility work of a range of movement (ROM) that does not tax the injury is essential. Occasional replication of the activity that caused the original problem to assess progress is essential; when the day comes where the activity that caused the injury is experienced only as a stretch or a benign sensation, the brain (somatosensory cortex) immediately remaps the attribution of significance and fear that an injury always carries with it. Once "fixed", the body needs to experience a greater stress than that which caused the injury for the experience of "completely fixed". That's the point I'm at today; if you head over to the Pancake thread I started a week or so ago, you will see that I had the best front splits ever yesterday, and in form that is significantly better than the old, pre-injury, days. I am also stronger in that ROM than I have ever been before too, and stretching that "underbutt" part of the hamstring (short head of biceps femoris) is simply a stretch. *Robert works out, as do many of his research subject groups—his figure of a half-life of six months probably reflects a faster turnover through greater activity. My own "complete" fix took about two years, and I never stopped working out. Other relevant threads: https://kitlaughlin.com/forums/index.php?/topic/931-stretching-hamstring-scar-tissue/ If members can send me other links, I will add here, so all is in one place.
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