In regards to how the world is becoming modern day by day, technology advancing day by day, more chemicals being made, food becoming less natural, before man used to move around a lot but now since technology has evolved, everything, well nearly everything is within our reach, I'm sorry to say it but we have become less accustomed to making a lot of effort, as comfort and ease of transport has increased the effort decreases and this would lead to a lot of sitting around a lot of times, instead of a couple of centuries ago, when transport was done by foot, if you look at the other countries, which eat more healthy, natural foods and they have to travel a lot. I think this is where injuries happen when humans move around less then usual then the muscles adapt and the next generation would be adapted to that situation and therefore can lead to more need for massages and tight muscles. My 2 cents.
After my latest minor hip flexor sprain where I attempted a box jump using stairs and that quick contraction of the hip caused a little pull that it pained and the next day it was painful to go to partial squat position, which soon healed quick as it wasn't as serious of a pull, but this made me realize something and it's related to your question in some way about whether messing with an injury because of pain and therefore either help it or make it worse was innate to us or not. When I felt the pain in my hip flexor, the natural reaction like most human beings is that your hands quickly go to the point of pain, whether you twisted an ankle, hurt your shoulder the innate thing is to hold it with your hands, to protect it, which i think is what is innate to us as human beings.
But what follows is not innate but due to our understanding whether right or wrong, which in our case is that when it causes pain and our hands are already on the painful spot, it's almost impossible to take your hand away, but rather, like when we were little and when we hurt our knees we would rub it to make pain go away in the same way but with a lot more knowledge but lack of understanding of that knowledge we rub, massage to try and make pain go away, cos we don't like pain, we try and remove pain and that mixed with the understanding of myofascial release using foam rollers through the pain, causes to massage through the pain and voila make it worse or maybe make it better.
So the hand quickly moving to the point of pain seems to be an innate/natural reaction but what comes after is our understanding and I think this may be the same with animals that they would like cats lick the sore paw or something similar but they lack logical sense they use instinct and experience unlike humans we use common sense, well our understanding of common sense.
Date: 11/01/2018 Soreness: Doms entire lower body and back from tuesday BW: 10st 1lbs Sprain:Yep, again a small muscle pull of my left hip flexor just as it was healing.
Condition: It was raining and cold and my session didn't last long, about 30 mins including warm up
Warm up 10 min walk same warm up activation/mobility drills
Workout Counter movement jumps 2 x 5 @30kg
It was at this point I realized, I f'ed up.
What happened was yesterday, I was outside as part of my rest day and there were these steps around 6-7 steps. I decided to try and jump the entire steps from the bottom without run up or walk just straight jump. I jumped landed on leg on the top and the last leg just touched the 1 step before and I felt a pull in my left hip flexor muscle on landing, which was a little sore 3/10 and concentrated (the pain was sharp in one area 5/10). I had doms yesterday too. So after resting it, it went away, until when I went to the gym today the warm ups were fine even the hip warm ups, it's only after checking my squat depth at bw that area the entire hip flexor was sore at partial squat depth. Just going to that depth was sore. So I did counter movement jumps which was quite painful but not really sharp but spread out through the entire hip flexor. So I only did do 2 sets. When I attempted partial squats , with warm up at 60kg, which is easy for me just reaching that depth was too painful so I just dropped it on the safety pin and called it a day. So annoying. Now I am wearing hip bandage and can go to partial squats without pain just only if I go deep then there is pain, so hopefully slowly by slowly the pain will go.
Also, I think maybe "re-thinking" stretching to include just the "signal you are sending to the brain/nervous system", could potentially help a bit. My latest bout of stretching was mostly successful for one main reason: I didn't push the ROM. Instead I was simply thinking, once I "feel" that initial stretch, to just stay there. That was the point at which my nervous system was sending feedback, so I figured I didn't need to go any further. Subsequent stretches usually improved a little. When I did push the rom, I ended up paying for it.
I guess what i'm saying is, maybe try and forget about the idea of actually stretching the myself itself, and instead just performing controlled movement (the stretch) until the moment you experience feedback. At that point, you know you're sending signals to "whatever mechanisms understand them", so maybe just leave it there.
I mean, you do a dedicated flexibility session, achieve significant ROM improvements short term, then the next day you're anywhere from slightly more flexible, to no difference, to worse/tighter than had you not stretched. So I think the idea of actually stretching the muscle & whatever else itself, might be less effective than the idea of simply generating the signal/feedback itself. Some people can create alot of noise (push the ROM), some people need to keep it quiet/gentle. I know I fall into the latter category.
Achieving flexibility gains through full ROM/deep movements is still the best bet IMHO. But those days following such movements/sessions, where soreness can be worse, need to be careful when stretching at that point.
more 2cents!
I understand what you are saying. But when I think of trying to incorporate that into the article I go blank. so all the response here will be part of the article (sort of) something that can keep on being updated. But man you know a lot, there is no way I would've thought along those lines.
Date: 09/01/2018 Soreness: quads, hamstring BW: 63.0kg Injury/Sprain: hip a quite healed
Condition: Had 2hrs to spare, it was cold day, I woke up with a wheezing chest when you breath, happens a lot of the time in the morning.
Warm up 10 min walk ankle/ calf mobility/stretch hamstring stretch glute activation drill hip activation/opening stretch back mobility/flexibility stretch psoas stretch
Workout Counter movement jumps - 3 x 5 @30kg
Partial Squats - 1 x 5 @60kg - 1 x 3 @100kg - 3 x 7,6,7 @110kg
Calf Raises - 2 x 20 @120kg
Progressive depth squats - failed at both attempts at pin 12 @120kg
Romanian Deadlift - 1 x 5 @60kg - 3 x 7 @100kg
Cool Down stretch powerplate for back vibration 10 min walk back
Comment It was an ok session, chest feeling a little wheezy, but managed to get the work done, 110kg felt comfortably good for partial squats, but 120kg on progressive depth squats at the same depth a little too much, I failed at both attempts.. So I will stop doing progressive depth squats until I pass 130kg in the partial squats then I can progress to the next depth. RDL felt tiring so decided to stick with 100kg. Calf raises was normal. So was counter movement jumps.
ya what interests me is our "response" to sprains and strains. With sprains, I feel like our default response is to shift into "rest" and maybe "ice". Though, we may try and get back to our training/competition too soon: but the default response seems to be not to "mess with it". Ice is obviously (most likely) a learned response. With strains, our default response seems to be to stretch it, roll it, massage it etc. The thing i'm wondering about is, if that's innate behavior or something we've learned. My dog strained some muscle in his leg once and he just left it alone. If I strain a muscle in my leg, i'm stretching it & trying to actively fix it.
so yea, our response might cause more harm than good. Need to be careful in the early stages of injury. IMHO, ice is usually a great bet.
I remember learning lots of this stuff initially from martial arts and a basketball training book I had - a solid book that had Doc Rivers in it (when he was a player), so that tells you how old it was. I just don't recall any kind of "prolonged stretching/mobility" mindset in response to strains and such, when I was younger. Maybe a few quick stretches with very short holds, and that's it. That seems more "natural" (to me).
I've definitely made strains worse by messing with it immediately after, and the few days following. I'd have been better off just leaving it alone.
Also, one thing that doesn't get talked about alot is hydration. A few strains/tears i've accumulated over the years were probably made more likely to occur because I wasn't hydrated optimally. Stretching and dehydration are probably a bad combo, just like training and dehydration are a bad combo.
As far as my hip flexor injury is concerned, poking at it (stretching, massage, trying to roll it etc) only made it worse. Rest "fixed" it, maybe not entirely, but far better than anything else. Hip flexors/adductors are tricky to begin with, they are already usually very tight.
I really like the PRICE acronym.. actually never heard of it. much better than RICE because of the P=protect aspect of it.
pc!
Thanks I hope it is of use to some people. You are correct about hydration because of dehydration it can cause muscles to become tight and prone to sprains when stretched.
Hopefully this guide may be useful to some of you guys
I was planning to write something like this for a few days now and thought I don't have anything else to do I might as well put pen to paper (metaphorically) and start. Just note this is just my 2 cents o
A problem I have like some other people is that we over look stretching past it's specific purpose and use it as a be all end all method for getting rid of pains we suffer whether it's through injury i.e sprains or strains or not, which can lead to further problems if used incorrectly.
To begin this off let's look at some definitions:
Muscle Sprain: A sprain occurs when one or more ligaments have been stretched, twisted or torn, usually as a result of excessive force being applied to a joint. Ligaments are strong bands of tissue around joints that connect bones to one another.1
Muscle Strain/ Pull: A strain occurs when muscle fibres stretch or tear. It's usually the result of the muscle being stretched beyond its limits or forced to contract (shorten) too quickly.1
A video of the basics of what happens when you pull a muscle, sprain it or rupture it. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZVIb5U5fI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZVIb5U5fI</a>
A video of the difference between sprain and strain <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPeNOb2eIyA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPeNOb2eIyA</a>
As mentioned in the above definition and videos, sprains and strains can occur through various ways such as causing your joints to extend past it's range of motion i.e. twisted ankle or overuse of a muscle more than it's capable of. But also when a muscle has been inactive for a while, can cause muscle's to become stiff and when it is worked on can cause a muscle tear similar to that of a rubber band when it loses it's elasticity, stretching it would tear it whereas if you had stretched it dynamically can reduce the stiffness and therefore avoid any possible chance of injury, which I will get to in a moment.
As a common rule when at the early phase of a sprain/strain, we follow the PRICE rule, which an updated acronym as become POLICE, where OL stands for over load, meaning when the pain has subsided it is best to try and put some weight or load on it lightly to rehab it's functionality.
P - Protect R - Rest / OL - Over Load I - Ice C - Compress E - Elevate
The problem a lot of us face is dealing with muscle strain's, such as the one I faced recently of straining my hip flexor muscle, which had occurred from placing excessive loads on an impinged hip. So an incorrect mindset I had was foam rolling the hip flexor muscle, deep tissue massage using a tennis ball to dig deep in, which you will probably understand that digging away at a muscle, which has been strained, where some muscle fibres have become torn can only result in further fibers being torn and in the end causing major muscle ruptures.
That is what there is a time and place for massages/foam rolling and stretching.
When a muscle has become stiff due to inactivity or muscle knots (myofascial trigger points) it can cause pain and sometimes we incorrectly generalize a lot of pains to be the same as this one. Below is a video of what muscles knots are and how they are formed.
So we wrongly assume that because we have a pain in the muscle, we wrongly treat it with massaging, stretching, foam rolling, which can cause further problems if wrongly diagnosed like my hip problem above. But as for muscle knots, myofascial trigger points, massages and foam rolling can release this points and help remove some of them knots.
But if a muscle has been strained, then what one should do is to let it heal for a couple of weeks, before starting stretching and the purpose of stretching is to rebuild the strength rather stretching for flexibility or mobility. This is what I did, I let it rest for around 2 weeks, I wrapped the injured area with a bandage for support as throughout the day with a lot of walking and running. Just by leaving my hips alone it is starting to heal up and now I can start to do body squats and slowly move on to the gym.
Video below explains different types of stretching and when it should be used. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWI2KgieQhM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWI2KgieQhM</a>
Injury Pain Follow the price procedure without any stretching, until the pain has settled down fairly and then what you want to do next is strengthening that muscle slowly by slowly via stretches, but you don't want to do stretches, which will aggravate the pain. Just because it is causing pain doesn't mean it is helping as we currently misunderstand it, with injuries avoid anything, which aggravates injury or causes discomfort.
Muscle Stiffness Pain Do you sit for long period of time? If yes this can cause muscles, which are at a relaxed state when seated to be come stiff i.e. hip flexor muscles and therefore can cause pain when it is stretched when standing, for this type of pain it's best to stretch it preferably dynamic, also using tennis ball or myofascial release can help reduce the stiffness or massaging it.
Medication can be taken to control the pain but along with medication it is best to address the issue such as isolate the injury to let it repair and following the other part of the PRICE protocol because absence of pain doesn't necessarily mean the injury has healed but rather the pain receptors have been numbed.
Dehydration and stretching Another important thing to also mention is the importance of hydration (credit to adarq) and it's importance when it comes to stretching. When your muscles become dehydrated, flexibility and elasticity are lost, making them more susceptible to strains and tears if you push your body too hard. You may experience a delay in muscle tightness as much as 24 to 48 hours after an intense workout, particularly if you don't consume enough water after working out. If your muscle tightness goes beyond a little discomfort and to the point of becoming painful, you run the risk of muscle damage if you continue or resume exercising with that tight or cramped muscle.
Drinking plain water before, during and after your workout is the best way to stay hydrated to minimize muscle tightness. Check with your doctor or pharmacist to see if any of prescriptions you're taking can cause dehydration. If you're taking a prescription that can cause dehydration, you need to drink extra water. Eat a balanced diet so that you have an adequate amount of sodium, potassium and other electrolytes at the start of your workout, and then replenish your stores afterward with a healthy snack such as orange juice, nuts or a banana.
So what you should take away from this is that not all pains are the same and therefore they cannot all be treated the same way, if it is a muscle injury/ sprain or strain, avoid any stretching or any types of activity to that muscle, just rest it up and let it heal, that way it will heal quicker then stretching it and causing it further injury and then going through all sorts of difficulties if it is tight muscle due to being inactive then stretching it to loosen it for flexibility would be a good idea or myofascial release and remember that just because stretching it/ massaging it causes pains doesn't mean it's good for you, for stiff muscles dynamic stretching would be good but for injuries leave it alone. Hydration is also just as important as it is necessary in order for a healthy working muscle.
I hope this helps and is useful to some. Just my 2 cents.
Date: 06/01/2018 Soreness: none that sticks out BW: forgot to measure Injury: hips very little
Condition: it had rained so track was wet and it was cold. It was a light run session using my normal asics shoes. I will use the asics pirhannas once I can run without any doubt/fear of aggravating an injury at full effort.
Warm up 10 min walk 2 x sprint drills leg swings hip flexor iso holds psoas cross legged stretch
Workout 1 x 50m sprint @50% intensity 1 x 50m sprint @70% intensity 1 x 50m sprint @90% intensity
Cool down 10 min walk little stretch
Comment It was a good workout. It had rained. The warm ups were good, when doing the a skip where you bounce on one leg with other knee up, then switch knees and bounce. it had touched a little on the hip pain. The rest of the warm up was fine. I decided to do sprints with increase in intensity every run. each run would just touch the hip pain but not aggravate it. So was a little cautious but still managed to run almost full effort keeping an eye on my hip pain. Pain would be a 1/10, you can feel it's there but it's not painful.
Date: 05/01/2018 Soreness: hip flexors a little both sides Injury: unnoticeable
Condition:Did late workout, busy the entire day.
Warm up same warm up as tuesday minus the squats Single leg kneel squats 2 x 10
ate dinner and waited 1hr before starting workout
Workout single leg squats 3 x 10 each leg bw squats 3 x 10 with hands holding imaginary barbell
Cool down mild stretch
Comment Now at this precise time I am resting before going to sleep. have a slight temperature so drinking tumeric milk rn watch dave chapelle on youtube
Date: 02/01/2017 Soreness: right upper glute a little sore for some reason BW: n/a Injury/Soreness: left hip flexor little (the 2 weeks rest helped)
Condition: it was an alright day, hips are feeling better, will feel slight strain when hip under tight stretch
Warm up ankle, calves, hamstring, glutes, hips and back mobility/activation stretch/drills hand behind head bw squats 2 x 5 holding an aluminum tube as a bar and squatting 1 x 5
Workout squat jumps with aluminum tube 3 x 5 - it felt strange/awkward jumping after squatting down but maintained rhythm nevertheless.
single leg kneeling squat 3 x 5 - kneel with one leg on an elevated platform sitting on my heels and the other leg straight touching the floor, then I lift my hips and go on to my knees and then I would lower my hips and lower till my feet just touch the ground then i contract glutes and come up again, so basically single leg squats on edge of platform but instead on my knee.
single leg squats on edge of chair 3 x 5 - hips working hard and felt pressure but only little pain, the only pain was just in the working of the hips.
Cool down stretch
Comment It was a nice rehab/light session for the hips. And also the asics pirhanna have just arrive, damn the box it arrived in felt like it had no shoes, just some scrumpled up paper, but the shoes are light and the material feels thin and yet strong. can't wait to try them soon.
Date: 21/12/2017 Soreness: mid back a little but better after peanut tennis ball roll against the wall, quads and hamstring a little BW: 143lbs Injury/Sprain: left hip flexor
Condition: 2hrs to spare, but at the beginning the gym was crowded especially since it is a small gym. So just had to find an empty spot to do my warm ups and stuff and then go on to a squat rack when free. So the warm up took 30 mins as a lot of unnecessary rest.
Warm up 10 min walk to gym 3 variants of ankle mobility/ calf stretch anterior tilt seated hamstring stretch glute contraction holds while holding 10kg plate in front in deep squat hip flexor hold/ hip flexor opening work/ seated iliopsoas stretch 3 variants back mobility work power plate work for hips and back
Workout Partial Squats - 1 x 5 @60kg - 1 x 5 @80kg - 3 x 7 @100kg
Calf raises - 1 x 8 @100kg - 2 x 20 @120kg
Romanian Deadlift - 1 x 5 @80kg - 2 x 6,1 @120kg - 1 x 7 @100kg
Dips - 1 x 19 @BW
Cool down some stretches avoiding hip muscle related stretches power plate for back 10 min walk back
Comments It was nice day besides the mud, the warm up went a lot longer as the gym was crowded. They went well. Then I did the squats, 100kg felt good after getting into the rhythm, just hit the pin a little and then go up. The calf raise was same as always without problem. RDL, I wanted to attempt 120kg, when I lifted it, it was comfortable not too heavy but as I descend I could just get it a little bit down my shin and manged that for 6 reps but second set it was too heavy to descend again, so did 1 rep, lightened the load and did 7 reps at 100kg quite comfortably. I had 10 min to spare so I decided to do some dips, quite enjoyable. I had to grind at 19, I wanted 20, but 19 was like the rep before failure.
Date: 19/12/2017 Soreness: none BW: 143lbs Injury/ Sprain: Left hip flexor
Condition: It was a nice day, I had 1hr 30mins free. Had to avoid anything that would aggrevate my hip flexor.
Warm up (15-17 min) 10min walk ankle mobility/rotations calf stretch anterior tilt seated hamstring stretch glute contraction holds at deep squat x 3 hip flexor holds, opening work back mobility work band distraction work - side, back, hamstring psoas cross legged seated stretch
Workout Partial Squats - 1 x 5 @empty bar: some pain in my left hip flexor - 1 x 4 @60kg: very little pain - 5 x 0,0,2,3,6 @100kg: all reps are the last reps I managed to do before failing the following reps - first 2 sets 100kg felt heavy so didn't manage any reps - last 3 sets I did barefoot with socks on mat, a little better, last set last 2 reps I may have used the bounce from the pin to help Calf raises - 1 x 5 @80kg - 2 x 20 @120kg Romanian Deadlift: didn't have wrist straps as I thought rdl would irritate my hips, which it didn't so only could use paper towels for grip - 1 x 5 @empty bar - 1 x 5 @60kg - 2 x 5,7 @80kg: first set bare grip and second set with paper towel.
Cool down stretch powerplate vibration for back and hips 10 min walk back
Comment It was nice day, the squats felt good, the pain felt less the more weight I added. The first 2 sets I did with shoes, which 100kg felt light so did 3,4,5 set without shoes. Also whenever I failed a rep I remove 1 plate from each side and then lift from the pin up. So first 2 sets I used 2 x 20kg plates and when fail I would lift from the plate 60kg, then I changed it to 1 x 20kg + 2 x 10kg, so when I failed I remove 1 x 10kg from each side and lift 60kg from the pin up. So some workout happening there as well, also with rest, which I did towards the end helped. As whenever I failed I just had to rest a few secs and try again. Last set of last few reps prob may have used bounce from the pin, that's why it felt a little too comfortable. Or maybe my body got used to the weight that quickly. Then did calf raises normal as always, then rdl, which I had to do without wrist straps. So an ok workout. would have been better without the hip injury and all.
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Then did calf raises normal as always, then rdl, which I had to do without wrist straps. So an ok workout. would have been better without the hip injury and all.