If any of you follow me on social media you will notice that I have been posting videos in a “Hamstring Rehab Series”. This was intentionally the first topic that I wanted to post about because this is the last injury that I dealt with just a couple months ago.
This summer has started the comeback train for me. I’m starting to get back into it after a couple years of extremely inconsistent running. I guess graduate school and having a baby will do that to you (haha). I’m quickly learning that I’ve lost a lot of the baseline fitness that I had from the years and years of consistent training. I used to be able to just roll around the track and crank out some workouts, feel pretty easy, and recovery quickly. Now I need to be a little more purposeful with my workouts and realize where I’m at. This may not be where I want to be or where I want to get to in 6-12 months, but it’s all part of the process.
So, I was rolling a short fartlek and then had some feel good 200’s on the end. Things seemed to be going well. I wasn’t setting any records, but I was getting in some solid work. Afterwards I realized my right hamstring was not happy. To me, what seemed like a light session was not what my aging and untrained body had in mind.
The next morning I woke up and headed out for my easy run. Got no more than 100m away and my hamstring was screaming at me to stop. I realized running wasn’t in the cards that day and I may have to modify things for the days that followed. This didn’t mean my training had to stop, it just meant my training needed to look a little different for a while. I went to the stationary bike and got the legs spinning a little bit. Then the rehab process began. I started with some easy isometric holds to get the muscle firing again in a non-threatening manner (video posted below!).
Then I gradually progressed the intensity over the next week and placed greater demands on the hamstring. I was consistently getting in some rehab work 2x/day. It wasn’t a huge time commitment, but it was consistent. After a week of biking, running, rehab and then another week of just easy running I was back in the game. It took just two weeks of modified training before I was able to get back to the schedule, and this was without taking weeks off. This was possible due to being intentional, purposeful, consistent, intelligent, and having a great support system behind me.
Keep grinding out there and be consistently working towards your goals.
You can find a playlist to some of my hamstring exercises on my YouTube channel.
Till next time,
#wintheday
