Finally, the exciting conclusion to our hamstring injury! (Guilty of hyperbole. Let’s proceed.)
OK, a hamstring injury isn’t glamorous. It doesn’t have the cache of, say, an ACL injury. But it’s common among weekend warriors. Don’t warm up, go out too fast — ping! — there’s a debilitating snap in the back of your leg. A muscle snap that if you ignore can hobble you for weeks. First, a look at how to avoid irritating your hamstring in the first place.
When I’d reached my self-imposed word limit yesterday I said I’d return today with recommendations for working through a hamstring injury and ways to prevent it from happening again. Which I’ll get to. But first I need to tell you about an orphaned ball.
It was the second inning and we were only down by two, but already I could feel the game slipping away. There was a short fly to the first base side, I started to sprint over and — Aiieee! — I felt a hamstring go. The semitendinosus, if my reading of the Full Body Anatomy chart was right. I one-hopped the fly, another run scored and I suddenly had visions of my active life grinding to a leg-elevated, ice-bagged halt.
Feeling like age is catching up with you (a concern most prominent, based on personal observation, among folks in their 30s)? Then you need to check this video of Jaques “Frenchy” Houot.
I’ve shared why I signed up for the Fit-tastic running program: to relive the glory days of my running youth and hopefully do sub 8-minute miles in the Halloween weekend Monster Dash 5K. Now here’s why some of my peers in the advanced runner category are in the program.