Monday, April 30, 2007

Vibration therapy and stretching.

The hardest part of this weekend was being on my feet so many hours a day. Especially the standing. Walking can get tough if my hammies and calf tighten up but standing is always death on my knee. With no articular cartiledge at all it's just bone one bone and standing without regular movement just hurts.

I am so much better than I have been in years but the last four days was tough. I have been getting spoiled lately with how well my work capacity has increased as I have managed to balance my work loads and the recovery necessary to improve. This weekend made my realize I have much work left to do on my left calf and lower hamstring as when they lock up my extension dissapears and walking gets even less balanced than normal.

I spent SO much time releasing scar tissue and adhesions from my lateral hammie and IT band on my left leg that I was enjoying not having to dig in so deeply for awhile. BUt I can tell its back to work on my calf as this is now the weakest link in the chain and the soleus, posterior tib and even the inner gastroc need way more release and scar tissue erradication.

SO mucho more time on the G5 and also more time on the ground. Discovered a great new hamstring/gastroc stretch/release this weekend(being in pain usually results in some new idea of how to get rid of it) and having big Dave Whitley stretch me out helped immensely as well.SHowed me just how much further my flexibility needs to go. CHinese weightlifter distance.

The looser I get the better my knee feels so thats the path.As usual I just need to do more/

Time to get back on the floor.

4 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

Learning how to treat our bodies truly is an art and part of the journey. Sounds like you have always found methods and techniques that have worked for you.

Any suggestions for a strained hamstring muscle?

I strained my left hamstring (probably semitendinosis or bicep femoris) during a 200 meter race a weekend ago.

Mark Reifkind said...

franz,

my first rule is to get the muscle as much blood and increased circulation as possible with massage, light low tension stretching, vibration therapy and emu oil( works GREAT on muscle pulls/strains).Then I immediately work to restore full ROM as quickly as possible with mobility drills and trying to move as normally as possible.
Constantly stretching and moving into positions to see where and ho wmuch it is restricted and then working VERY slowly to open that up seems to gets things back to normal asap.

I am VERY carefull with loading at that point although i do try to 'get back on the horse' as soon as possible as well.
Re-establish a current baseline and slowlymove forard increasing work and load as possible.

I'm telling you this G5 massager is magic. Google G5 pro power massager.

Mark Reifkind said...

also make sure the calves are not locked up as well, nor the piriformis.

Franz Snideman said...

Awesome Rif. Thanks. I think I am on the right track as I have been more or less doind what you have suggested. My training in NMT has done me wonders as they are hugely into active recovery as well as tons of icing. Let me tell you Rif, when you are really injures, ICE is amazing. My hamstring already feels a ton better (although I can't do anything explosive)and I think the ICE plus my active daily job duties have done the trick :)

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