When it comes to heavy lifting, most of the movement behind the muscles comes from your glutes and hamstring. So it’s no mistake that hamstring injuries can be pretty common in the work place. But just because they’re common doesn’t make them any less painful or any easier to treat. In fact, here’s some hamstring recovery mistakes you’ll certainly want to avoid.
Hamstring Recovery Mistakes
No Compression
One of the common hamstring recovery mistakes is no compressing after the injury. In short, compression allows you to keep the injured muscle compressed, most of the time with a sleeve. This pressure allows more oxygen to flow to the injury and helps reduce and prevent swelling. Therefore, compression can do a lot to help your hamstring heal.
No Elevation
Trying to make it through a hamstring injury without elevation is not a good idea. Similar to compressing, elevating your hamstring can help reduce swelling and inflammation. While getting your hamstring lifted high enough may be a little difficult, it should provide pain relief.
Not Hydrating Properly
No matter how severe a hamstring injury is, it’s still a muscle injury. Which means in order for that muscle to heal, you should hydrate. That’s because water and hydration plays an important role in muscle recovery. In short, water can help relieve muscle soreness, increase joint motion, and helps you tolerate pain. That’s why not drinking enough water is one of the most common, but serious, hamstring recovery mistakes.
Not Allowing Enough Rest Time
Not allowing enough rest time with your hamstring injury us also among the common hamstring recovery mistakes. While you may not be able to work, that doesn’t mean you won’t push your boundaries. As you experience some pain relief, you may begin to think you can be more active. But just one wrong motion or pull can re-injure your hamstring. So you want to be sure to give yourself enough rest time. You want to follow your doctor’s orders strictly and not begin activity a minute too soon.
In short, hamstrings can be a difficult injury to overcome. For the most part, they take lots of rest and rehab in order to recovery. Therefore, making even one of these hamstring recovery mistake can be a big setback. So be sure to avoid them when getting over your hamstring pain.