My newest body related issue

[Marbles]

My damn hamstring has felt tight for 2 months. Not sure if it’s a nerve deal or muscle. The massage gun doesn’t seem to help in any way. After a hard cycle class it’s tighter, walking up stairs I’ll notice it. It’s not debilitating but I keep thinking at some point it’s going to “pop” and I’m going to be effed. I’m very inflexible, been that way my whole life. I can’t touch my toes or ankles. Maybe about half way between my knees and ankles standing up. Sitting down I’m lucky to touch my knees!

Am I getting old?

Yes

Maybe I need to go to yoga.

Probably

 

[sconnieVLP]

Find a good PT and have them do some ROM and strength testing with you for a mobility program. You’d be surprised what muscles and imbalances do to hide where issues actually are. At the minimum beginning stretching and yoga will be good for you. I’ve probably ridden 100k on a road bike as well and without mobility work it will affect hips, hamstrings and etc

This is excellent advice. The last PT I saw ID’d a whole bunch of issues with imbalances caused by me not doing the right stuff to properly recover from some injuries. Created problems in my hips, knees, and back. After a few months with him he sorted it all out and set me up with a new warmup/mobility routine that I start every workout with and has really helped me keep balance in my body.

 

[WTNUT]

Had two hamstrings pulls last year. One in each leg at different times. It was terrible. My only advise is to give it time and once it heals start stretching.

Get some physical therapy because what you think will make it better like certain stretching exercises will only make the injury worse or so I was told.


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[Leverwalker]

My damn hamstring has felt tight for 2 months. Not sure if it’s a nerve deal or muscle. The massage gun doesn’t seem to help in any way. After a hard cycle class it’s tighter, walking up stairs I’ll notice it. It’s not debilitating but I keep thinking at some point it’s going to “pop” and I’m going to be effed. I’m very inflexible, been that way my whole life. I can’t touch my toes or ankles. Maybe about half way between my knees and ankles standing up. Sitting down I’m lucky to touch my knees!

Am I getting old?

Maybe I need to go to yoga.

I'm back after many years of difficult slogging through. I have a central nervous thing that is progressive but I have pushed back and at 62 am enjoying the best physical conditioning I've been in in 20 years. MTN tough is excellent, btw.

I can't argue strongly enough for a good program of yoga. I come from martial training (long-term, chronic damage to my brainstem from years of residential, intensive training turned out to be the reason for the progressive condition) so flexibility training isn't new to me, but even so, incorporating yoga into my training daily has been a game changer. I've found it critically important to warm up properly, train, and only go into my yoga after, never before. Despite substantial hip and spine arthritis, I'm more flexible now than I ever was.

It sounds hippy-dippy, but listen to your body and see it as a long game. For example, in terms of opening up your hips, take the pose and let your breath deep and low into your abdomen ("belly breathing." Can take some practice if you're used to breathing higher up in your chest) letting that breath itself open up your connective tissues, joints and muscles, rather than cranking down in some way to get a big stretch. It helps avoid injury.

Which is what it's all about. If I've blown holes in the notion for myself that age necessarily translates to a radical falling-off in our physical state, I will agree with one thing, that we can injure more easily and, once injured, the recovery is much, much longer and more difficult. So we do what we can to avoid injury.

 

[Dos Perros]

 

[rclouse79]

I have handed out this tip a few times on Rokslide. Get yourself a sonic care toothbrush. Prop your right leg up on the sink and reach as far forward as you can for one minute (the first two cycles). Then do the same thing for the last two cycles with the other leg. I also don't like to stretch, but now this part of my routine and I don't even realize I am doing it. It has alleviated lower back pain I was experiencing due to tight hamstrings. I went from being able to reach down to mid shin to being able to touch my toes no problem.

 

[Dos Perros]

What are ya doin with that toothbrush tho?

 

[Leverwalker]

My lower back and hips are pretty jacked, so this was a good OT exercise I got a long time ago now but it helpd when I was really tight there, good lower back reliever, and it's just gravity. Get close to a table that can handle your weight, place hands on the table with your feet a few inches back, hold yourself with your arms (not locked elbows, but arms tightened to hold your weight), and just let your back go - let gravity lengthen your back along your lower spine, and put your mind there, making sure you're not allowing "helper" muscles to hinder giving way (i.e., tightening up your back in response to the gravity-stretch). Let the only thing with muscular effort be your arms holding you up against the pull of gravity. Feels great.

 

[Rich M]

Are you getting enough water? Electrolytes & salt?

I get stuff like that but it is gout related and I gotta stay hydrated. Get dehydrated and I'm drinking a teaspoon of pink salt in water.

 

[5MilesBack]

Am I getting old?

Short answer......"yes". Just ask Aaron Rodgers.

I'm 58 with a 38" inseam and not too long ago I could stand on my hands and lock my legs straight. But at this point it takes a little more effort to keep that kind of flexibility.

 

[Macintosh]

You have good advice so all I can offer is sympathy and snide remarks. I’m borrowing some of the advice myself.

 

[Piranha37]

Go see a physical therapist. I had tight quads and hip flexors to the point it was giving me unbearable “back pain”. I got it worked out and started working on my deficiencies to prevent it from happening again. Rolling muscles and tendons, stretching before and after working out, yoga moves. The stationary bikes (my wife got a peloton for Christmas and I use it quite a bit now too) are great for leg strengthening but they also lend to a bent over position, so making sure you stretch out afterwards is important.