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Another hamstring tendinopathy update

I’ve been away from the blog for a bit… A few things have happened and I’ve just needed some time away from here for a bit. I love my blog but sometimes I need a break rather than share everything.

I’m ready to give some updates now though. I’ve missed writing and I’ve missed my little corner of the Internet.

So, how is my hamstring? Well, it’s still not fixed. This injury is probably one of the worst I’ve had. I mean, I probably think this for all the injuries I’ve had but seriously this one is a real bitch.

Normally what happens with the (bigger) injuries I have is that they stop me running and I get frustrated with not being able to run. I do everything in my power to speed the recovery up… from physios, to ice packs, to strength training.

I then usually start running a little bit too soon, and this then re-aggravates the injury and I’m set back again. Rest is invariably always best. THIS injury however is something else. I’ve rested for seven weeks and it doesn’t feel that much better. There have been times where it’s felt just as bad. And I say “bad”, what I mean is uncomfortble and a bit naggy. Not painful but ever present and THERE.

I’ve been good and stayed well away from running. I’ve read a lot online, took the advice of my physio and been rehabbing as best as I can. However, some weeks one exercise will feel fine (like the lying hamstring curl, for example) and then another week I’ll do that exercise and suddenly it’s aggravated things and it’s like I’m back to square one.

It is so frustrating. But I’m very good in documenting what’s going on so I can see where the patterns are and work out when to push and when to back off.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. I only do exercises now that in no shape or form generate the discomfort that I feel when the injury is bad. Previously I read in several sources to push through this discomfort – you need to stress and strengthen the tendon. But actually that hasn’t worked for me. It just makes it worse.

I’m going to share what I’ve found but please remember I’m not qualified in any shape or form in any sort of advice giving capacity. This is just what I’ve found and I want to share in case anyone might grab some glimmer of useful information. The exercises that seem to work without niggling the hamstring at all are:

Hip thrusts – these are by far the best. You can go heavy on the weights or high on the reps and it works the glutes without isolating the hamstrings. This has never caused me any sort of hamstring pain/discomfort.

Glute kickbacks – straight leg, straght back, no bending at all. I stand one foot on a raised platform and gently push back my leg behind me focusing purely on my glutes. Yes the hamstrings do some work but it’s primarily the glute.

Single/double leg bride – this has worked consistently well during the begginning, but it’s less effective now because I’ve grown a lot stronger. Hip thrusts are better now

I avoid at all costs: deadlifts, squats, sled pushes (they started well but then went badly), lying (and seated) hamstring curls… basically anything that isolates my hamstrings.

So yeah. Not a lot really. But I’ve done a couple of tiny runs and though it hasn’t felt amazing, it’s felt better. Different to prevous injuries I’ve had where I wait to start running until it all feels good (after a few too eager false starts), this injury requires a gradual approach. Perhaps even a run-walk strategy.

The high hamstring tendon is VERY sensitive and going out straight away doing 3 miles would be unwise. Normally that’s what I’d do. Anything less than 3 miles I wouldn’t see the point, but I’ve been very much dressed down in the ego department. I will be sensible. I won’t rush this.

Yes I only have 12 weeks until the Chicago Marathon, but if I want to be anywhere near being able to line-up at the start I need to approach this carefully.

I’m trying to ignore the people telling me the 7+ months they’ve dealt with this injury. I’m trying to keep positive. I’m doing my very best not to panic. I just hope my strategy works.

What’s been your worst injury?

Do you read about injuries online? This has been both helpful and unhelpful.

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Hamstring Update

Not to dwell too much on the old hamstring situation because I’m trying to stay POSITIVE. But a little update in how it’s going.

So I’ve been strengthening it as much as I can at the gym. I would guess I’m in the phase of the injury where it’s more safe to stress it out a bit in order to strengthen it. I’m doing more functional and, well, “weighty” exercises. These include nordic curls, sled pushing, reverse box jumping, glute kickbacks with more weight and lying hamstring curls.

I attempted a mini run last night. I went out aiming for about 1km… it didn’t feel great I won’t lie. It didn’t feel terrible but it certainly didn’t feel like a particularly comfortable run. It niggled the entire way but stayed consistent in its discomfort rather than getting worse. Walking around afterwards and the next day didn’t feel any different either.

I do wonder whether that length of a run isn’t really much of a good test but I’m being super cautious because of Chicago (14.5 weeks away). I want to try another run soon, but longer. If I’m honest I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing at the moment but at the same time, I’m taking a very measured and gentle approach. Any set-back on my hamstring and I’d immediately stop. My thoughts are that I do need to stress the hamstring out a little in this very functional way in order to get stronger.

When I had this issue after Boston a few years ago (where I believe this is where it all started but has been low level hiding since) I ran quite a lot through the issue. I’m very fastidious with tracking my “training”. I have an Excel sheet that I track all my workouts, gym and running, and will write details about them. It helps me track what I’m doing at the gym (weights, sets, reps) and when I’m injured I can refer back and read about how that run workout, what I was doing to manage things etc. This is obviously super helpful now. Each run I did I would say things like “urgh hamstring niggled throughout” or “deadlifts definitely made my hamstring worse” and I can see how many miles I ran and when it started to get better.

From the looks of it, it took about 11 weeks to heal. 11 weeks. I actually feel sick typing that. What I quickly have to remind myself though is that I’m a lot more “educated” now. Like when the issue first cropped up then I continued doing heavy deadlifts and pushing my hamstring when I should have let it calm down before gentle incorporating very specific hamstring exercises back in (like I am at the moment). I was also super reluctant to stop running (I continued to run for 5 weeks).

So my hope is that THIS time around I’ll be back to comfortable running in less time. I’m currently on week 5 of not running and strength training diligently and sensibly. By dealing with my injury in a very controlled way and having this plan and focus I’m helping myself not fall too much into the Well of Darkness that often plagues injured runners. I have my down moments and I’m trying not to panic about Chicago but I’m only human after all.

Anyway, onto happier and more pleasant things…. sausages. I was sent some sausages and burgers again from the lovely people from Wild and Game.

They sent me some Premium Grouse & Wild Boar sausages.
I adore these sausages (to be honest I really really like all Wild & Game sausages).

They are SO fricking tasty. I made a really random meal for Kyle and I one evening – basically emptying the fridge of stuff that needed eating and I threw in the sausages chopped up with a load of vegetables and it was DIVINE.

Kyle was even super impressed – he loved them.

And they also sent some Pheasant & Venison burgers.

Again, these were so tasty. The sausages and burgers do have a rich and gamy taste but not overwhelmingly so. They just taste very flavoursome and meaty.

This is because there is 47% Wild Boar and 25% Grouse in the sausages (for comparison Richmond Thick sausages contain 42% pork). The burgers contain 40% Pheasant and 35% Venison. Good quality ingredients and less “filler”. And the products are low fat because of the meat they’re using (game is less fatty compared to traditional sausage and burger meat like pork and beef).

What’s your favourite kind of sausage?

Do you eat game a lot?

Do you think I’m doing the right thing with my hamstring?

**Full Disclaimer: I was sent the Wild & Game products for free inexchange for a review. All opinions are my own honest ones.**

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My hamstring injury

Not running right now definitely sucks.

A few weeks of it was alright – I probably needed the break. But then another week and another week and I’m getting grumpy about it. It’s not do with losing fitness (though that is quite annoying of course), but more to do with missing being outside in the fresh air and my having my usual routine.

I also like to keep the gym to mostly strength based training. So now incorporating cross training (with the likes of the elipitical machine, the step machine and walking backwards on the treadmill – more on that later) it seems I’m spending a lot of the time in the gym just doing the cardio stuff I find ever so dull.

So my injury is do with my “high” hamstring, where it connects to my bum basically. I’ve had a bit of a long-standing issue with this since the Boston Marathon but it’s been manageable. Basically I can only just start to feel it if I’ve run a long way or I’ve been sat down for hours.

It became a lot worse after sitting for four hours on the train straight after the Manchester 10k . I got off the train my hamstring and completely seized up. But I just thought it was something that would be fine once I got moving and I continued to run and then I blasted out the Romsey Beer Race (knowing it would make it worse). And here I am.

It’s a tricky injury because of its position; not much blood gets to it and I have to do a lot of sitting for my job, which isn’t great for its recovery. It’s not painful but it is a constant discomfort. When I run it sort of feels like it’s tugging at it and becomes more uncomfortable. So I haven’t run at all.

Just casually staring at the floor

What I have done is a lot of rehabbing at the gym. It’s hard to know exactly what is good and what is bad. I’ve seen my physio a few times and he’s been great with helping it and giving me advice. I’ve looked online (I KNOW I KNOW, terrible idea).

What I’ve gauged from online is that there’s very little research on this area into what’s best. What I have gleamed are the best exercises to do and what to avoid.

I’ll obviously preface this with: I am clearly not a physio, doctor or have any real scooby about any other body but my body (and I’m on a thin line with that at best). Please take care.

Best exercises for high hamstring tendinopathy:

  • Glute bridge: I begun by doing two legged bridges, then focused on single leg (lifting one leg).
  • Hip thrusts: I also do weighted hip thrusts (either low rep with a high weight, or high rep with a lower weight).
  • Glute kickbacks: I use the cable machine in the gym and the foot attachment and then gently kick my leg back without bending my body. I focus on using my glutes and hamstring and prevent my back helping. I do the movement gently but used weight that I found tough to go over 15-20 reps.
  • Eccentric box jumps: the idea behind eccentric box jumps (jumping off a box) is that it’s less of an aggravation than jumping onto the box. It’s a controlled impact to strengthen your hamstring, but to be used wisely.
  • Lying single hamstring curls
  • Retro walking: this is a fancy term for walking backwards on the treadmill. I put the incline up to the highest it can go and have the speed setting on to a fairly fast walk (but I did build up to this because it’s quite scary at first!). This is a great way to get some cardio in without stressing the hamstring out. You look like a weirdo but it works.
Glute kickback

Things to avoid:

  • Basically anything that causes compressive load on the hamstring at the beginning. So exercises like deadlifts (which I rarely ever do now since the injury after Boston because I know it flares it up), squats, seated hamstring curls or lunges. I’m avoiding them completely until the discomfort has gone as I don’t want it to flare up again.
  • Sitting for long periods isn’t great (but understandably unavoidable for those who like me.
  • Cycling (I did spin and this did not help matters!)

The exercises that I do I let my discomfort guide me. I never let my hamstring feel pain above a three but I do push it to work hard. The idea is strengthening it by stressing it to build it back up stronger, but not weakening it by damaging it further. It’s a fine balance… one I’m trying to get to grips with.

I do think I should probably try running soon. I’m just nervous. Nervous about how it’ll feel and nervous it’ll make it worse and lengthen my recovery and nervous. Obviously I won’t go for a 10k run, it’ll be a gradual thing. I just need to work out when.

Chicago Marathon isn’t that far away (15 weeks) and if I think too much about it and what’s at stake I start to panic and fall into a dark well of fear and sadness. Having a plan is what’s holding me together. I just need to make sure this plan is moving forwards not backwards.

Have you ever had hamstring issues?

Do you have any advice?

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Silver Biotics

A few weeks ago I was sent quite a few products from Silver Biotics, a company who specialise in using silver to help keep you in good health.

To be completely honest, I’ve never heard of silver being good for your health. But it was quite cool to see the range of products this company has, from improving your immune system to wound dressing. Apparently it can protect your body from infection, prevent illness and help you recover from injury. Interestingly, back in the day silver coins were used in casks of water to prevent bacteria growing!

Silver Biotics have created this “advanced nano-silver” compound that is meant to do great things for your body. So I tested a few of their products…

Immune Support

I’ve been taking the immune support for a couple of weeks. It’s a liquid that you drink (a teaspoon three times a day).

I won’t lie it actually tastes pretty grim, but I have a great technique of swigging some back and chasing it immediately with water. Now I no longer taste it.

Taking this apparently helps boost the immune system (happily it’s also vegan so I was able to continue taking it during my vegan challenge). When I began writing this I had’t been ill for a while but then I got sick last Friday/Saturday but I’m not sure if that was a virus or something to do with what I ate. So I think it’s unfair to say this failed. Who knows.

Tooth Paste

This is a “triple action formula” containing their silver compound, Xylitol and peppermint oil. It’s natural and organic, very minty and leaves my mouth feeling very clean. I like this!

Teeth Whitening Paste

This is similar to the tooth paste but aims to whiten your teeth. It contains SilverSol, Above-Sea Coral Calcium, Xylitol and essential oils. From the website it says that “Above-Sea Coral Calcium helps to clean, whiten and re-mineralize your teeth”. I haven’t used it for that long but my teeth feel very clean. Whiter? Maybe but I can’t really tell.

Hand Cream

This is meant to help dry and damaged skin, and again contains their silver compound, Hyaluronic Acid, Coconut Oil and Vitamin E.

This was lovely! It was quite a thick cream but it rubbed in really well and it wasn’t greasy at all. My hands felt lovely and smooth. I had a lavender scented one, a grapefruit scented one and an unscented one. It was nice to have a hand cream that was unscented as sometimes scented creams can be a bit much (though the lavender was nice).

Armor Gel

So this is a gel you use on wounds (like open cuts and burns). At first I was like “yeah when am I going to test this??” and then I got some curling irons for my birthday and burnt my face. Silver linings eh (OH SNAP LOOK AT THAT PUN).

It’s very cooling and soothing and is supposed to last up to three days though I don’t really understand this if you wash your face… It can even be used for your pets apparently! There seems to be a lot of independent studies that back up the company’s claims as well, so that’s reassuring 🙂

It does feel nice on my burn and genuinely my burn has all but disappeared. It absorbs really nicely and doesn’t feel like it’s on your face afterwards. Granted it wasn’t a third degree burn but it was pretty obvious on my face but I applied this in the morning and night and it really has seemed to make a difference (obviously I have no control to be certain but I personally think it worked).

So although I might not be a full silver convert, I do like a lot of these products as they do feel good quality and nice to use.

Have you ever used silver products before?

What do you look for in a hand cream?

Have you ever burnt yourself?


**Full Disclaimer: I was sent these products for free in exchange for a review on my blog. All opinions are my own.**

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30+1 and other great things

What’s been happening around here lately… asides from my vegan adventures.

Let’s get over the negatives quickly… I haven’t been running. I only have myself to blame really as I pushed it at the Romsey Beer Race when realistically I should have sat it out.

My hamstring was just on the mend and then ehhh I pushed and it became worse. I’ve been seeing my physio (if you’re in need around the Portsmouth area he’s great) and it’s been helping.

It’s a tough one really as it’s the upper part of my hamstring (“high hamstring”) and this area notoriously doesn’t get much blood flow. Then coupled with sitting making things worse (hey day job..), means that healing is slow.

It’s hard to know how to help the situation. Obviously I’m not running. But I’m a big believer in strength training to help and doing strength work does improve blood flow to the area. It’s just finding that balance of pushing and protecting the hamstring. Gentle single leg glute bridges and being conscious of the muscle (i.e. making sure it’s the hamstring working and not my back or glute taking over). So that’s that right now.

But on to more positive things.

Podcasts

Oh my god, if you have not tried Sh**ged Married and Annoyed podcast from Chris and Rosie Ramsey you NEED to. It is so funny. Laugh out loud while walking Alfie kind of funny. I love their Geordie accents, how relatable they are and their humour. It’s my new favourite and I’m trying not to binge listen to them because I like having lots ready to go.

Birthday

Ahh another year has passed. It has FLOWN by. And a lot has happened in that time. I’ve been and done a number of cool things, eaten A LOT of cake and chicken wings (40 is my new PB), ran a lot (5 marathons!), got myself a cheeky 10k PB (who’d have thought eh!), and spent a lot of time with a guy who’s become somewhat important in my life…

So yeah while I might be older, I’m definitely not wiser but happier, and that’s something eh!

Birthday Cake

Kyle’s lovely sister, Lucy, is AMAZING at baking and for my birthday she made the most amazing cake.

It’s INCREDIBLE. She kept the design a secret from me and when I saw it I just could not believe the detail! So chuffed.

It’s a fruit cake which is cool and means it’ll last for a bit (ha..well we’ll see).

As it was Lucy’s birthday the day before mine we shared celebrating it at Kyle’s house with his family and had the most awesome spread of food. Chicken wings, ribs, spring rolls, crisps, chocolate, token salad.

It was fantastic and such a fab way for me to re-enter into the world of eating meat again.

I will say though that ordinarily I’ll be reducing my consumption of animal products but it was a celebration so I did eat quite a lot it must be said!

Presents

I got so many lovely gifts for my birthday, I was very (god I hate this word so much) blessed.

My lovely friend Louise even made me an amazing sign. She’s just started a new business of handmade crafted items (carvings in glass and wood) and her gift to me was just perfect.

Check out her Facebook page here if you’re interested.

Merchant House

On Thursday night my work team and I went out for a meal and drinks at The Merchant House in Southsea.

I’ve seen so many good things on their Instagram and it didn’t disappoint!

I went for the pork belly burger (with maple bacon and cheese) with burnt end loaded fries and deep fried vegan cauliflower bites.

Their vegan menu actually looked really good! I was tempted to try their seitan burger but in the end was too tempted by pork belly. It just means I need to go back!

It was a really fun evening. I really like the people I work with, the food was fantastic and I love Southsea. It feels like a mini Brighton 🙂

So despite not running, there’s still a lot of good stuff happening round here!

What kind of burger is your favourite?

What’s your favourite food at a buffet?

Do you go out with your work colleagues?