Stretch it or rest it?

TheNewJessieMae

I've had this question, but now I have a means to ask people other than my circle of friends........
My left leg is BUM!!! I've hurt something in my quad and my calf. I feel as though I can barely move it and stairs take me forever. I did it on Thursday and it's now Saturday. It still hurts. Do I stretch it out? (writhing in pain the whole time..) or do I wait until it gets better? I can handle going through the pain, but I don't I don't want to injur it more.............. hmmmm question of the day.

Oh and Ice or heat?

SHBoss1673

generally, the larger the muscle, the longer the recovery. Quads are rather large muscles and will take time to heal.

Generally, I tell clients to follow the RICE principle as it works for most soft tissue minor injuries (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), give it a good solid week of not working it to hard and if it doesn't feel better with RICE, go see your doctor because something else is going on.

TheNewJessieMae

generally, the larger the muscle, the longer the recovery. Quads are rather large muscles and will take time to heal.

Generally, I tell clients to follow the RICE principle as it works for most soft tissue minor injuries (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), give it a good solid week of not working it to hard and if it doesn't feel better with RICE, go see your doctor because something else is going on.

Thank you! Should I gently stretch it?

SHBoss1673

generally, the larger the muscle, the longer the recovery. Quads are rather large muscles and will take time to heal.

Generally, I tell clients to follow the RICE principle as it works for most soft tissue minor injuries (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), give it a good solid week of not working it to hard and if it doesn't feel better with RICE, go see your doctor because something else is going on.

Thank you! Should I gently stretch it?

you can if that makes it feel better. But be gentle about it. Once you feel any pain, back off. Stretching most injuries while still inflamed just adds more inflammation to it, it doesn't help it heal. Usually, give it 3 to 7 days for recovery before stretching. And note the difference from being sore and being painful. being sore is fine, being painful means it's not healed yet enough to work it.

TheNewJessieMae

Thank you so much!!! And this is def not just sore. And that usually subsides in me after a day or so. This is PAIN. UGH really did it this time!!!

TateFTW

SHboss beat me to it. RICE is the way to go. Don't force anything. You're body can fix itself far more effectively then anything you can do. I've been pushing my body hard lately, so I've also increased my awareness of how each muscle feels. Injuries happen. The key is to recover as completely as possible so it's just one injury, and not a string of one after another.