Hamstring Strain - Skiing?

Wondering if anyone has experience skiing with a hamstring strain? I suspect that moderate skiing won't bother it at all, but figured I'd solicit insight from anyone who has been there before?

I pulled it after tripping on a root during a run on Saturday....nothing crazy. Felt like a sudden cramp/tightening when it happened, and just walked back tot he car. No limping or swelling or anything like that - just feels like I cannot/should not run. Feels tight and sensitive, but no pain. I'm hoping it's only a week or so out of commission, if anything. Not like I'd be missing too much in UT right now anyways.

I've been in a similar situation. My hips/biomechanics are jacked though, so it took the hamstring longer than I'd hoped to heal because I stand/walk in a way that didn't let it rest. And I wanted to ski, which didn't have me hurting like crazy but also didn't really let the hamstring recover. Anyway, my tips are:

- don't jump into tissue work (massage, dry needling/acupuncture, etc) too soon. The injury needs time to heal. But this is super awesome to do in a few weeks. I made the mistake of skiing and doing tissue work to help the pain. Not the move.
- isometric loading helps a lot. It may hurt a little at first, but quickly start to feel stronger. My favorite is laying on your back with both feet on the wall (knees at a 90deg angle) and then lift your pelvis up and slowly transfer weight to your injured leg. (Socks don't work well because you need friction between your feet and the wall). I'd start this 3-4 days after the injury (assuming you're pain free at rest).
- after isometrics, start with eccentrics. You can do eccentric bridges where you go up with both legs and then down with one. Bridge can get surprisingly hard when you walk your feet out away from your body.
- then start adding in regular bridge. Progress to deadlifts, etc.

My personal rule of thumbs for injuries are:
- When you can do normal gym exercises (deadlift, etc) pain free, then you're ready to ski easy.
- When both legs are equally strong in the gym (and pain free), then you're ready to ski hard.

But sometimes you just have to give skiing a shot and see how it goes. Personally, I would at least wait until I could do isometric exercises pain free before trying to ski.

Hope this helps?

Hamstrings are not used much in skiing, so try it

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