United Kingdom Kettlebell Union

So you have injured a muscle belly, commonly know as a muscular strain, the evidence will be quite clear, pain and bleeding followed by a bruise. So what do you do, RICE.

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

So where do you go from there, how do you rehab it. Well lets try this old and tested method. We work it to stop the formation of the dreaded scar tissue. We do this by beggining to exercise the area after the initial 72 hours are over, the tissue should be knitting and forming scar tissue at this point and the idea is to help the fibres lie down the correct way and minimise the formation of the scar tissue itself, which otherwise would take some painfull deep massage treatment and time off training to rectify.

So you've done a hamstring, we need to pump some blood into the area as well as getting the fibres to work so we start body weight squats. you go as deep as comfortably possible there will be some pain (BUT NOT INJURY TYPE PAIN) you also need to build up some latic acid, the rep range would be 20 to 25 per set and you will need to do 3 sets and you need to do this every day.

As your range of movement and pain tollerance improves you can add some weight but the rep range must remain high, squats and swings would be ideal for the hamstrings.

This protocol can be used on all muscle belly injuries and will help with connective tissue problems as well, just use some common sense regarding the amount of weight used and you will be amased how quite you recover and get back to full training.