[S]he Conquers Who Endures

Is the bikram helping your hammie? Mine has been giving me problems for about 9 months now. I'll try anything.

Well, let me preface that I don't think I have a very severe hammie injury. I was just injured in July with a different injury that sidelined me, so I'm overly cautious right now. Plus, that previous injury forced me to change my gait (to push off with my glutes more), which may be causing me growing pains. With that being said, deep tissue, obsessive stretching, using the trigger point ball, and icing 20 mins on/off at night has helped.

Have you had deep tissue? I had a great therapist before I moved, who would break up adhesions in my glutes. It's soooo painful but actually increased my range of motion while running. I haven't been able to find a great massage therapist since I moved, so I've been relying more on my trigger point ball and foam rolling to work out my hammie throughout the week. I get the deepest massage if I put the trigger point ball on a high chair (non padded) and sit my hammie on it (the chair should be high enough that your leg is dangling) and massage in all different directions. I try to hit the attachment point as well. You can work the ball where you straight your leg and flex it to target specific spots more precisely. This does make me nervous though, because I'm sure all this grinding is probably not good if you have a more serious issue like a tear.

Stretching a ton after every run seems to help as well. My massage therapist said that tightness in a muscle usually stems from tightness in it's attachment point, so a straight-up hammie stretch might just be chasing an issue. You could try different stretches to figure out where that pull is coming from.

So...Bikram does help release muscle tightness in your entire body and helps assess what areas are tighter than others. If you have a specific issue, I think your time would be better invested in focusing on stretching, ice, and massage of that area. Bikram is 1.5 h which can be a time commitment, however, it may be worth going to a session to evaluate where you are tight. Maybe you have tightness in another area that ties into your hammie problem?

Another thing I suggest is gait analysis. This saved my knee (previous injury) and has actually made me a lot faster by minimizing inefficiencies.

Hope this helps! I am not a super experienced runner compared to others on this blog, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt!!

Also, if you try Bikram, I recommend bringing water that is jacked up (recommended dose) with Nuun. You will sweat a ton, and the salt will prevent you from being super tired after and feeling like you have to "recover" from Bikram.

Wow, thank you for your reply. I think I have been far too lazy dealing with this issue and I need to start focusing on some of the things you mentioned (stretching, massage, ice). I haven't had a deep tissue massage yet, but that is a great idea. I have also been having tightness in my lower back muscles which might be related. I was stretching a lot a few months ago, but it never seemed to help, but you had a great point that I need to do multiple stretches to see if there is one that would help. All great points to consider and thanks for the reply!I think I'll break out my trigger point ball tonight.

Oh, and stick with stretching! I didn't start notice ANY difference until 2 weeks of being consistent, then I noticed additional benefits from 2-4 weeks of stretching, then it seemed to level off from there. :)

I read your blog. With all those hills, no wonder your hammie is angry with you!

Hey I stretched a lot last night and on my run this morning I didn't feel a thing in that hammy. Hmmm.

Ha! That's great!! It's truly bittersweet when one simple thing eliminates a pain that has been hanging around for months! I just had deep tissue massage last night and the therapist found an adhesion on mine!! He worked on it while I was wrenching off the table and now my hammy feels soooo much better. Gonna test it out tonight in a track workout. :)

I'm also going to get a deep tissue massage because I think there is something in there that needs to be worked out, but I'll kleep stretching for sure. Thanks for the tips.