While dead lifting during week 6 of the bridge (day 3 specifically), on my first back down set I felt a pop in my hamstring.
I was able to the finish the rep and I put the weight down to evaluate. I did some air squats and air dead Lifts with some discomfort, and worked my way back up to 185 off the floor with the same discomfort. (I had injured it at 425).
After 3 or 4 sets of 185, I dropped down to 135 and was able to do those mostly indefinitely without any pain. I was also able to squat the bar without any pain. Oddly enough, walking seems to hurt more than any of the movements. I am no doctor, but based on how I feel and the definitions I’ve read, sounds like a grade 1.5 (if such a thing exists).
So, my question, am I pushing my luck to try to finish the day 3 workout tomorrow with reduced weight? When there is an acute hamstring injury like this, does the same “Keep it moving and do what you can without pain” apply? Or should I take some time just air dead lifting/air squatting until my pain is totally gone?
Hey Sephir, the answer here is contingent upon your symptoms. If you felt a “pop” there is a decent probability you did have a hamstring strain. Once you are asymptomatic with walking there is no contraindication for training but I would caveat a few things. You can think of a strain as a really big episode of DOMS (it really is just the magnitude of damage in the tissue but there is not real correlation with amount of damage and symptoms or limitations to activity).
What I would recommend is you are okay to train with two limitations 1) I would run your sets as tempo instead of full speed at strains tend to tolerate slow, graded movements much better 2) if we’re going to go by the letter of the research and you have access to a GHD or power rack to hold you ankles down I would start running some sets of Nordic hamstring curls as a supplemental exercise. The latter has been shown to decrease the risk of reinjury and tend to be the “gold standard” for risk reduction. I typically start out my athletes with hamstring strains at 3 sets of 6.