I shall overcome

As you all may or may not know, I have been fighting an injury off and on for the past five-ish months. I believe it all started when I decided to go to a 6AM cycling class with a friend from my OT cohort. I was stoked about the class. It was my second time attending and I felt really accomplished after the first class. It was tough and I had been able to persevere through the sweat and fatigue. I was excited for that feeling again. The class went great. Again, I had a feeling of accomplishment. BUT, hard workouts like that make almost anyone feel tight from the prolonged contraction and release cycles. So, when the cycling instructor announced that there would be a yoga class directly following, I was stoked! My friend agreed to join, wanting to get a good stretch too. This, I believe, was my mistake.

As you may also know, I am driven. I don't like to be unsuccessful at something. You can see why group classes can be harmful to me. I get in a mindset where I don't feel pain like I would if I were by myself. I don't consciously do it. But I am so focused on doing the exercises with the correct form and moving in rhythm with the instructor that there isn't much mental energy left to think about other stuff. At least that's my theory.

So, I went to two classes in a row. I felt fine. Maybe a little sore, but mostly fine. About a week later, I noticed a feeling of pressure in the back of my left knee. I didn't think much of it. There wasn't any pain. It couldn't be serious, right?

Well, here I am five months later, fighting the problem for the fourth or fifth time. At first, I had absolutely no idea what it could be. I honestly thought those two exercise classes had nothing to do with it because they'd happened a week before my first symptom. But after researching and questioning and paying attention to every little pinch of pain, I have realized several things.

1.) Work provokes my symptoms. If I work a few days in a row, I notice more tightness in my leg. While at work, I often feel what I would describe as a pinching pain on the lateral side of my knee. Sometimes, the pain becomes less localized.

2.) The swelling and/or pressure is always on the back side of my knee.

3.) I have discomfort at the very top of my thigh. Although the lateral side of my knee bothers me the most, when I was getting my ultrasound done, the medial side felt just as bad where the technician was rubbing it so much.

This is a picture of the hamstring, which is actually three different muscles: the semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and the biceps femoris.

As you can clearly see from the photo, this set of muscles attached on both sides of the knee. Also, just to be completely clear, this is a view of the back of the leg. From the research I've done and help I've gotten from friends (particularly Mr. Cecil), I have determined that I have hamstring tendinitis (probably, more technically, tendinosis). It occurs as a result of overuse of the hamstrings.

Now that I am pretty positive I know what the injury is, I really really really hope that I can heal this puppy on my own. That's my main goal for the first quarter of 2015. I want to rid myself of this issue once and for all if I can and educate myself on how to prevent it in the future. Lots of ice, simple strengthening exercises, elevation, compression, and rest is coming in the days ahead.

Now that I've bored you all to death... I just want to say please keep my sanity in your thoughts as I try to not do much of anything and hopefully get my leg healthy again. Another thing: it is never worth to over do exercise. Not even once. I've learned this lesson the hard way.

Until next time,