The horrible hamstring

I went to gymnastics and ate about a trillion fruits and vegetables yesterday (all right... 7 or 8). After weeks of treating my horrible hamstring with a home ultrasound unit and stretching it and working it, it is also getting better (again). Hurray!

I'm becoming convinced that strength work is the key to mending a torn muscle. Not only that, but it's good for pain control. A set of hamstring curls on the stability ball seems to reset things: no, stupid muscle, THIS is what hurts... not walking. See? Self-myofascial release on the foam roller also is good. Despite gains in functionality, though, it's hard to tell when I'm working it too hard. I think I did so last night. Stupid cartwheels.

Most people have a bad strength imbalance between quads and hamstrings, increasing the odds of hamstring injury. A study in the latest Men's Health recommends doing twice as many sets of hamstring work as quad/glute work, or at least says that men who did this for 6 weeks basically evened out the strength imbalance. I've been switching up my lower-body workouts a lot lately, and wow, it's kind of hard to do even an equal number. :-/

What I actually want people to say about me when I'm dead

"Huh. That was smoothly done, under the circumstances."

Funny the things you think of while standing in line to buy coffee.