Help! Injured quadriceps/ vastus lateralis?

[HathcockProtege]

Went ice skating three weeks ago today. Suffice to say, I skate hard. Felt great afterwards but my knee started swelling the next day. Within 4 days my vastus lateralis (I think...? Outside of quad muscle group) was swollen to 5x normal size right above my knee and I lost the mobility necessary to touch my heel to butt. Mobility has started to return after lots of quad stretches, but I am not sure if/when I should return to my normal running routine.

I run an uphill 3 mile 3 or 4 times a week plus one 7-9 mile each week. I am a "barefoot" runner. Ran the three mile (in 25 minutes...cringe) one week ago and did not feel much worse afterward, but I was pretty stiff the next day. Do you runners think it wise to return to my routine soon or wait to completely regain full flexibility and for the pain/swelling to completely abate?

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[anthony_se]

Re: Help! Injured quadriceps/ vastus lateralis?

well, I expect how soon you return to running will depend upon how long it takes for you to recover, as well as how vulnerable to future injury you want to be. The one running injury - a blown out left hamstring set, complete with hematoma - I had many years ago, when I sought treatment and allowed it completely to heal, never again affected my running. In fact, that following October I set a PR for the 50 mile distance in 7:42+

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to trying to train while injured, however, so YMMV. I'm certainly no expert, but I expect others more knowledgeable than I will show up here to offer their views. Good luck, sir

 

[Valyndiir]

Re: Help! Injured quadriceps/ vastus lateralis?

My recommendation, on any injury, is to ice the area for 10 minutes every hour for 3-6 hours, the more you do this the faster the area repairs itself and the pain will be significantly less. Our brains react to the localized cold spot by sending blood and all of its healing ability to the area in order to warm it. You should be able to return to running when the pain is gone or close to. However, be aware that skating is similar to doing one-legged squats. Speed skater squats or ice skater squat would be the name of the exercise and you will find it is part of various regimens such as P90X. If you don't train for this type of movement, obviously you are going to encounter some pain in a couple of days. In your case you probably had not performed this movement in awhile and pushed your vascular muscles a bit too hard. Swelling of this nature is not unheard of and I have myself experienced a similar problem doing hack squats. My quads were swollen to the point I could not flex them at all and simply standing was dangerous. If I leaned back at all I would fall backwards like someone had pulled a chair out from under me. It was that bad. From there on I was much more careful about how many I did.

I can't answer any questions on your knee as I have never had any problems with my joints so far. As far as flexibility is concerned, it is well known that a cold muscle is not as flexible as a hot one. Try running a little bit to warm up the area in question and then do the normal 30-second stretching routine. If you are experiencing tightness or pulling of the fibers, watch out, you can end up tearing things, do something low-impact like two-legged free standing squats with just your body weight and then stretch.

 

[Spazz.]

Re: Help! Injured quadriceps/ vastus lateralis?

I have no professional advice for you, but my recommendation would be to quit running and just walk until you're totally healed up. If you can run without pain in the muscle, then you may be fine. Otherwise, if you're having pain after running you should back off. I've 'tenderized' my groin during a workout before and experienced a bit of pain for around a week afterward. As a barefooter myself, I backed off until it quit hurting, then went back to full throttle. I haven't had any issues with re-injury.

Keep your activity level up, but don't do anything strenuous. Oh, and see a doctor. They know what's up with that stuff.