It seems to work for me. Six years ago I had a pretty serious hamstring injury in the Twin Cities Marathon and had to walk to the finish from mile 10. Healing and recovery took months, confounded and NOT shortened by professional physical therapy. In theory, that injury makes me a little more susceptible to a repeat injury. Since then though, whenever I feel any ache in that muscle, I do my butt-kicks, like this: Stand still, kick one heel up behind about as far as it will go, do this 70 times rapidly, then do 70 more with the other foot. It really does seem to help with my particular injury, no guarantees for anyone else. I do these after running, not before, and (when I remember) also on days that I don’t run.
I have a theory that the butt-kicks might help in two ways. First, they run the hamstrings through almost their entire range of motion, stretching the muscles fully and, especially, contracting them fully. Could this somehow help those muscles remember how they are really supposed to work after they have endured thousands of repeats over a very narrow part of their range? Second, it most certainly it builds the hamstring muscles in a way that running doesn’t. A personal trainer may say that it’s not be the best way to do that, but it will have some effect.
For what it’s worth.
Today’s run was four miles on the upstairs track in the community center. No problems, no pains.
Splits: 9:17, 8:51, 8:55, 8:53, total 35:55, pace 8:59. Nice run.
Thursday, January 28:
Four miles in the Stillwater Bubble. Actually, 40 minutes at a pace that presumably was faster than 10 minutes per mile. I timed one lap in the third mile and it came out to a pace of 9:30, so I’m sure the distance was at least four miles.
Several other runners in the bubble today, and lots of walkers. The runners were mostly in pairs, and all of them were faster than me. And younger, of course.
No problems, no pains. Long run next week.
Salad as dinner. Mostly organic. Is that bison or is it beef? I don't remember - this photo is from almost six weeks ago.
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