[cheque]

I’ve strained something in my left quad.  This suggests it’s the Vastus Medialis muscle, at the bottom, just above where it joins the knee.

I think I must have done the initial damage squatting the Tuesday before last as I could “feel it” a little when deadlifting the Thursday after that but it was bogtrotting across Bleaklow last Saturday that I first experienced proper pain from it- did a kind of twisting step up on very uneven ground and got a surprisingly sharp crampy pain.

After that it was painful at the point of my leg locking straight as I stepped up on it for the rest of the afternoon. It hasn’t been noticeable at all since then (no stairs in our ground floor flat which helps)- I’ve laid off all lower body exercise and the only time I’ve been able to “feel it” at all has been when changing gears in the car so I thought it was fine and I’d possibly be back on the squats again on Tuesday.

Unfortunately scrambling about on Stanage Christmas morning I realised that it’s still quite easy to make it actually hurt, by standing up and pushing forwards on that leg at the same time. Definitely not pleasant and felt like I’d probably set it back again.

Having never hurt my quad before I’ve no idea what I do to sort it out. Can anyone on here help me? Do I just rest it and not do anything that makes it hurt until it’s better or is there any treatment I should be doing? Doctor Google’s on about stuff that sounds way more serious that mine (ie, swelling, redness, not being able to bend your knee) so not sure if any of the advice it gives is relevant.

Cheers 

[mrjonathanr]

I’ve injured lots of things, unfortunately. My usual response is to find out what it is pdq, follow the strengthening exercises recommended by a physio as far as the injury will allow and rest from climbing/ similar stressors for about 3 weeks which is the period when collagen repair is most active to avoid damaging it further. Obviously, every injury, like every body, is different, which is why I’d go to a physio every time something was more than a twinge for a few days.

Hope it settles soon.

[duncan]

After the first couple of days, soft tissues respond (heal) better with the appropriate amount of mechanical stress rather than complete rest. Often the therapeutic exercise will be a very gentle version of the one that injured you in the first place. Finding the Goldilocks amount sometimes takes a bit of trial and error.