VERY Local Thigh Injury!

[Vicky N]

Hello!

I am just wondering if you could advise on a particuarly interesting injury I recieved on Tuesday.

On Tuesdays Taekwondo sessino (which involved a large amount of above head-height kicking and very fast knee raises at shoulder height), I think I strained the inner quad muscle of my right thigh.

It is very tender indeed along my inner thigh from about half way up, where the pain runs up the leg as you push it, and then slightly out to the front when you get to the top of the leg.


What is particularly interesting is how and when it hurts. I had a go at training last night, and I was able to swing my leg out to the side and back in with hardly any discomfort at all. However, even lifting my leg to walk up stairs, raising my leg slightly off a chair when sitting down, or bending my knee to pull my foot to my backside causes immense sharp pain. Walking is mostly ok (though feels very tight), but using my legs to sit down or get back up is also sore.

Is there anything I can do to help it heal more quickly? So far I have been putting heat packs on it, deep heat and trying to bend and lift my leg every now and then whilst at the office to help blood get to it, but thus far not a lot has improved!

Any advice at all would be exceedingly useful - even just learning a little more about it would be interesting as the extent of the localised pain is really odd!

Very many thanks!

Vicky

[Heidi]

It does sound like a quad strain. The pains you describe are common with injury to this muscle group. The reason it doesn't hurt on swinging your leg to the side is that this is using the abductors (outer thigh and bum) and hip flexors (stretching groin and hamstrings). Not the quad muscles which with the exception of rectus femoris, only act to extend the knee joint. This is why there is pain when you sit down, because the quads are controlling the bend of the knee (an eccentric lengthening contraction which are more painful in injury).

To be honest when you first did the injury and over the first 3 days you should have been icing it rather than heating it. Heat increases blood flow to the area when there may be minor internal bleeding. Ice is better as reducing swelling and bleeding. Heat should only be used after this first period.

From now on, if it is just a muscle tear you need to be gently stretching it by laying on the floor and bringing the ankle towards the bum. This shouldn't be painful. Mild discomfort is ok but it should mostly just be a stretching feeling. Hold for 20 s at a time.

Massage is great gor muscle tears to relax the muscle fibres and break down any developing scar tissue.
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/frontthigh/quadstrain.htm

[Vicky N]

Dear Heidi,

Thank you very much for this advice - it is gratefully accepted!

I had no idea that cold therapy should have been used for such an injury. As a rule of thumb for our club, we seem to always treat impact injuries (such as kicks to elbows) etc. with deep freeze and ice, and pulled ligaments and muscles with deep heat and heat packs. Now I know, I will pass this information on and treat our club members accordingly!

I will start stretching exercises when I get home, so hopefully that will help a lot too.

Thanks as well for explaining how the various muscles work in the legs - I do find this subject fascinating. Even though i am an environmental scientist by trade, I would love to take up some sort of physio/sports science course one day, particularly since I am in a high-impact sport I think it would be useful to know more about what is going on and why!

Take good care!

Warm regards

Vicky