So, how do you guys deal with muscle strains while working out? I run five times a day, and every so often (as it did yesterday), something will just sort of twinge down there in my hams or calves and hurt quite a bit from that point on.

It's the kind of thing where I can force myself to keep running for as long as I need to, but after I stop, walking without limping is tricky, and walking down stairs is very very awkward and painful.

In the past, I've generally stopped running for a few days to a week to get the pain to go away, but now that I'm serious about my program I really don't want to do it. Are these fairly minor injuries the kind of things that will get a lot worse if you don't rest them, or can I "play through the pain" without calling down further injury upon myself?

At least for me, I know that if I don't rest even a minor injury, it will NEVER heal, especially if I continue doing the activity that caused it in the first place.

It's getting worse as I age (39 now). I got a slight tweak in my left hamstring playing softball a few weeks ago. Not even bad enough to notice WHILE playing, but somewhat sore afterwards. I skipped my bike ride the next day, and took off the lower body weightlifting for one workout. By then the pain was completely gone.

Two weeks after the original injury (we had a rainout the following week), I took off from second base and the same hamstring popped badly, bad enough that I had an immediate severe limp and could not continue playing (I DID score, however :rolleyes:)

Now, two weeks later and it's still sore. That's with constant compression and heat applications, ibuprofin, etc. I have no idea how much longer it will take.

When I was younger (say teens and early twenties), I would simply "play through the pain", and minor injuries would go away. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do in the long term, and I wouldn't suggest it.

I understand the reluctance to rest an injury, it seems like you will stall your progress. However, if you keep hurting yourself in the same way, maybe there's something wrong with the way you are performing the activity, maybe you need different shoes, etc.

Make sure you are adequately warming up with your running and stretching afterwards. Don't stretch your muscles while they're cold.

If you don't mind me asking why are you running five times a day and how long are these sessions? You could be setting yourself up for injury if you're running too much.

Make sure you have good shoes.

ya, there was a special on the discovery channel about the hazards pf stretching before exercise. Make sure to warm up for at least 5 minutes or until you start to break a sweat before stretching of any kind.

Make sure you are adequately warming up with your running and stretching afterwards. Don't stretch your muscles while they're cold.

If you don't mind me asking why are you running five times a day and how long are these sessions? You could be setting yourself up for injury if you're running too much.

Make sure you have good shoes.

Hahaha. No, that was a typo. It would be ridiculous if I ran five times a day. I would be courting disaster if I did that!

No, I run five times a week, which is much more reasonable.