Injury-- the muscle knot from hell

Onlyethic · Post by **Onlyethic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:43 am

About 3 weeks ago I was running at night and slammed into a thigh-high concrete cylinder designed to keep cars off the pavement.

I fell and after a few seconds could get up. I limped over to kung fu class (which I was warming up for) and managed to get through the class.

At this point, I have no functional problems. My leg (the thigh area on the outside (i.e. most of my quadricep)) was badly bruised. But since then I've had no pain or discomfort when doing exercise or walking.

The one time I do have pain is when I apply direct pressure to an area slightly above and laterally outward of my knee. A light, direct touch (such as when I rest my forearms or elbow on my thighs) produces some serious pain. Yesterday, I laid down on the hamstring curl machine and started the first rep which was really painful, on account of the contact of the bench with the muscle.

Do you think this is just a muscle 'knot'-- i.e. a bruised head? I know it's extremely difficult to comment on something like this online but I thought I'd get some preliminary guesses before subjecting myself to the doc.

thanks

recmatt · Post by **recmatt** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:17 am

Hi Onlyethic, I could be wrong but it sounds like you have a corked thigh and/or a muscle tear with a build up of scar tissue. You should have it checked out. I've seen it before in my work with Australian football players who have received heavy contact during a game. If untreated the muscle can become tight and a little sensitive. If you have a high pain threshold the scar tissue can be massaged out over a few sessions or can be treated by a physiotherapist or sports medicine doctor. You should really have iced the injury immediately after.

Onlyethic · Post by **Onlyethic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:37 am

Thank you recmatt,

'tight and sensitive' are exactly the words I'd used to describe this. The tightness extends to the muscles around my knee.

I knew I should have just opted out of class after the injury and spent it with a bag of ice. Never seem to learn.

anyways, thanks for the post.

caangelxox · Post by **caangelxox** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:12 pm

Try foam rolling... I know that gets rid of knotts, tension, and scar tissues if that is what you have. If it is a bruised bone or anything to do with bruising, do not use the foam roller.

If you use the foam roller, stay on the spot that has pain until it is gone or at least 50% gone, and then make your way down the muscle. The easiest muscles for me to foam roll is the quads. It also feels good when the tension is all gone. I had huge knotts in my quads or scar tissues (not sure what the feel difference between both are...it hurt..thats all I will say) and they are pretty much gone now. It takes a few rolling sessions to get rid of it. If there is no pain, you can foam roll back and forth for about 10 times or so. When you roll to see if there is pain, roll the foam roller down after every one second and then stop for about 30-45 seconds (do not forget to breathe) on the tight area until the pain is about 50-75% or fully gone if you have the time to waste depending on how tight it is, and then slightly move the foam roller some more.

if you are new to foam rolling, try your quadriceps first (easiest to do) and start up where the hip flexors are and make your way down to where the knee is (do not foam roll over your knee). If you have any pain (tension, knotts, scar tissues), it will probably really hurt your first time doing it. The more you do it, the less pain there is.

=)