A deep dive on what to do immediately after you pull a muscle
You were probably running really fast. Maybe even faster than you’ve ever ran before.
Then… “Pop!”
Your muscle hurts. You feel weak.
You pulled a muscle. Here’s what you should do in the next 72 hours.
1) Take a deep breath and relax for the day.
You just got hurt. That sucks. Go do something that doesn’t suck.
Try to relax as much as humanly possibly. This isn’t just a mental health tip, but a hack for healing faster.
When you’re stressed and active, you’re tapped into your sympathetic nervous system. That’s our “fight and flight” system. It dumps adrenaline into your blood stream, shuts down digestion, and ramps up your heart rate.
That’s great for running away from a lion or jumping absurdly high for a block on game day, but it’s no bueno for healing after an injury.
When you’re relaxed and zen, you’re tapped into your parasympathetic nervous system. That’s our “rest and digest” system. It slows your heart rate and ramps up digestion.
That’s what we need if we’re going to break down our food into the nutrients we need and deliver them to the injured muscle.
Aaron Rodgers unknowingly gave us the blueprint for tapping into our parasympathetic nervous system, R-E-L-AX.
The best thing that you can do after you pull a muscle is to do something that really relaxes you. Take a bath. Throw on your favorite movie. Meditate. Pray. Take a nap.
Just get zen.
2) Eat a lot of a high quality food (especially protein)
When you’re injured, your body needs more calories than normal to repair the injured muscle.
So, even though you might be moving less, you probably need to eat more.
Eating garbage isn’t really going to help, though. Fill up on minimally processed foods (but, don’t hesitate to throw in one little sweet comfort treat if it helps you get zen and turn on that parasympathetic nervous system).
Muscles are made of protein, so getting in loads of protein is massively important. Aim on the high end of the recommended 0.55-0.91 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
3) Move as much as you can tolerate without making the pain flare up
Movement is your friend.
There’s plenty of research to tell us that prolonged rest delays the healing process.
Move as much as you can tolerate without making the pain flare up.
Overcoming isometrics are a good tool to use here. You can press into an object as hard as you can with no increase in pain. This allows you to get the muscle to contract, drive some blood flow into the area, tame down some neurological inhibition, and feel confident moving again.
Move as much as you can tolerate, but pushing through significant increases in pain is counterproductive.
4) Compress it when you’re going to be lounging around
If you’re going to be sitting still for awhile (while you sleep, sitting in class, etc.), throwing on a compression sleeve/wrap is a good idea.
The more stationary you are, the more swelling will pool in the area. Some swelling is good, too much is not. Compression helps to keep you in the middle ground.
Some additional common questions…
Should I ice?
I wrote extensively about the research and my thoughts on ice here.
The cliff notes version is: if the pain is really bothering you and you want to use ice, then go for it!
It’s not going to hep you heal faster, but it probably won’t slow down the healing process either.
Should I heat?
Probably not in the first 72 hours.
Later on in rehab, heat can be a great tool. However, in the beginning stages, we don’t want to exacerbate the inflammation/swelling process.
Inflammation is a Goldilocks situations, some is good, but both too much and too little can be problematic.
It’s possible that heat in the early stages could drive too much swelling into the area.
Should I stretch?
My stance on this is no.
A pulled muscle is a muscle with a tear in it. Stretching out a piece of clothing with a tear in it isn’t helpful and that same logic applies here.
While you’re in the early stages, your body is trying to lay down new tissue to mend the tear. Stretching will be beneficial, but we want to wait until the new tissue is laid down before we start tugging on it.
A quick thought on micromanaging your athlete
I had a parent cold call and ask if their college-aged daughter could shadow me for her PT school prerequisites.
Parents, let your kid take the wheel.
Our most successful athletes are almost always the ones who communicate with me directly. They schedule their own sessions in the Portal. They formulate and ask detailed questions on their own.
Please don’t email college coaches on your child’s behalf. Don’t impersonate them on their Twitter account (believe me, coaches can tell when you’re running their account).
If your kid doesn’t want it bad enough to do these things on their own, there’s no way they’ll be able to handle the rigor of college athletics anyways.
Use the athlete development process to help your athlete learn how to transition into adulthood. Let them learn how to communicate, plan, and fail on their own.
They’re going to be uncomfortable. It’s going to be hard to stand back and watch. They’re going to struggle. But, what growth has ever come without struggle?
A couple of important things…
- This newsletter is completely free. I spend many hours each week researching, writing, and illustrating (okay, maybe the drawings don’t take that long). The best way you can support it and allow it continue is to share it with people you know. You can just send them to gtperformance.co and they can subscribe there!
- Everything in these newsletters and on our website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice for you or you athlete. Consult directly with a healthcare professional.
Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about athlete development!
Be >,
Zach
Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS