Mid life crisis

[lithanwif]

Okay, so Im old. Just turned forty.

been practising various martial arts for over thirty years. and my flexibility has always been above average ( for a martial artist, not for a civvie ). about four years ago I tore my hamstring quite badly, and as a result I have some fairly nasty scar tissue in there. Kinda slowed me down on the stretching side.

so I've made a decision to go for it. anyone got any good exercises for the scar tissue? Ive been everywhere. Physio, specialists the lot. even explored surgery and cortisone. Decided against it as the specialist advised that I would wipe out any strength in my hamstring getting either done.

Im about four inches from left leg front, six from right, and around six from full. I'm following the Kurtz book to the letter ( did me right last time ).

[Jackamaideshwang]

Excellent, keep asking everywhere for advice or helpful stuff. I know a good forceful massage is good for breaking up scar tissue, it takes a while but seems to work. I had some pretty hardcore adhesions when I broke my arm and since i've started to use the muscles they've reduced. This may be due to increased cellular turn-over or just increased force on the scar tissue to break it down. Find a tennis ball or baseball or something of a tolerable hardness (buy a foam roller if you want) and sit on it moving back and forward in line with the muscle fibres over the scarred site for 10 mins a day.
Some exercises that use the hamstrings are deadlifts and variations, full squats, lunges and pelvic bridges. If you do choose to target the hamstrings in exercises keep them light and build up slowly, I really doubt they would hurt your progress.
There are some needling techniques where procaine is injected into the site followed by a repeated insertion and withdrawl of a needle. Phyiotherapy afterwards may assist the procedure.
Vitamin E and biotin is meant to be good for treating scar tissue, although I think greatest effectiveness is achieved through topical application. You could still give it a go, almonds and avocadoes are some sources of vitamin E, biotin can be found in egg yolks.
Wasn't sure what you knew so I mentioned all that I know about it, hope some of this may help, I'm no specialist.

[Ashtar]

I hate scar tissue. I have an overactive imagination and I picture all this scar tissue being what is causing me pain and limiting stretching. Massage is boring and I don't really feel it, so I really dig the tips of my fingers into my hamstrings until I feel pain, it's fucking awesome.

Also there's foam rollers and stuff, because you can simply apply more force with your whole body than with just your hands.

I checked out some russian martial artists, what they do is have someone kneel on the floor and someone stands behind them on top of their calves, it looks really cool. I imagine you could also have someone walk on your hamstrings, I think they do that in thai massage.

When they do that they have a bar above the table to hang onto for balance, because unlike kneeling you can't hold the patients' shoulders for that.

[-Envy-]

I used cross-fiber friction when I ripped my hamstring and it seemed to help. The idea is to deeply massage the muscle perpendicular to the fiber. It would be best to get it done by a massage therapist or some other professional, but you can do it yourself like I did with pretty good results. The only thing is that I did mine while the tear was still healing as a part of general rehab, so i am not so sure how well it would work in your case.

[Ashtar]

Yeah you need a massage therapist for stuff like your back, but if it's stuff like your leg (you can use 2 hands) or arm (1 arm) you can probably do a lot of stuff yourself. Even if you use a therapist for more advanced stuff, it would always make sense to supplement it with your own work. I think working with your hands like that is probably good for the hands too.

I've done cross-fibre in the midst of all sortso f other ways of jabbing at the muscles (no clue it was called that or better, but I can sorta see why).

It's probably an effective way to stretch fibres on a micro-level. Twisting probably also is (or maybe that's what happens). You can't really pull fibres along their length very effectively (you'd moreso stretch the skin) and normal stretching does this anyway.

Squeezing is good though, as if if you put pressure on 2 points, jab in, and bring it together. I wonder if that'd help with problems with contracting sleeping parts?

[kaptain.kayak]

See if you can find a massage therapist or athletic therapist who does active release therapy (ART).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQlLeTqX18

[ninjitsian]

how about scar tissue in your hip flexors or adductors? those arent really easy to massage

[Ryu Sujin]

Okay, so Im old. Just turned forty.

been practising various martial arts for over thirty years. and my flexibility has always been above average ( for a martial artist, not for a civvie ). about four years ago I tore my hamstring quite badly, and as a result I have some fairly nasty scar tissue in there. Kinda slowed me down on the stretching side.

so I've made a decision to go for it. anyone got any good exercises for the scar tissue? Ive been everywhere. Physio, specialists the lot. even explored surgery and cortisone. Decided against it as the specialist advised that I would wipe out any strength in my hamstring getting either done.

Im about four inches from left leg front, six from right, and around six from full. I'm following the Kurtz book to the letter ( did me right last time ).

I've been in your EXACT predicament. I tore my hamstring 4 years ago. I was on a beach just tossing some tricks (without warming up properly, unfortunately) and bamf. Did a 540 crescent and it just happened, which was very odd because I had splits at the time. Worst feeling EVER. A testament to the benefits of warming up properly!

Anyway, like you, I visited the physiotherapist and had ultrasound done and had certain ridiculous exercises recommended to me. Honestly, it didn't do shit. Over the course of months going for the physio it wasn't helping at all. So I thought "Eh...I'll try lightly stretching it and see if I can work up from there!", since clearly sitting around waiting for it to heal was NOT working.

The first few weeks are pretty bad. Your ROM is shit and it hurts to even stretch it a little. Stick with it though and go slow. After about 3-4 weeks I saw a noticeable increase in how far I could stretch. I was improving! I know you can too. Your muscles are going to respond in the same way to stretch whether you're 15 or 40. Just the rate at which you heal will be different. Eat well and stretch 4-5 times a week. I'm speaking from experience here, not from "Oh...well this sounds like it works in theory..."

I've recovered full range of motion in all my kicks and my static flexibility is great. Honestly, as for specific stretches, just do the ones you were doing before you were injured. These were the ones I used though:

http://www.trickstutorials.com/images/s22.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/ergonomics/1/5/i/-/-/-/4.jpg
http://www.trickstutorials.com/images/i3.jpg
http://www.intensepersonaltraining.com/content/1138983077.gif

Work your way slowly up to being able to stretch further and further. With torn muscles, it sucks. A lot. But you can eventually recover. To give you a basis for time, if you're serious about recovering your old flexibility (i.e. keep to a routine and eat well), you're looking at about 4-5 months. It took me from July to November of 2005 to become nearly 100%. I don't have much else to say now other than good luck :juji:

[Ashtar]

Nice bump Kayak. Hm... Ryu in your pic isn`t that fat guy rounding his lower back a lot... guy on the bottom seems to be the straightest. I think it`s okay how Juji rounds since his arms are supporting his torso so it`s not like the lower back is bearing weight while rounded. The top side stretching might be problem though.