Imbalance in strength

[elskbrev]

I recently injured the hamstring on my weaker side. I understand I need to get serious about doing 50% more reps on the weaker hamstrings to catch them up to my stronger side, which is what I wasn't doing, but should have been, but is it ok to continue working quads and the uninjured hamstring, even though the continuing (or worsening) imbalance in strength between left and right and between quads and hamstrings may further predispose me to injury when I return to normal activity? Should I just let everything rest and resume working out when my torn hamstring has healed?

I am concentrating on upper body and core work for now, and getting worried about losing aerobic capacity. Any comments on what works and what doesn't would be appreciated.

Best regards,
Cindy

[Thomas Kurz]

First you should find out why you have a strength imbalance. If you don't know the cause you may be hurting the muscles you try to "bring up" to the strength level of your stronger side. Their weakness may be a result of a structural or functional imbalance elswhere--in other muscles, bone alignment, CNS activity, etc. Find the root cause and you will solve the problem permanently.

See a good deep-tissue massage specialist, or a good chiropractor, or a really good PT who does deep-tissue work. They may speed-up healing, reduce size of the scar, and tell you when you can do what exercises so you won't reinjure the hamstring. They may also find the cause of the strength imbalance.

In your situation I would let everything rest--maybe with exception of such exercises that do not involve your thighs--until the hamstring is healed. Doing otherwise will leave you with neither a well-healed and rehabbed hamstring nor much overall fitness.

[Thomas Kurz]

I recently injured the hamstring on my weaker side. I understand I need to get serious about doing 50% more reps on the weaker hamstrings to catch them up to my stronger side

My weaker side determines the number of reps I do. Most of the time--not always--my weaker side determines the resistance too.