These muscles are tight
Jun. 2nd, 2026 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mildred_of_midgardSide note: I tried stretching my hamstring, or rather what I think might be the bottom of my gluteus maximus over the thigh, last night, and I did notice less pain this morning. It came back over the course of the day, naturally, and I have to be careful about not overdoing the stretch, because it rotates and thereby strains the injured knee. (Stretching my glutes is how my very first knee pain came about; I think that probably weakened the knees and made them injury-prone afterwards.) But it is good to know that that stretch might help. Anything that isn't "It hurts and we don't know why or how to make it stop" is good!
I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that I have two extremely tight muscles on the back of my left thigh: a tight hamstring in the center that responds to massage but hasn't fully healed, and a tight lower gluteus maximus that doesn't respond to massage but may respond to a stretch that targets that spot. Unfortunately, there are only two types of stretches for that spot: there are about 8 stretches that involve twisting the knee, and one downward dog that messes up my back (or at least I can't figure out how to do it without messing up my back). So I haven't been able to do any stretch long enough to seriously attack that spot. But even the prospect of a little, occasional pain relief is good.
I also just have more confidence now that pushing through pain isn't going to disable me. Tight muscles are the least worrisome type of injury I get. I had tight foot muscles for 10 years and once I found the right solution (sleep posture), they got better, no lingering pain.
I also wonder if the tight gluteus maximus is pulling on the end of the hamstring and making it hard for the middle part to loosen up. We'll see. I'm going to focus on stabilizing my knee, with occasional hamstring massage with the massage gun, and then see about glute stretches.
Oh, knee update: it's been mostly okay but occasionally twinging lately, and this morning it twinged (as expected after the stretching I put it through last night) at the beginning of the run, but settled down after about a quarter mile and then didn't bother me again for the rest of the run.
I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that I have two extremely tight muscles on the back of my left thigh: a tight hamstring in the center that responds to massage but hasn't fully healed, and a tight lower gluteus maximus that doesn't respond to massage but may respond to a stretch that targets that spot. Unfortunately, there are only two types of stretches for that spot: there are about 8 stretches that involve twisting the knee, and one downward dog that messes up my back (or at least I can't figure out how to do it without messing up my back). So I haven't been able to do any stretch long enough to seriously attack that spot. But even the prospect of a little, occasional pain relief is good.
I also just have more confidence now that pushing through pain isn't going to disable me. Tight muscles are the least worrisome type of injury I get. I had tight foot muscles for 10 years and once I found the right solution (sleep posture), they got better, no lingering pain.
I also wonder if the tight gluteus maximus is pulling on the end of the hamstring and making it hard for the middle part to loosen up. We'll see. I'm going to focus on stabilizing my knee, with occasional hamstring massage with the massage gun, and then see about glute stretches.
Oh, knee update: it's been mostly okay but occasionally twinging lately, and this morning it twinged (as expected after the stretching I put it through last night) at the beginning of the run, but settled down after about a quarter mile and then didn't bother me again for the rest of the run.
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