Old torn hamstring injury

[sting68]

I tore my hamstring 6 months ago... strangely, it was not painful at all, just very swollen and I couldn't straighten my leg. I took a course of anti-inflamatories and physio and got the swelling down.

The problem is that in the past month I've began climbing mountains again - a 9 hour to 12 hour day is common with 3000 feet of gain - and the swelling around the knee is returning slightly - much, much less swelling- it's hardly noticable - when I straighten my leg, there's normally a little divot on the outside of the kneecap, but on the injured leg this divot is about half filled with fluid... otherwise the knee looks normal. I also have a small bulge in the inner back of my leg again where the original tear was, so maybe I've retorn is slightly? Even with this, I CAN straighten my leg completely and walk without pain and without a limp. However it gets a bit tight once in a while, so I stretch.

I'm concerned about it, but I can't put off my life forever! And in one week I'm supposed to go on a 47km backpack trip over 4 days. This will not involve the massive elevation gain of my other activities which aggravated the hamstring, but about 12km of walking with a backpack every day?

2 questions:

Since I can walk normal and have no pain, what should I do to get my knee so that it will not swell (or re-tear if that is what has happened) after mountain climbing?

Should I go on this backpack trip?

Parry

[Canuck Physio]

You may want to consider external support, although not ideal for long term it is often useful in acute return to high level activity. Ideally you would have wanted to slowly acclimate to normal training as it appears there is still residual scarring/tearing in that region.

[Yarok]

Hi

I would reccomend, a good warm up, followed by stretching, alongside walking should perform concentric and eccentric strengthening exercises as well as cold compress afterwards.

hope help
all the best