there are many ways that you can use the football practice to help the injury. when you say you have pulled the muscle you really did'nt pull the muscle,you have torn the muscle, when you go to practice allways strech
but during practice find some time to ice the injury, and then after practice use heat. You should use ice for atleast 20 mins,heat 20mins,and then go through some sort of streching.

Blocking the pain out wont help the muscle heal any faster - in fact if you block the pain out and continue to train at the same intensity pre injury, you are likely to slow recovery time and possible increase the severity of injury.

I would reduce the intensity, duration and volume of training. You need to lay off explosive work and multi-directional work and concentrate of proper movement mechanics. Allow the muscle to recover - take a few days off, build up to higher intensity work only when the muscle has fully healed.

If you have torn a muscle, you would not still be training 5x week so probably pulled but not given enough time to heal and recover - you cannot expect a muscle to recover from injury working at the same intensity pre injury. If it still a problem, seek medical advice from physio etc.

Interms of stretching with a pulled muscle, then stretching will aggrevate the muscle further - the muscle is 'pulled' slightly longer hence the pain. You want to allow the muscle to settle back to its existing state. Static stretching prior to football is not advisable anyway with decrease in power production and neuromuscular control of the muscle involved - both essential in control/coordination of movement. Dynamic is more appropriate. Again seek advise from a fitness professional on how to complete this.

With hot and cold treatment, I would personnally use ice/cold immediately after training. The muscle and surrounding tissue will inflame to reduce ROM to avoid further aggrevation. Ice reduces the effect of inflammation and also has an analgesic effect. It helps reduces sensitivity ofthe iced area so reduce pain sensation.

Allow heat treatment later on in the rehab phase away from training sessions. This will bring vital nutrients to the injury and flush scare tissue and unwanted waste products. There is a technique of contrast bathing where you apply heat and cold alternatively. This stimulates blood flow to the area for the reason stated above. Application of cold will reduce any inflammation with another bout of heat washing waste products away. I have not got the recommended times/method for this with me as working away from home this week but can dig it out for you when I return next week - send me a personal message to remind me

Hope this helps

Thanks for all your advice, but i think todays practice loosened it up wen we did a 2 mile warmup jog, lol although now im feeling a slight burning feeling in the front of my other leg. Heh here we go again...

Ok i am a freshman girl on the track team and I tore or pulled my quad muscle, but what do i entail to do to let it treat within 4 days. I am a sprinter and pullover in track and my troop is really depending on me to do the hurdles and 4X8, and Sprinting and Jumping need sprinting demonstrably but they cause me some aching. I've tried those michael jordan heat patch things and tape them and they have seem to kinda make it better but not a undamaged lot. My very first track stumble upon is Monday 4-9-07, and then i enjoy one the day after..if you enjoy any advise on how to alleviate a quad in 4 days would you please reply? thank you
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Answers:
Just stay past its sell-by date of it as much as you can until then and verbs with the roast therapy. Buy a heat pad or an electric blanket and wrap your leg surrounded by that. Do some light quad stretches to hang on to it loose. I'm sure you know some stretches being that you are a runner. It probably won't restore to health in four days, but i.e. all you can do.

If the quad muscle is torn, do I need a surgery or it will heal slowly? I am not sure if it is torn though. Maybe just pulled. I can walk with a little pain, but wehn I bend my knees it hurts.

Hi. I am wondering if i pulled my quad or tore it. I play soccer so i use my legs alot. I feel a sharp pain in my quad muscle, and it hurts when i kick the ball. Sometimes if I play on it long it hurts when i start running. I actually pulled it about 3 years ago and i felt the same pain, but this time it's worse. I have a big important game coming up and want to know what i can do. I whent to PT the last time i pulled it and they gave me some excercises to do, but they only help a little bit. The pain is in the same place from the last time,my left quad. How do i know if it tore it or pulled it??? Is there any exercises or thing i can do? Any advice is greatly apreacitiated.
-Matthew

Hello, about 2 months ago I was doing front pullups (Front Chins)and I either pulled or tore a muscle in my right armpit area which made it painful to do any of the other variations of pullups as well. I've laid off training my back for 2 months and even after 2 months of rest the injured area still hurts! I've had this injury before and usually I would lay off training for 2 months and that would usually be enough time for a full recovery, but not this time! It seems as though my body is telling me that 2 months is not enough for a full recovery. I'm currently 44 years old and have been steadily training for over 20 years. I've discovered the harsh reality that my training injuries are taking much longer to heal as I grow older. In the meantime, I'm just training around the injury doing exercises for the other bodyparts. Anyone out there with the same injury or similar experiences? Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

If there is bruising, a palpable "gap" and you cannot lift your leg straight off the bed than it is torn / ruptured. If you can do the above then it sound more like a pulled muscle or some micro damage to the muscle - then the basics of recovery occur
ProtectRestIceCompressElevate
And things take 6 - 8 weeks to heal and nothing can speed up healing.
Hippocracies said that a doctors role is to distract the patient while the body heals!!! I quite like that as a motto
Train hard train happy - if it's going to hurt you might as well enjoy it!!