Help

Hi, ironically I have pulled my hamstring playing football just 3 days after completing the Great North Run. Never done it before and it is fairly painful. As the people on here seem to be quite a helpful bunch I thought I would ask what the best thing I can do to stop it hurting (apart from painkillers) and most importantly speed up recovery?

Thanks

Ice it for about 10-20 minutes 3-4 times a day.  Once the inflammation starts to reduce alternate ice and heat.  A little bit of massage/physiotherapy may help speed up the healing process but there's only so much you can do to genuinely speed up your recovery, as your muscle fibres will heal at the pace nature intended them to heal at.  The last time I did something similar I recall my physio saying something like anti-inflammatories actually impede your body's natural healing processes and he wasn't too keen on using them, but this was (a) a few years ago and (b) I may not have understood exactly what he meant.  Certainly bear in mind that on painkillers you may feel tempted to do things which aren't actually going to help your hamstring because you can't feel that it is sore.

Joolska, thanks very much.

Have tried a bit of ice already and know I know it is the right thing to do I will keep up with it. I will try and keep the painkillers to a minimum, I took some last night as I couldn't sleep due to the pain but haven't had any yet today.