What a Quad Strain Taught Me About Pain (From a Rehab Chiropractor)

We had a softball game this past Sunday afternoon. My quads were already a little sore from the week before, but I did a pretty good warm-up before the game, so I figured I would be okay. In the first at-bat, I took a stride, and both of my quads just seized up. I played the rest of the game in pain and could barely walk afterward. The pain I was experiencing was about a 7 out of 10. A classic quad muscle strain.

Here's why it happened: I haven't been sprinting much, and last week was rough, between the business stress and not training the way I normally would. I also went to a tailgate the day before, for the Tennessee and Texas game. I thought my body could handle sprinting. It reminded me that it couldn't. My load exceeded my capacity, plain and simple.

As a rehab chiropractor, I know pain doesn't always mean something's torn or broken. A lot of the time it's just your body protecting you, telling you to do something different. So I wasn't immediately scared. I ruled out red flags first, which is probably the most important thing to do, and once I knew it was muscular, I got to work instead of shutting everything down.

For the first 24 hours, I tried to do as much passive recovery as I could: dry needling, instrument-assisted soft tissue work, lots of water, vitamin C, collagen, magnesium, electrolytes, glutamine, creatine, a CBD muscle cream (shoutout Kuribl), and alternating ice baths with hot Epsom salt baths. I also kept walking as much as I could that first day. Ice and rest have their place, but only for pain control in the first 24 hours following an injury. After that, it's important to move on from them, because research shows that long-term, they actually slow healing down instead of helping it.

By Monday morning, my pain was down to a 3 out of 10. Tuesday I was at a 1 or 2. Early in the week, I kept treatment and movement light. I did some needling, walks, nothing too crazy. As the pain came down, I started testing the leg out more: longer walks, isometric holds, motor control work for the hips, hamstrings, and quads. I'm planning to jog today (Thursday) and maybe test some sprinting Friday, if my body gives me the green light (hopefully I'll be ready to go for our next softball game on Sunday).

Here's what I want people to actually take from this: movement is medicine. Once you've ruled out the serious stuff, staying as active as you reasonably can is one of the best things you can do for an injury. Total rest and icing for days is outdated advice for most soft tissue strains and acute injuries. I get that it's scary to keep moving on something that hurts, but pain isn't always the enemy. It's a signal, not always a sentence. This softball injury also reminded me that I'm human, and even though I do this for a living, I have to listen to what I tell my patients. Don't be a hero, and don't expect your body (especially as you age) to be able to do more than what you've trained it for.

If something's nagging at you and not improving, don't just wait it out with rest and ice. Get it looked at, rule out any potential red flags, and get a plan to move again instead of waiting for it to "get better."

Right now, new patients get 50% off their first visit at Main Health Collective. If something's bothering you, or you want to make sure you're training and recovering right, we'd love to see you. Book at https://mainhealthcollective.janeapp.com/.