I’m 48, not in bad health overall, been cycling 25 years and reasonably aerobically fit (not an athlete by any means compared to some on here but compared to the man on the couch stuffing pringles in his hole)

But reflecting on my legs like wiggins body like biggins physique in mid year I started boot camp.

**** it was hard the first few weeks; I was crippled with DOMS while dormant parts were given the resurrection treatment, but over time it’s got substantially better.

Until recently. We do the same stuff, body weight exercises, shuttle runs, HIIT intervals and so on. Same RAMP style warm ups as before. I guess I’m doing more as a result of improving, so i run a bit faster, or do more reps, but it’s not as if we’re suddenly doing weights, etc.

But almost every week i seem to pull a muscle now. 6 weeks ago, a hamstring. 2 weeks ago a thigh. Last night, my calf went and now I’m hobbling around again. I could understand it if I’d done the hamstring 3 times, that says insufficient recovery, but it seems to be a different bit each time.

Could there be any reason (medical / nutritional, for example) to look at? Or likely to be an environmental one – does the fact it’s colder really make a difference given we are warming up properly. The other one I ponder is that the ground is much heavier, but then that would say fatigue and while the hamstring might have been that (nipped it at the end of a tough session) both the thigh and calf went about 15 mins in so after warming up but before I was properly knackered.

Becoming despondent, because each time I do it, that’s another period of time off and I need to be doing stuff.

I found more stretching helped when i carried on racing into my 40’s.

Not as part of your warm up/warm down/training. Just as something you do while sitting in front of the telly. Or while not doing anything else.

FWIW, i’m actually using a stand up desk right now at work and doing some light leg stretches…..

And going from cycling to boot camp is likely to lead to injuries, it’s not the most gentle form of exercise from an impact/load point of view. Whereas cycling is.

Is it possible that you’re fit/strong enough to do things “badly”, or at least without thinking about what you’re doing form-wise ?

IANA(whatever you’d need to be)

could be that you’re trying too much or without sufficient warm up. But you mention that it’s different muscle groups. I had similar issues with back, right leg and calf. Am in my 40’s but as with everyone of my age – still think I am younger in my head when attempting to train with the kids.

My osteo got me to look at it all holistically though….and that if something is out in your ankle, you may get back issues and it makes sense to me.

I do yoga once a week now, as well as cherry picking a few of the stretches I think are most beneficial and working them into my gym routine.

It’s made a massive difference overall.

I’ve been through this too and I agree the key is to warm up and cool down/stretch, with emphasis on the cool down and stretching. I also now avoid any explosive type of sports, like squash and anything that requires immediately sprinting from a stand still. I think that just puts too much strain on muscles at our age and an observation of mine is that with work colleagues who are hitting this age who play football and squash, and who have always played those sports, are getting injuries with Achilles heal injury’s being pretty common. So I think there comes an age where for sports like those you are definitely past it.

Warming up is key and going through a range of motions before starting exercise proper is very important. No evidence to show stretching works either avoiding or recovering from injuries, particularly not on “cold” muscles, for example prior to exercise.
As a runner I wouldn’t “stretch” as such, but for example a 6 mile run would begin by jogging at marginally faster than walking pace, gradually increasing the speed for the majority of the run then a couple of slow laps around the block to finish.

edit: I am 53 for what its worth

I’d go for doing too much too soon during training. Could be a symptom of body and mind feeling good so you press on, forgetting to back off a bit just because everything feels good.

I’m suffering left ankle pain because trail running 15k every other day is taking its toll, pretty shite TBH but I’ll do what I always do and back off a bit during the early part of the session.

Don’t think it’s age related just yet, come back when you are 60+ and scoffed those Pringles..

I would accept most of that but I’ve been doing boot camp for 6 months now, went through all the pains of using muscles I hadn’t used for a decade or more, and passed through that process pretty well injury free (soreness =/= injury necessarily)

It’s the last month or two where very little has changed in my actual approach, the environment has changed a bit (as I say, heavier ground and colder evenings) and all of a sudden it seems to be almost every class something different goes, not even the same thing each time. But i do accept that if I’m protecting one part because it has been injured sometimes that then impacts somewhere else, even if a pulled right thigh leading to a left calf going does make me scratch my head a bit.

I think avoiding explosive stuff is sensible – compared to the class if we do for example shuttle sprints I do tend to accelerate and finish well rather than ‘hell for leather and cling on’ And at 48 ‘sprint’ is a subjective term – anything above fast waddle frankly.

also

Is it possible that you’re fit/strong enough to do things “badly”

yes, possibly…. all these injuries have come during running rather than any of the muscle exercises but it could be that poor technique in the exercises created the potential for the injury that manifests during running.

Or just – don’t run any more (not an option, have also been doing that separately and I’m just just about reaching the ‘running is horrible’ to ‘actually i could keep this going for ages’ threshold)

When I used to play soccer, without fail I’d pull my groin if I didn’t warm up properly.

Stretching afterwards probably a good idea aswell.

A combination of muscle imbalances and too much volume probably.
Once you start hovering around 50 less is more.

When I used to play soccer, without fail I’d pull my groin if I didn’t warm up properly.

I’d agree with that if it was the same muscle each time, but it’s like pin the tail on the donkey. I should run a sweepstake, which bit’s going to go twang tonight!

I started boot camp.

This is the problem. Generic group instruction by crap trainers, which takes no account of individual needs.

As an older athlete you need more warm up and to progressively increase the loading during exercise, jumping right in after a nominal 5 min group warm up is the root cause of your problems.

I’m 56 and train on my own or with a PT now as I have exactly the same problem. If I jumped in a Cross Fit class with 20/30 yr olds and tried to keep up, I’d pull something every week. I’ve learnt that I can live heavy etc but have to build up much more carefully than I ever had to 30 years ago. If I get the slightest twinge mid set, I stop and stretch out that particular muscle etc, which you can’t do in a class.

See your point but is a serving army PTI (although in itself that means he’s used to dealing with 20 year olds)

What many of these answers still don’t address though is why for 4.5 months i didn’t have an issue, now it’s 3 different muscles in quick succession. And they are not going as a result of exercises, all have gone while running which was the one thing i could do reasonably well from the start?

Sounds like issues i had in my right leg where I would get various hamstring, thigh and calf strains/pulls. Went for a sports massage and it was suggested it was actually glutes. Not engaging them puts the strain further down the kinetic chain. This was sort of proven when he dug his elbow in my arse cheek and hit a pretty tender spot! Was given exercises like lunges etc to try to strengthen it.

See your point but is a serving army PTI

Isn’t there entire reason for existing to weed out the weak and get them medically discharged?

This was sort of proven when he dug his elbow in my arse cheek and hit a pretty tender spot! Was given exercises like lunges etc to try to strengthen it

Piriformis muscle,

Piriformis muscle

which is also ‘targeted’ with the yoga Pigeon Pose stretch …

Worth considering yoga – it can be very useful in maintaining and improving flexibility, strength, conditioning and increasing range of movement – especially in areas of imbalance/previous injury.

Worth considering yoga – it can be very useful in maintaining and improving flexibility, strength, conditioning and increasing range of movement – especially in areas of imbalance/previous injury.

I agree. In addition it will give you great alignment and better body awareness which will help hugely in preventing imbalances & injuries.

I would say that you are focused very much on building strength to the detriment of your flexibility which is what is causing the problem. Yoga is about bringing everything including the body into balance so that your tight muscles won’t instantly pull when called into action but they’ll have a balance of both allowing them to do what they are supposed to do. I have a friend who has just starting coming to my classes (a PT), very inflexible but strong, similarly was cramping all the time though and has really noticed the benefits..

What do you mean by ‘heavier ground’?

muddy, grass hasn’t been cut as short as it would in the summer and so on.

and…….. hamstring has just gone again, but it’s the other side!

On a relatively gentle run, just suddenly went. Ran faster last week, no issues.

Very annoying