How to help muscle pulled over a year ago?

Question

I'm a dancer and June of 2007 I strained a muscle in my leg fairly badly. I don't feel it at all in day to day activities or even when I'm dancing, so I thought it would be fine to just let it heal on its own. However, it's over a year later and it still is incredibly tight. (I only feel it if I sit in a "straddle" position... the injured leg can't stretch there at all because it is so tight). Any suggestions for how I can help this heal besides physical therapy? (As I said before, it doesn't affect me at all in every day activities so I don't see a need to pay money for it to heal). Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

You need a stretching programme from a physiotherapist.  Even if its only hurting in specific situations there is still a problem and continuing to exercise on a damaged muscle could lead to further problems.  Better to be safe than sorry espcially if your exercise is an important part of your life.

Answer 2

You need to enter into physical therapy. Your muscle has atrophied (gotten shorter) because of unuse. Whether or not you felt that it didn't bother you from day to day, you more than likely compensated for the injury by not using/bearing weight on that particular leg- which caused inadequacy in the muscle that you strained & possibly the surrounding ones. You really do need to participate in physical therapy with someone that is skilled in instructing you the proper techniques to obtain the results that you're looking for. If you don't see the need to pay money to get better then it must not be much of a problem & this question would be moot.