MAG How to treat sore legs after splits in a young level 4?

[OwlGalLiz]

This is the first time DS has complained about sore legs after working splits. I know it's the first of many times this is going to happen with soreness, injuries, etc. So for a newbie team parent what do I need to do for him? He has practice again tomorrow. DS was running and jumping and doing a few cartwheels at the restaurant tonight. When DH brought that up DS said "it still hurt though".

 

[iwannacoach]

Let him get used to it. Try 20 minutes of moist heat from a heat pad working through a damp hand towel.... set the pad on low because some is enough and more is not better. You can also get extra relief for him when he's accumulated two or three days worth of soreness by boiling a 1/3 cup of Epsom's Salts in two quarts of water. Then let the solution cool enough that you can dip a couple hand towels into it to get them damp for use with the heating pad.

You'll be hearing shortly from a few other people about the best nutrient to focus on. It good advice to give serious consideration to..........

Working more flexibility more frequently at home, with less intensity, will help, but that's a long term project.

 

[OwlGalLiz]

Thanks! We'll start with this and I look forward to replies from others too. I'm open to all advice. He's not dealt with soreness before. They do tons of conditioning, but floor is his weak spot. He excels on everything else and has great upper body strength. So now it's time to work on flexibility and those legs.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I've never heard of that sort of lingering soreness from stretching; that suggests to me either that he's never done any sort of serious stretching at all before, or that he's being overstretched a bit in practice. Of course, its also possible (and in fact probably more likely) that the soreness is more from strength work or other parts of the workout. Perhaps he did more running, tumbling, plyometrics, pit laps, or something like that, and just thinks it's from the stretching.

At any rate, I would recommend gentle stretching at home. Daily, if you can talk him into it (though don't push it if it gets to be too much of a chore). Also a nice warm bath/shower after practice will probably help. If a warm bath/shower followed immediately by stretching (while he's still warm from the bath/shower) becomes part of his daily routine, that will probably help a LOT, regardless of whether the soreness is coming from stretching or conditioning.

 

[OwlGalLiz]

Thanks again. He was better and didn't complain the next day or at practice on Monday. We shall see how tomorrow goes.