Am I Fully Healed Now ?

My leg is feeling much better today from a range of motion perspective, although a twinge of pain remains. How do you know when you have recovered sufficiently from an injury to resume training ? It would be great if I had a hand held scanner where I could scan the affected area and compare it to a stored healthy image of the area to determine what is damaged and to what degree. Maybe someday, but not for now.

Excepted from http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/frontthigh/iliopsoasinflam.htm

The iliopsoas muscle is a very strong muscle that lifts the knee up. It starts at the lower back and inserts into the thigh bone (femur). This muscle can become inflamed if you over do the situps especially with a weight behind your neck, or do lots of up hill running. Behind the muscle is a bursa that can become inflamed on it's own or along with the tendon.

A partial rupture of the iliopsoas muscle will often lead to inflammation after the initial rupture has healed.

Symptoms for a ruptured iliopsoas muscle include:

• A sudden sharp pain in the groin that returns when you try to lift your knee up to your chest.
• Pain on resisted hip flexion .
• A deep pain in the groin when the knee is lifted up against resistance.
• A weakness in lifting your knee up.

What can the athlete do to prevent an inflammed iliopsoas muscle?

• Rest until there is no pain.
• Apply cold therapy
• Stretch the hip flexor muscles.
• See a sports injury professional who can advise on rehabilitation and strengthening.

My root cause would most likely have been the up hill running, about five miles worth on Friday May 22nd. Looks like I may re-aggravate this injury on Saturday due to the hilly nature of the CMN/UFC Balloon Chasers course at the Hershey Medical Center.