I think a few weeks ago I strained an abdominal muscle. It happened after I finished up an uber-heavy (for me) set of stiff legged deadlifts, and finished off my workout with a few sets of abdominal crunches. I noticed my abdominals felt pretty tired after a few sets of crunches so I cut the abdominal workout short after a few sets. The injury seemingly happened in a completely unexpected fashion that still irks me, I bent over to pick up my foam exercise mat off the floor and felt a twinge of pain. The area was fairly sore for a day or two but seemed to clear up with rest. What the hell, I'm fine after heavy deadlifting but can't handle picking a half pound mat off the floor.
I thought I was out of the woods, but found out otherwise when trying to do some crunches a few weeks after the fact. The area I originally felt the tweak in is still tender, and I feel a minor pain when trying to perform abdominal exercises. This got me to looking around for info, and I'm half worried this could be a hernia, although I'm more suspicious it is a pulled/strained abdominal muscle.
What methods of getting over this are generally recommended? I'm on a 9 day hiatus from lifting right now, so I'm resting the area. I hope to resume lifting next week, and may have to avoid direct abdominal training for the immediate future. I'm making an appointment with my doctor for next week to get it checked out and will go from there, but any other input is greatly appreciated.
I thought I was out of the woods, but found out otherwise when trying to do some crunches a few weeks after the fact. The area I originally felt the tweak in is still tender, and I feel a minor pain when trying to perform abdominal exercises. This got me to looking around for info, and I'm half worried this could be a hernia, although I'm more suspicious it is a pulled/strained abdominal muscle.
What methods of getting over this are generally recommended? I'm on a 9 day hiatus from lifting right now, so I'm resting the area. I hope to resume lifting next week, and may have to avoid direct abdominal training for the immediate future. I'm making an appointment with my doctor for next week to get it checked out and will go from there, but any other input is greatly appreciated.