Hamstring strain after first-time jog

[PorridgeIsYummy]

Hi!

My regular sport is cycling to work, which takes me about an hour a day round journey. I've been doing it for six months and I love it. I have decided to take up jogging too as a way to be active at the weekends or when for whatever reason I can't cycle.

I was utterly dreading my first jog as last time I tried (years ago), I thought I was going to die after 2 minutes. This time; however, I jogged quite happily for about ten minutes, then walked a little, jogged some more, etc. I did notice a slight pain in my hamstring but thought nothing of it. Today (a week later) I've jogged again and probably did 15-20 mins solid (no watch, though). The pain has got noticeably worse throughout the day.

What have I done wrong? I jogged very slowly and never exerted myself. What do I do now - how long do I need to rest for? I'm worried to lose my fitness and momentum - I never did any exercise in my life but I have "found" sport in my 40s and never want to go back to bring a couch potato.

Can anybody help? Thanks!

Tight hamstrings are common but very painful. What kind of warm-up did you do? It could very easily be that.

Remember that you shouldn't stretch cold muscles so warm-up before jogging shouldn't be the same as the stretching you do afterwards. There are loads of ideas for good warm-up exercises online. For short distances it's even more important to warm up correctly (if you're going out for a plodding long run, you can use the first 10-15 minutes to do a slow warm-up, but if you're doing shorter distances it's much better for you to have nice warm muscles before you set out).