Mishandled torn muscle--what next?

[KurtN]

First off, I just want to say that I find this section of the board the most useful, highest signal/noise, lowest bullshit part of the whole SS forum and I fully appreciate that this is due to the incredibly high quality and dedication of the coaches who run it on their own time.
So thank you. You guys are awesome and you owe me nothing, so if the following is too inane I understand if you don't want to deal with it.

My situation:
On August 2nd I injured my left medial gastrocnemius (I think) by letting a hard thin object hit it with not too much force while the muscle was under moderate tension (standing facing uphill). I initially thought the muscle was just 'cramped' and although it hurt quite a bit I tried stretching it, then mostly ignoring it for a few days. The actual method of injury seemed so benign that despite the pain I really didn't take the injury seriously.
I trained on it a little bit (squats, presses and deadlifts) but found the pain got worse so I stopped. There was some moderate swelling and pain so I gave it a little bit of RICE treatment. About six days later I finally noticed bruising on the anterior portion of my left calf and down to my foot, which turned pretty green, and that is when I realized the muscle had torn. Since then I have tried doing more light concentric work with the muscle to increase blood flow and have kept squatting, but very lightly and with reduced volume.

My main confusion here is how to monitor my progress and adjust workload appropriately. When I am loading heavier weights on squat and deadlift (meaning: significantly heavier than the weight of my body, basically anything over 100lbs) I do not notice significant pain or pain getting worse during the workout, but instead the 'feedback' will be delayed and it will become more painful at night or the next morning when I try to walk on it. When this happens I am assuming I have overdone it and hurt the healing process. I seem to have repeated this mistake a few times and now am unsure if I should continue loaded barbell exercises on this injury or even if this delayed response actually means what I think it means.
I only have one other torn muscle experience under my belt and that was a torn adductor that was recognized for what it was immediately and responded predictably to the Starr rehab protocol. This is very different and I have obviously not started off well in trying to rehabilitate it.

Questions:
Does the 'delayed response' pain feedback mean that I've overdone it on loading, or am I being too cautious?
Should I continue barbell exercises on this injury or should I wait a bit and just do concentric work on the calf until things seem consistently better?

I seek opinions with full understanding of all the potential disclaimers they involve; you guys aren't medical professionals, bla bla etc.

[Tom Campitelli]

This is unusual. Especially, the bleeding six days afterward. Are you sure this is a muscle belly tear and not an Achilles issue? Here are a few questions for you:

Is this getting better over time? If so, and assuming this is not an Achilles tear, you are probably not doing it any grievous harm.
Obviously pain needs to be your guide, but realize that sometimes things may hurt on the road to recovery. Do you see bruising after squatting?
If you were to do three sets of eight at 95 pounds, would it hurt?

Getting a proper diagnosis would not hurt, although if it is just a minor muscle tear, you already know what you need to do. Maybe something will pop out to some of our other esteemed readers.

[KurtN]

Tom,
Thank you for your reply. Answers below. Apologies that I couldn't get the formatting functions to work.
"This is unusual. Especially, the bleeding six days afterward."
Well, to be fair it seems that what became visible was probably six-day-old blood, it being all greenish an' shit. So I'm assuming it bled right away but took a long time for evidence of that bleeding to be visible. I'm guessing leaked fluids just make it out of some muscles quicker than others? Because fascia?

"Are you sure this is a muscle belly tear and not an Achilles issue?"
No, and I don't know enough to know how I would know. I am basing my self-diagnosis on where I've felt the pain, under what conditions I've felt it, and Netter's. I assume the Achilles/soleus would be loaded regardless of how I push the ball of my foot down? but the gastroc would be more specific to standing heel raise and not so much seated heel raise? I feel most pain in standing heel raise and not much at all with seated.

"Is this getting better over time?"
Yes, in fact the worst of it seems to have passed as of yesterday. I still have not put a decently loaded squat on it since the first week though.

"realize that sometimes things may hurt on the road to recovery"
Absolutely, and it's not the pain so much that bothers me, it's being unsure of what it means and how to react to it appropriately to maximize recovery from the injury, esp. to not re-injure.

"Do you see bruising after squatting?"
Yes, but only after the initial bruising, and that took so long to manifest that I feel I should trust that feedback even less than the delayed pain. However, it seemed to pulse back up in greenish/bruisey appearance and flesh tenderness/swelling in the lower leg and foot (from histamines floating around I guess?) after initially showing up and that may have been due to loading it and making it hurt more.

"If you were to do three sets of eight at 95 pounds, would it hurt?"
Done last night. It didn't hurt during the set but hurts marginally more today. Not in the debilitating way that it did the first week though.

"if it is just a minor muscle tear, you already know what you need to do"
Yeah, and now that it seems to be getting better I think this is becoming pretty much a fait accompli, although without having done a properly executed rehab I suppose I will be susceptible to re-injury?

[Tom Campitelli]

Yeah, and now that it seems to be getting better I think this is becoming pretty much a fait accompli, although without having done a properly executed rehab I suppose I will be susceptible to re-injury?

Not necessarily. However, this presentation does not comport with a more normal muscle belly tear. I think that short of getting a diagnosis, just be conservative. I don't know how much more I can tell you. If this were an Achilles thing, I suspect you would know it based on where it hurts. I will be interested to hear where you are a week or two from now.

[KurtN]

Thanks, heading to the gym now and planning to work up to heavier squat sets at ~85% of where I was before the injury. If it doesn't feel right I'll stop.
Unless something alarming happens I'll just post here in another few weeks to let you know how things went.

[Tom Campitelli]

Given that this thing hurts you every time you squat, you want to simply go a little heavier than 95 pounds and see how that feels. 85% of where you were strikes me as heavy for something that is currently aggravating you.

[KurtN]

OK, you make sense… but it seemed to work out OK.

Or at least I'll find out tonight.

[KurtN]

Surprisingly pain free today. I'll update again in a few weeks.

[Tom Campitelli]

This is good.