DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Over the weekend, I played basketball with some neighbors, all of whom are younger than me and all of whom made a big deal about that. I wanted to show them I could keep up with them. I started showing off with some hotshot moves, and I felt a tremendous pain in my left buttock and fell. I think I sprained a buttock muscle. Time heals this, right? What can I do to help it along? — J.A.

ANSWER: I don’t mean to be picky about this, but ligament tears are sprains. Muscle tears are strains. Strains, like sprains, come in degrees. A first-degree muscle strain means that muscle fibers are stretched beyond their elastic limits, and a few fibers have torn. These are the most common kind of strains. They’re painful but not incapacitating. A second-degree strain is one in which 10 percent of the muscle fibers have torn. You can feel a gap in the muscle. A third-degree strain is the tearing of 50 percent to 100 percent of the muscle fibers. It’s a catastrophe that has to be handled by a doctor as soon as possible.

The buttock muscles are the three glutei. The gluteus maximus is the largest. It straightens the femur (the thigh bone) and turns the leg to the side. The other two glutei produce different movements of the thigh bone. The right glutei muscles keep the trunk erect when the leg is raised, and vice versa for the left glutei.

Treatment of a muscle strain involves the familiar RICE treatment: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. It’s all but impossible to compress and elevate the gluteal muscles. Icing should be done for the first two days. Then switch to heat. If walking is painful, use crutches.

Healing of a strain takes four to six weeks. When you’re free of pain, you can resume most activities, but do so gradually.

If this is a self-diagnosed injury and if you don’t see marked improvement in a week’s time (lessening of pain), get to a doctor for an official appraisal of what happened.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: What’s your advice on exercise during menstrual periods? All my life I have done so. Some say you shouldn’t. Do you know why? — B.V.

ANSWER: It’s safe and healthy for women to exercise during their menstrual periods unless, of course, menstrual cramping is so painful that it makes exercise impossible. Actually, exercise usually eases menstrual symptoms, including menstrual cramps. I don’t know the reason why some say you shouldn’t.

This might not be true, but I got the information from a reliable source. According to this unnamed source, women have more strength and energy from the 14th day of the menstrual cycle to the end of the cycle on the first day of bleeding. It sounds a bit hokey to me.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Is there a best time to exercise? I’m not a morning person, but I get up at 5:30 a.m. so I can get in an hour of exercise before work.

By noon, I am feeling tired. I don’t think I would be if I got an extra hour of sleep in the morning. I’d have to exercise after 6 p.m. Do you think that would keep me from sleeping? — T.R.

ANSWER: The only way to know is to try it. I don’t believe an hour of exercise at 6 p.m. would stop you from falling asleep.

Some feel that following the cycle of body temperature is the best way to determine optimum exercise time. The lowest body temperature occurs in the early-morning hours, and the highest temperature in the late afternoon and early evening. Strength is said to peak between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. People who pay attention to such things feel those are the hours — late afternoon and early evening — that best foster exercise training.

Exercise when it’s convenient for you.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www .rbmamall.com.

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