Hamstring Strain

Hamstring injuries are very common and can be frustrating for athletes.  They have a reputation for being rather stubborn to heal and recurrence is common.  Before proceeding, let’s review the anatomy.

Hamstring Muscles

The hamstring muscles are located on the back of your femur (the thigh).  They extend from the bone that we sit on (the ischial tuberosity on our pelvis) and extend just past our knee.  There are three hamstring muscles; the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris.  Generally speaking, they extend our hip and bend our knee.  The hamstring can be injured a variety of ways but injury is most commonly associated with acceleration, deceleration or a change of direction.

Various risk factors for hamstring strain have been reported in the literature.  Being older, having a previous hamstring injury, having a previous ACL surgery, having a calf strain in the 8 weeks prior and having a leg length discrepancy are a few of them.  Yet none of these have been established as an absolute slam dunk for predicting those at risk.  We do know a few things though…

How do Hamstring Injuries Happen?

68% of hamstring injuries occur during running, with kicking sports like soccer being the most common.  As mentioned above, hamstring injuries often recur.  In fact, the rate of recurrence is 13.9-63.3% in the same sporting season!

Although we mentioned that there are no definite factors that can predict hamstring injuries, older age, increased quadriceps peak torque and a history of hamstring injury are factors that have the “most” evidence of being associated with hamstring injury.  Interestingly, stretching and strengthening are not the absolute best way to prevent these injuries.  The evidence suggests that a rehabilitation program emphasising agility and stability is more helpful.  At the same time, we also know that the Nordic lower is an exercise that has good evidence for preventing hamstring strains.  We posted a blog on that many years ago, feel free to search around our blog in our search bar!

Do you have a painful hamstring?  Have you been injured in the past and not sure if you completely recovered?  Give us a call, we can help!

References:

Freckleton G, Pizzari T.  Risk factors for hamstring muscle strain injury in sport: a systematic review and meta-analysis.  British Journal of Sports Medicine 2013; 47:351-358.

deVisser HM, Reijman M, Heijboer MP et al.  Rish factors for recurrent hamstring injuries: a systematic revew.  British Journal of Sports Medicine 2012; 46: 124-130.