Hamstring Injury

What is a hamstring injury?

Hamstring injury occur when a muscle is strained or torn.  Although this is often referred to as a pulled hamstring, this is a colloquial way of saying it was strained.  Hamstring strains and tears usually occur in sprinting sports such as soccer, basketball, football, tennis, and track and field.

Hamstring Injury – The Hamstring

The hamstring is actually a group of three muscles, called the hamstring muscle group.  The Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus, and the long head of the Biceps femoris run down the back of the leg, beginning at the pelvis and ending below the knee.  They are responsible for the movement of the knees and the hips.  The short end of the Biceps femoris ends earlier, at the femur, and only moves the knee.

Hamstring Injury – Strains and Tears

Hamstring injuries are usually in the Biceps femoris.  They are placed into one of 3 Grades.  The first two are moderate to severe strains where the muscle is overstretched and a few muscle fibres are torn.  Severe hamstring strains can reduce the strength of the leg and cause limping, but any strain will take a few weeks, at the most, to heal.  Grade 3 hamstring injuries are severe muscle tears, where the muscle separates from the tendon.  They take months to heal and have lasting effects.  They can ruin sports careers.  In extreme cases, the hamstring muscles can tear away from the bone, requiring surgery.  Hamstring tears can even pull away a piece of bone.  However, these “avulsion injuries” rarely occur in sprinting sports.  Even moderate strains can result in a hamstring bruise just below the knee.  Quickly spreading dark patches may signify internal bleeding beyond bruised hamstrings, and require immediate medical attention.  On average, pulled hamstrings take around 14 days to heal.

Hamstring Injury – Causes

Hamstring tears and strains are usually the result of a sudden start or stop.  When a sprinter begins running, their hamstrings alternate rapidly between stretching to their limit and contracting to push the body forward, usually called “eccentric contraction.”  If the hamstring muscle is overly stretched or contracted, it can be strained or torn.  Additionally, pulled hamstrings often occur when a contracted muscle is stretched, which often occurs during sprinting.  When they are met with sudden loads, hamstrings can be strained or torn. Since they’re also responsible for moving the hips, the muscles can be injured when a person’s knees are locked (meaning the muscles are contracted) and their hips move rapidly.  Waterskiing accidents are responsible for many hamstring injuries, as people’s hips are forced to move rapidly while their hamstrings are contracted.  In fact, these are responsible for the worst tears, where a muscle actually removes a piece of bone.

Hamstring Injury – Risk Factors

Since bones may grow faster than muscles, adolescents may already have tight hamstrings, and therefore be at greater risk. When the muscles are not conditioned for certain movements, they are less able to cope with its stresses.  When they become fatigued they cannot absorb as much energy. Poor conditioning and muscle fatigue increase the risk of injury, which is why some studies have shown that more than half of the hamstring injuries in the football season occur in the pre-season.  Some experts believe that when the quadriceps at the front of the thigh become more powerful than the hamstrings, this imbalance puts your hamstrings at risk.   Tight muscles are also a major cause, making stretching incredibly important.  However, the largest risk factor for a hamstring injury is a previous strain or tear.

What to Expect When you See a Specialist About a Hamstring Injury

A Hamstring Injury is a common hamstring injury if you are an athlete that participates in sports where sprinting is common, such as track and field or football. If you suffer this kind of injury to your hamstring, then you should immediately stop playing your sport or stop practicing. Any unneeded stress placed on a hamstring strain can aggravate it and make the injury worse.  The first thing that you should do when you suffer this injury is to place an ice pack on the wound, stretch the injury in the pain free zone, elevate the injury, and call a sports injury specialist or doctor the first chance you have.

When you suffer a hamstring tear, there are several things that you should expect the doctor or specialist to do when you visit their office. This article explains the most common things done for patients that have suffered a hamstring tear.

After you go to the doctor’s office and fill out the necessary paperwork, you’ll be called back and probably be asked how the injury occurred. Once these preliminary procedures are covered, you’ll be seen by the doctor or specialist.

The specialist might want to get an MRI to assess how bad that your injury is. If your hamstring tear is looking really bad, an operation might be required to heal the damage. For a Hamstring Injury that is not as bad, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and/or sports massage techniques to heal the damage.

More than likely you will receive a specialty sports massage either from the sports injury specialist at the doctor’s or specialist’s office, or from a rehabilitation center that is prescribed by the doctor or specialist. Specialty sports massage techniques are very important to the quick recovery of a Hamstring Injury. Massages like this break down the new network of collagens, and allows for the fibers to correctly realign and greatly decreases the risk that you’ll receive scar tissue from the Hamstring Injury.

After you are treated by the doctor or specialist, or they prescribe you treatment, you might be offered walking aids such as crutches, and will probably be given a prescription for medication to reduce the pain. You might even have to come in for a follow up visit if you had a severe hamstring tear, or if you were prescribed surgery to take care of your injury.

The doctor or specialist will probably give you instructions to help you take care of your injury while you are at home. It is very important that you follow these instructions to the letter. Negligence toward doctor instructions can greatly increase the risk that you cause yourself further injury and aggravate the Hamstring Injury. Added to this drawback, you might have to go to the doctor or specialist again which costs your and possibly the sports team you play for precious time and money that can be saved if you follow the instructions given to you on your doctor’s visit.

If you are prescribed rehabilitation, make sure to keep to your appointments. Rehabilitation can help you on the road to a speedy recovery. Not going could possibly prolong your hamstring injury and make it harder to get back on the field. Sometimes things happen and you are not able to make appointments. If this is the case, call the rehab center and ask them to reschedule your time. Many centers are flexible and will work with you and your schedule.

Hamstring Injuries
He also showed that history of a recent hamstring injury predisposed to a subsequent quadriceps or hamstring injury. 2. Fatigue In animal studies, muscle fatigue has been shown to predispose to injury. … Get Doc

Hamstring Stretch For Beginners – Thigh Pull
Thigh Pull Hamstring Stretch. Tight hamstrings can affect your back and really limit your activities. The following set of instructions are intended for people who are just starting a stretching program or are dealing with lower back pain or an injury. … Read Article

Hamstring Strain Rehabilitation
Hamstring Strain Rehabilitation David Edell, LAT, ATC, CSCS Cellular: 713.858.3802 • Fax: 281.341.3012 • E-Mail: dedell Phase II (2 – 7 days post injury) A. Begin moist heat applications before exercise after danger of internal bleeding has passed (2 – 4 days) B. Begin … Get Content Here

Hamstring Strain
In my experience dealing with hamstring strain in long distance runners’ I find that they do not have an imbalance with the quadriceps muscle being stronger than the hamstring, but just the opposite the hamstring is stronger than the quadriceps. This can happen if there was a previous injury to the … Get Document

HAMSTRING STRAIN
People commonly call such an injury a “pulled” muscle. Your hamstring muscle group is in the back of your thigh and allows you to bend your knee. … Get Content Here

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Hamstring Injury By Joseph Killeen A .T., C. Plainview Physical Therapy, Head Athletic Trainer All-American Speed & Conditioning Inc., President What is a Hamstring Strain (pulled hamstring)? … Retrieve Full Source

Madonna: Gronk, Get Your Butt Out There
Madonna’s pulled hamstring is not going to stop her from performing at Super Bowl XLVI and she said Thursday that Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski’s ankle sprain shouldn’t stop him either. … Read News

HAMSTRING INJURIES R.L.Morgan-Jones, T.Cross, M.J.Cross …
Am J Sports Med Vol. 25, No.1: 81-85, 1997 4 Orchard J.W. Recurrent Hamstring Injury in Australian football Med. Sci. Sports Exer. Vol.30 (5), 1998 … Get Content Here

For Your Health
This case study provides an example of how the condition of what is being used (stiff left ankle) can be a contributing factor to the repetitive use hamstring injury. … Fetch This Document

Avoiding And RecoveRing FRom A HAmstRing StRAin
Newer treatments such as PRP (platelet rich plasma) may offer some hope for those suffering from a lingering hamstring injury. Many sports medicine doctors are involved in clinical trials to assess the efficacy of this new method of treatment. … Access Content

Hamstring Injuries
Once a hamstring injury is suspected, the first step is to gain an accurate diagnosis. Inflammation or injury in the lumbar and sacral regions can cause referred pain which very strongly mimics the symptoms of hamstring injury. … Read Content

Hamstring Injuries: Risk Assessment And Injury Prevention
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Abstract: High hamstring Tendinopathy Is An Uncommon Overuse …
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Hamstring Strain
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Hamstring Pain – Partner Stretch For A Hamstring Injury
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Sports injury – Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Sports injuries are injuries that occur in athletic activities. In many cases, these types of injuries are often due to overuse or acute trauma of a part of the body when participating in a certain activity. For example, runner’s knee is a painful condition generally associated with running … Read Article

Predicting Hamstring Strain Injury In Elite Athletes
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Jason Repko – Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Repko underwent a surgical procedure on October 20 that kept him sidelined for the first half of spring training in 2007 and then when he was finally cleared to play, he immediately suffered another injurycolliding with Rafael Furcal on a play in a spring training game, he tore his hamstring … Read Article

Hamstring Injury: Treatment & Prevention
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HAMSTRING MUSCLE STRAIN IN SPRINTERS
Heiderscheit BC, Hoerth DM, Chumanov ES, et al. Identifying the time of occurrence of a hamstring strain injury during treadmill running: a case study. … Document Retrieval

Healing Hamstring Injuries
For yoga practitioners, a hamstring injury is a wake-up call that hits us right where we live! + Tendon injuries require a specific regime for healing that is very simple but requires time, patience, and persistence. … Retrieve Doc

Acute Proximal hamstring Rupture
Sallay et al described the results of 12 patients with water skiing-related hamstring injuries with an average time from injury to initial evaluation of 5.6 months (range: 6 weeks to 18 years).[6] … Access Content

Preventing Hamstring Injuries – Physical Therapy
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Chicago Chiropractic & Sports Injury Centers
Chicago Chiropractic & Sports Injury Centers Dr. Alden Clendenin DC, CCSP (PH) 773-529-5670 * (PH) 312-236-9355 2654 N. Lincoln Ave. * 29 S. LaSalle … View Full Source

PREVENTATIVE EXERCISE PROGRESSION FOR HAMSTRING STRAIN
Hamstring Rehabilitation and Prevention Protocol University of Delaware Sports and Orthopedic Clinic 15/15 References Askling C, Karlsson J, Thorstensson A. Hamstring injury occurrence in elite soccer players after preseason strength training with eccentric overload. … Doc Viewer

I hope this gives you all the information you need on a Hamstring Injury.