Hamstring problem management

louthandproud

Hi board, hoping you can help me, there seems to be a lot of discussion around injury's lately so here goes my tuppence worth. It's the old reliable the hamstring. I spent 2-3 months last year resting due to a low level hamstring problem that wouldn't go away, a strain rather than a tear but just bad enough to keep me out of action and force me to miss Dublin City Marathon. Anyway I fully recovered (I thought)and resumed training late last year, all going well until I started ratcheting up the kilometers in the last month or two. Now I am getting tightness again in the same area but can run through it, however I feel it is a training disaster waiting to happen once more. The longest runs I am doing now are 10-12 miles and I am a bit worried about going longer or increasing my overall weekly totals.

Has anyone experienced similar ongoing problems, if so can anyone offer any advice on prevention of management of such a problem. I'm guessing I will have to shell out to a physio once more, but would prefer not to due to cost and inconvenience.

hunnymonster

What are you currently doing to strengthen your hamstrings?

tunney

What training are you doing?

Whats your recovery routine? Do you stretch? Wear compression tights? Get massages?

louthandproud

To be honest I am just running and doing some light standard enough stretching afterwards. Any advice on better/correct stretching and/or on useful strengthening exercises for the hamstring would be great. Thanks in advance.

hunnymonster

I know a couple of runners who have found something as simple as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbOjQgCwmEk
very effective

louthandproud

hunnymonster wrote: »

I know a couple of runners who have found something as simple as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbOjQgCwmEk
very effective

Thanks HM, I will try that in the Gym later on, hopefully I can fix this before I miss another few months of running.

Good luck with your own recovery BTW, it does take a lot of patience.

Lil' Smiler

Get regular sports massage on the hams for maintenance.

This is something alot of people don't do. going to a physio just to get the initial problem is fine but you should keep it up by going to get Sports Massage on th einjury to prevent further o re-injury

thirtyfoot

Not going to a physio is a false economy I believe, thats if you have found a physio you can trust. Many injuries are due to imbalances and while your hamstring may be sore it may not be your hamstring that needs strengthening, could be your back for example. There is limited scientific evidence that massage does help injury or restoration but lots of anecdotal evidence. If you are going to pay for a massage, I'd swap it for a good physio who will give you a good diagnosis that works on prevention instead of cure.

Do you do core strength work?

louthandproud

Tingle wrote: »

Do you do core strength work?

A lot of varying forms of crunches, and various ab-resistance machines at the gym. That's it really.

louthandproud

For the purpose of closure (I hope).

I have taken the good advice above, and have been working with the exercise ball to strengthen hamstrings as well as adding some core strength exercises to my routine. as a result the tightness/soreness as eased steadily and my millage is one the up once again.

So once again thanks for the advice.

Corkgirl21

"Core Strength" exercises such as ab crunches etc are useful obviously but when physios are talking about improving your Core it is usually in reference to the deeper stabilising abdominal muscles such as your transversus abdominus (TrA), the corset like, stabilising muscle that is part of the pilates programme.

People usually need to be taught how do activate this muscle and work through some exercises to build it to a high level. For example, eventually you could tighten your TrA while doing the swiss ball hamstring curl but you might start in side lying just tightening in the muscle.

If you have an ongoing hamstring problem it's unlikely to be solely related to your hamstring. It could be from weak core, weak glute strength and genral hip and pelvis control.

If it still doesn't feel 100% after the swiss ball exercises I'd see a physio.