What You Need To Know…
1. Hamstring strains are some of the most common injuries in sport and training. But even more concerning over 1/3 of people with hamstring injuries will have a re-injury, and most of those will happen mutiple times.
2. There are many reasons for why your hamstrings are chronically injured, including lack of flexibility, muscular control and your lack of an effective and efficient dynamic warm up.
3. Your “tight” hamstrings are only a part of the problem when it comes to protecting yourself against injuries. You not only need functional length of the hamstrings, but the ability to control forces and ranges of motion effectively.
4. Protecting yourself from hamstring strains isn’t rocket science. Use these five exercises to prehab or rehab your hamstrings to avoid pain and injuries while also improving performance.
Have you ever strained your hamstring before? You’re not alone! Hamstring strains and injuries are among the most common acute musculoskeletal injury in the United States. Athletes who participate in track and field, soccer, and football are especially prone to these injuries given the sprinting demands of these sports. One study found that over a 10-year span in the NFL, the occurrence of hamstring strains was second only to knee sprains. The average number of days lost for athletes with hamstring strains ranged anywhere from 8 to 25 days, which equated to missing up to four NFL games or 25% of the season. Even more concerning is that re-injury rates on hamstring strains are extremely high, especially during the first two weeks after return to sport. In fact, over 1/3 of hamstring injuries will reoccur during this time.
But even with hamstring strains having extremely high reoccurrence rates, there are risk factors that can be addressed now with a proper PREHAB routine. In this article we’ll break down the top modifiable risk factors for hamstring strains and show you some great prehab exercises to incorporate into your training.
#1 You Can’t Control Your Hamstrings When They Lengthen
The hamstrings are a group of muscles that consist of the biceps femoris (long head and short head), semimembranosus, and semitendinosus. Hamstring injuries occur most commonly in the terminal swing phase of the running cycle. During this phase, the hip is moving into flexion (bending) while the knee is moving into extension (straightening). The hamstring muscles are responsible for controlling these particular motions by ECCENTRICALLY lengthening and decelerating the limb. (Most hamstring injuries happen during this decelerating phase of runnnig)
The biceps femoris, in particular, incurs the greatest musculotendon stretch during the late terminal swing phase of gait and is more commonly injured than the three other hamstring muscles. Thus, adequate eccentric hamstring strength is extremely vital in preventing hamstring strains.
