Healing hamstrings

Written by Chiropractor Adam Logan

Hamstring injuries are ridiculously common, especially amongst runners but anyone can fall prey to this pesky injury.

As Ted Lasso would say - “You’ve torn your butt, nothing to be ashamed of” (thanks for the input Ted). So how do you heal hamstrings? Lower grade hamstring injuries do mostly heal over time, but they are also annoyingly susceptible to re-injury.

Progressive loading

Try this progressively loaded approach to helping your hamstrings along the road to recovery, and it may help you get back to doing what you love a little bit sooner: 

Phase 1 - Isometric contraction or ‘squeezing’ of a group of muscles without the muscles changing length - glute bridge is a great example

Phase 2 - Concentric loading will increase the load on your hammys, whilst shortening or the muscle group at the same time - your classic hamstring curl is a great example

Phase 3 - Eccentric load applies the greatest demand on the hamstrings, so this exercise should be late stage rehab – but worth it once you get there. Plenty of good evidence eccentric exercises reduce the (if done correctly). The Nordic hamstring curl is once option (challenging) and the arabesque is also a good option (less challenging).

Tips and disclaimer!

Re-injury of hamstrings may be due to overloading the tissues too soon, and you should be mindful of this even with rehab exercises. A general rule we like to follow, is no more than 2 out of 10 pain while doing the exercise, and you shouldn’t feel worse or more sore the following day. There’s no exact timeline for recovery, every person and their injury is different, and progressive rehab is not linear and shouldn’t rushed (listen to your body, it should tell you when you’re ready to move on).

If in doubt, get in touch and book in to see us so we can thoroughly evaluate your injury and provide you with the appropriate rehab and treatment to get back into action.