Recurrent Hamstring Injuries

Recurrent Hamstring Injuries

Hamstring injuries – particularly when there has been a muscle tear – can be tricky to recover from. There are a number of reasons why and we go through some of them in the video below. The most common reasons include:

Altered Muscle Activation Strategies: If the muscles around your hip and pelvis aren’t turning on in the right order, or some are tight or weak, it can impact the way you control your body as you move. This can lead to repetitive over-strain of the hamstring. In many cases people struggle to activate their glutes and are trying to stabilise their pelvis by using their hamstrings. This means that the hamstrings are over-working all the time. They then have reduced capacity to lengthen when you e.g. kick a ball and that puts you at risk of another injury

Poor Alignment: As mentioned above it is common to see poor pelvic and hip control in people who are struggling with recurrent hamstrings because of altered muscle activation strategies. Alignment issues in other areas can also significantly impact the way your body works. If your foot, for example, is tight and stiff you will often collapse through the arch. This can happen for a variety of reasons but when it happens, it makes it much harder for your glutes to turn on and help stabilise your pelvis.

Altered Neural Drive: Issues like disc bulges can lead to increased neural drive to muscles such as the hamstrings. This means that the hamstring is essentially more switched on (high tone) than it should be. In this case it will often feel chronically tight. Having issues in other areas of your body that either increase the load on the hamstrings, or make them have a higher tone increases the chance that you will your hamstring particularly with sporting activities that require sudden deceleration or changes in direction.

Inadequate Rehabilitation: It is really common that people don’t see their rehabilitation all the way through. There can be many reasons why that happens but if you don’t restore flexibility, strength and endurance to the muscle, AND normalise the order in which your muscles turn on, AND make sure you have good alignment then there is a good chance that you will reinjure yourself when you return to sport.

The most important part of recovering from a hamstring injury is that you see a quality physiotherapist like those at Sydney Advanced Physio and follow their advice.

If you need help recovering from a sports injury you can book in to see one of our physio online anytime or you can call 9416 4410.