What are hamstring injuries? The hamstring muscles are located along the posterior thigh and are responsible for bending the knee and extending the hip. Hamstring injuries tend to occur more frequently in field sports such as soccer, football, or field hockey. An NFL football team published injury data from their preseason training camp over a 9-year span and found that hamstring strains were the most common muscle strain and were the second most common injury, only surpassed by knee sprains. So, hamstring injuries are responsible for sidelining many athletes every year which results in loss and play and higher medical costs.

As a former competitive athlete, I too have dealt with hamstring injuries. Recently while completing one of my field workouts I got a little overzealous and injured my hamstring while sprinting. So, long story long, without the proper preparation we leave ourselves susceptible to this injury. While I’m eager to get back into training, I’m also aware of what the current evidence shows regarding re-injury rates. One research reported that 15 out of 30 sprinters who suffered hamstring strains had previously strained their hamstring. While another study showed that approximately one-third of hamstring strains will recur, with the highest risk for injury recurrence being within the first 2 weeks of return to sport. BUT…this time around I’ve decided to dive into the literature to see if there’s anything I could do to prevent this from happening again.

I hope you enjoy this series and are able to take away effective strategies to prevent hamstring injuries and to ‘stay in the game’. In this series, I will take you through an evidence-based approach regarding how to prevent and treat hamstring injuries.

If you have any questions, drop me an email at Kenneth@FitToMovePT.com