What happens
The hamstrings are three muscles running down the back of your thigh. They work hard when you sprint, and they lengthen as your leg swings forward. A strain is a tear in muscle fibres, ranging from a few fibres to a larger rupture.
How bad is it?
- Mild: tightness or a pulling feeling, you can still walk normally. Often 1 to 3 weeks.
- Moderate: sharp pain, a limp and some bruising. Often several weeks to around two months.
- Severe: a pop, bruising down the leg, difficulty walking. These need medical assessment and take longer.
These are rough guides. Actual recovery depends on the injury, your age, your sport and how well rehab goes.
The first few days
Follow the PEACE & LOVE principles: protect the area for a day or two, then start gentle movement as soon as it is tolerable. Walking, light cycling and gentle range-of-motion work help the muscle repair in the right direction.
The rehab stages
- Calm it down. Pain-limited walking and gentle movement through a comfortable range.
- Rebuild strength. Bridges, then single-leg bridges, then hamstring curls or slow lowering exercises.
- Add speed and stretch. Progressing to hinge patterns, then jogging, striding and then sprinting.
- Return to sport when you are pain free, strong compared with the other leg and have completed sprint work without symptoms.
Programmes that include strengthening the hamstrings while they are lengthened, such as Nordic hamstring exercises, are linked with fewer repeat injuries. They are tough, so build up gradually.
Why they keep coming back
- Returning to sport the moment it stops hurting.
- Skipping strength work, so the muscle is not ready for sprinting.
- A hamstring that is much weaker than the other leg or than the quadriceps.
- Poor warm-up and rapid increases in sprint training.