Repetitive Hamstring strains

[Sharla]

Hi,

Being the nosy person I am I heard that a guy I work with pulls his hamstring fairly often.

Seems to have been a long term recurring problem for him. He's fine exercising for a few months and then he's laid up with it again. Understandably I think I annoys him.

Has anyone else suffered this kind of tendancy to pull their hamstrings easily? If it's related to a weakness or imbalance somewhere else what is it likely to be?

I gather his sports history is in recreational ball sports like Aussie rules football etc but even if he just runs regularly it becomes a problem.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Hey Shara,
Well all I can say is that I used to suffer from incredibly sore calves and shins.
When I did it was actually agonising and I needed a solution.
To be honest, working on my flexability, stretching, taking in lots of oily fish and perhaps a light protein shake after excercise does the job perfectly!!!


I take protein pretty regularly now to stop aches and pain from training and it is marvellous!

[Scrap]

Quads are for show Hametrings are for go Stretch

[donnydarkoIRL]

Quads are for show Hametrings are for go Stretch

Ironically Scraps signature pretty much defines my new philosophy on stretching and flexability.

[Trainer Monkey]

I have incredibly tight hammies,youve got to stretch em

[Bomp]

Hamstring problem, well that's been my bane for the past almost 3 years now.

I can imagine the guy's problem probably started similar to mine, the first time I pulled it really bad, but didn't realise the extent of the injury. I couldn't put weight on my leg for a few days and was hobling for weeks, due to my ignorance I didn't realise that it was pretty serious and didn't get treatment on it for a long time.

I wasn't particularly bothered since I wasn't doing any sport competitively at the time, and eventually after mny months of stretching and that I was able to run on it for a few miles which was all I wanted at the time (but no sprinting at all).

Getting serious with boxing training almost two years later I realised the problem never left, so finally went to a physio. After tearing the hamstring, due to a lack of stretching while recovering, the muscle fibres didn't grow back straight so it was pretty much a jumbled up mess at the place of the tear leaving a weak spot which would never strengthen at the same rate as the rest of the muscle, so after any sustained period of training I'd be straight back to square one.

Anyway, treatment from the physio included quite vigorous massaging of the problem areas (he could feel the areas which had been cluttered up with crap) followed by ultra sound, and a hell of a lot of stretching when home, eventually leading on to some hamstring excercises to strengthen it.

This was last August/September, the physio couldn't do much after that, it was down to me to get it back up to scratch with stretching and gradual strengthening. By now, It's not as much of a problem (touch wood) when actually boxing and throwing punches and that, though I still have to be careful with conditioning training, there are some excercises (squat thrusts, burpees) that will just make me too sore to train for days rather than improve my fitness.

I'd instruct your colleague to see a physio or some sort of specialist to try and get it sorted, it takes time but is definitely worth it in the long run. Even then he'll probably have to be vigilant every single time he intends to train after that, with a long warm up and stretching before and after excercising. Problem hamstrings can stay with you forever, one example tat springs to mind is Ryan Giggs who's had to limit his conditional training for many years, but he also shows that with proper management of the problem you can still maintain a high level of fitness.

[Scrap]

Bomp right, You here managers and trainers in Sport talking about playing and fitness and theres a quote that creases me up, Its not rocket science is it. No its fucking not its a lot more complicated than Rocket Science, the machine, the Human Body is a lot more complicated thats a fact. They dont know what the fuck they are talking about

[Sharla forgot password]

Thanks for all the input guys,

I'll probably send him a link for this thread and let him see all your answers for himself. Maybe he'll have more to add himself too.

Scrap who is that cute little bub there? A new relative of yours you wanted to proudly show off perhaps? Are congratualtions in order?

[Scrap]

My 1st Grandchild Kate, love her to bits.

[Sharla forgot password]

My 1st Grandchild Kate, love her to bits.

She's a real cutie! Congrats Scrap!

[Trainer Monkey]

My 1st Grandchild Kate, love her to bits.

She's a cutie bro

[Scrap]

Thanks both, she has two good parents both into sport cycling and horses now has 7 teeth and hasnt cried once just smiles all the time. Both parents have careers thats why it took so long. Ive been told they practiced a lot before it happened, never thought it would happen to be honest. But am overjoyed typical grandparent she gets spoiled rotten by my wife and me, shes granddads girl.

[Sharla]

Thanks both, she has two good parents both into sport cycling and horses now has 7 teeth and hasnt cried once just smiles all the time. Both parents have careers thats why it took so long. Ive been told they practiced a lot before it happened, never thought it would happen to be honest. But am overjoyed typical grandparent she gets spoiled rotten by my wife and me, shes granddads girl.

Wow she's a gem not being a crier - especially with 7 teeth already through! I came out 6 weeks early because I was an impatient little s**t and apparently all I did for ages was cry!

She must be happy being part of a sporty family (I like it) and since I think her granddad has said in posts before he aims to live to 100 he might one day be a great grandad too

My older bros fiance is getting clucky so I'm hoping I'll be an auntie in a year or two