Hamstring Injury Rehab and How to Prevent Hamstring Injury

If you hurt your hamstring, it is imperative that you engage in a proper hamstring injury rehab or you will likely get hurt again. To be a successful athlete again, you need to know how to prevent hamstring injury. Nothing is more frustrating then getting hurt and sitting out for two months only to get hurt again. When it comes to hamstring injuries, athletes do this all of the time.

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Before You Can Prevent Hamstring Injury

A proper hamstring injury rehab cannot even be done until you are capable of doing the rehab exercises. A lot of athletes go hard too fast and start doing weight exercises to build strength without first making sure the hamstring has been healed.

It is essential that you see a healthcare provider as soon as possible after an injury. A healthcare provider with skills more geared towards sports medicine will be able to evaluate what grade of hamstring injury you have and help you come up with a game plan to get back to play as quickly as possible. That is the critical part here. Most MDs will tell you to rest and ice for six weeks, and often you come back from that rest still in pain.

What Skills Should You Look For Before Hamstring Injury Rehab?

Graston
Active Release Technique
Fascial Stretching
Trigger Point
Laser Therapy
Acupuncture
Dry Needling
and More…

The important thing you are looking for is healthcare providers that are always learning and bettering their skills. The ones that are always learning will do everything they can to get you back quickly with the latest and most effective treatments.

Seeing a health care provider early on will help ease the stress of an injury because you won’t have to think about what to do anymore. They will take on that burden so you can focus on executing the plan.

Keys to Prevent Hamstring Injury

Once you get back to having normal flexibility and the healthcare provider has gotten you strength close to normal levels, you are ready for the real hard part. The rehab is what will get you the point where you will get two important things. You will get back to normal strength levels, but you will also help prevent hamstring injury in the future.

Video 1 on How to Prevent Hamstring Injury – Glute Strength

Glute activation is the first step to preventing hamstring injury. The glute is a big muscle that lies dormant much of the time. The reason it is dormant is that of how much we sit. The sitting shuts the glutes down. Before you train, you need to do everything you can to wake the glutes up before doing any sprinting.

Video 2 on How to Prevent Hamstring Injury – Eccentric Hamstring

Training the hamstring to be strong means working on the eccentric movement. The hamstring needs to be able to be strong as it is getting longer. That is exactly what happens when you are running fast. For the foot to reach the ground, the hamstring needs to contract to slow the foot down.

Video 3 on How to Prevent Hamstring Injury – Isometric Hamstring

Isometric hamstring work is what keeps the hamstring strong through the last phase of running. That is right when your foot hits the ground. At that moment, there is a split second where your hamstring isometrically contracts.

Hamstring Injury Prevention Keys

In the long run, the key to hamstring injury prevention is to stick with what helped you get healthy. What a lot of athletes will do is start rehab because they are hurt, and the second they feel good they stop. When you do this, you don’t partake in any maintenance of everything you built.

Think of it like going in the weight room during the offseason and then as soon as the season starts never touching another weight again. Everything you built will go away in time, and the same is true of your rehab.

Tips On How to Prevent Hamstring Injury

Write down all rehab exercises you do
Do them all at least once a month
Do the important ones at least every other week
Don’t overdo it
Resist the temptation to stop because you feel great
Remember that the goal is to keep feeling good

What If You Are Struggling to Prevent Hamstring Injury On Your Own

Sometimes you can ice all you want, but a muscle is in pain because another area is not working or because it is protecting you. With the hips, for example, your back may be hurting because your psoas is doing too much work and it is also tight. The psoas may be doing too much work because your other hip flexors are not activating correctly. The chain reaction could keep going.

Sometimes you need the help of a sports medicine provider. Sports medicine providers are used to working with athletes that need to get results quickly, to get back on the field. If you are not an athlete, I am sure that you still want quick results.

There are many different options you can go with when looking for a provider. You could get a chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist or many other options. The key is finding someone you trust and that you are excited to work with.

How to Find The Best Healthcare Providers to Prevent Hamstring Injury

9INE POINT Health is the best place to find the health care providers you need for any injuries. It does not matter where you are hurting; a 9INE POINT Health provider will be able to get you healthy again. 9INE POINT allows you to find the best local providers and compare them quickly using the 9INE POINT Number.

If you have no idea what you need, but you know you need something, 9INE POINT Health is an injury guide, and you will get helped through the process. We make it easier for you to find the information and the person you are looking for.