What is Hamstring Tendonitis?

The hamstrings refer to 3 long posterior leg muscles, the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus. These muscles start at the bottom of your pelvis extending down the back of your thigh and along either side of your knee, to your lower leg bones.

The lateral hamstring is the biceps femoris (made up of 2 parts - a short head and long head) and the medial hamstrings are the semitendinosus (joins the sartorius muscle and gracilis muscle at the pes anserinus on the tibia) and the semimembranosus (the largest hamstring muscle). The tendons for these muscles begin at your ischial tuberosity, or ischium (the bony bump under each buttock), and attach on the outer edges of your shinbones (tibia and fibula) just below the back of your knee.

The posterior upper leg muscles provide your knees with mobility (extension, flexion and rotation) and strength. They work closely with your quadriceps muscles at the front of your thigh, your gluteal muscles, and your calf muscles to ensure proper movement of your leg and hip.

Your hamstring muscles control movement of your torso, hips and knees, help turn your legs in and out. They also provided power for activities that include a lot of propulsion, thrust and control, such as jumping, climbing, and running.

They allow your knee to bend and pull your leg backward while propelling your body forward when you move (your thigh straightens and extends the leg back at the hip). The muscles act as a brake to stop an action and you can feel this when walking or running downhill, landing from jumps or performing squats, and when trying to stop quickly after sprinting.

The biceps femoris hamstring muscle is the most frequently injured, as it suffers the largest stretch during sprinting, followed by the semitendinosus muscle. If you have a multi-muscle injury, it normally occurs at the point where your hamstring muscles and tendons meet (musculotendinous junction) at the top of the hamstring muscles.

What are the symptoms of Hamstring Tendinitis?

Hamstring pain when your dealing with hamstring tendinitis causes an aching and stiffness which become more noticeable first thing in the morning. You may feel weak in the knee and swelling in the thigh and calf muscles. You may fell a gradual pain in the back of the knee when continues to get worse with activity. Hamstring tightness can lead to knee pain, hip pain, thigh pain, and even back pain.

What causes Hamstring Tendinitis?

The most common cause of hamstring tendonitis is through overuse of the hamstring muscles. Sports that involve a lot of running and jumping or rapid changing of speed while running. Normally an injury as a result of overuse, hamstring tendonitis can also occur suddenly if the tendon becomes over stretched, such as when warm-up exercises or have been missed with a cold down after working out. As well over doing it with a workout or training to much-too-soon, causing the over-strain the hamstring when running, kicking, jumping or skipping movements.

The hamstrings are not regularly used in common everyday motions like walking and standing. For people who are not very active, you may not notice if they have weak hamstring muscles, which leads to hamstring injuries.

However, well conditioned and flexible hamstring muscles are very important to athletes to stabilize the knees and prevent hamstring pain and hamstring injury.

How do I diagnosis Hamstring Tendinitis?

A visit to your doctor is the best way for diagnoses of any type of hamstring / leg pain. To help your doctor achieve a proper diagnosis, he/she will begin with a medical history about you, your current condition and symptoms. He/she will inquire about the intensity of your present pain, the duration of your symptoms and the limitations you are experiencing. Details about what instigated the problem, when it started, and whether or not you have ever had treatments for this or a similar condition in the past, are very helpful in assessing your injury.

Diagnostic testing may be ordered help discover your source of leg pain. Often used to rule out other conditions. MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) will provide more detailed information and will help to evaluate the soft tissues in and around your area of pain (muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues). It can identify ligament or tendon damage, and can help to determine the extent of your injury, the displacement and degree of your tear or inflammation, as well as other associated hamstring conditions.

The good news is that most cases of hamstring Tendonitis will heal with simple home conservative treatments and surgery is often not needed!

It's generally understood by doctors and surgeons, that surgery will introduce more scar tissue into the soft tissue of the hamstring. This added scar tissue will be problematic, requiring visits to the clinic and conservative treatment options post-surgery. This is why surgery is only performed as a last resort for chronic tendonitis injuries that won't heal with conservative treatment methods.

Some conservative treatment methods recommended include:

• Rest - This is important for initial healing because without proper rest you're at risk for increased pain and inflammation. This can make your hamstring tendonitis even worse and turn an acute injury into a chronic one.
• Avoid Activities that Caused Your Injury - While resting your hamstring it's also important to avoid all activities that may have caused your tendonitis. Continuing on with regular activities will not only make your injury worse, but limping just to get by can also wind up giving you over compensation pain in other areas of your body.
• Apply Cold Compression - Immediate cold (using a Cold Compress or Ice Pack) will help you to manage pain while getting rid of the pain and inflammation. Immediate pain relief and reduced inflammation can also relieve some of the pressure that's being placed on your hamstring and stop your injury from getting worse.
• Use Circulation Boost - After any inflammation and/or swelling has been reduced, you can use your own blood flow to maximize healing of damaged tissue and maintain healthy blood flow to your hamstring tendon. This also boost overall long-term healing of this injury.

If your doctor's decided that your leg pain can be treated with conservative treatment, you can join our many customers who have had great success in treating themselves with the powerful, conservative treatment products we offer through AidYourTendon - the Cold Compress or Ice Pack and TShellz Wrap^®.

If you need to have surgery, talk to your doctor about using these same products for post-surgery recovery. You'll find them effective for reducing post-surgery inflammation, enhancing range of motion and minimizing the growth of scar tissue in your hamstring.

Step 1 - Reduce Pain & Swelling with Cold Compression

The 1st step for conservative treatment of your hamstring tendonitis is to reduce the swelling to "open up" the area for more blood flow. Anyone in the health-care business knows that your blood supplies the oxygen and much needed nutrients required to heal any soft tissue injuries. This is why for years doctors, trainers and other medical professional have recommended RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) to treat the pain and swelling of fresh injuries, chronic pain, and after any re-injury.

This is important because once blood vessels are blocked or damaged, they can no longer carry oxygenated blood through the tissue and tissues begin to break-down. Without cold compression, tissue break-down continues as they don't get the oxygen they need to survive. By limiting the amount of damage done to your tendon, you also limit the amount of healing that needs to occur. This is a very important step to heal tendon injuries faster and with less pain! This is why you need to treat your hamstring pain right after it's hurt, when you notice pain / swelling / inflammation, or directly after a re-injury. Applying a Cold Compress or Ice Pack right away will stop the damage immediately and unblock your blood vessels to let your body's natural blood flow in to start healing the tissue.

Step 2 - Improve Circulation, Soften Scar Tissue & Prevent Re-Injury with Circulation Boost

After the inflammation in your hamstring has been reduced, providing extra blood flow and strengthening the tissue around your leg is recommended.

• When treating any soft tissue injury, an effective treatment will increase blood flow to the injury while the joint is immobile.
• This increase in blood flow will help maximize the body's own capability to heal itself.
• In our opinion, the TShellz Wrap^® is the most highly effective, FDA registered medical device designed to stimulate blood flow that is available for home use.

Continue the healing process by resting your leg. Limit the activities that may be aggravate your tendons. Without proper rest and limitation on activities, being active as if your leg is healthy can lead to re-injury. We spend hours on our leg through simple daily routine, recreational activities, exercise, or participating in athletics. To get back to doing the things you love you need to give your body proper care and attention. Why risk having to limit or give up your favorite weekend activity, your exercise routine, or even your job due to an injury?

Prevention and Promotion of Lifelong Health

If you want to avoid re-injury, or manage pain and increase circulation for lifelong health benefits, an Cold Compress or Ice Pack and TShellz Wrap^®, will provide exceptional results. Why spend time in pain, off from work, and missing out on your active lifestyle when you can be proactive about your injury and the health of your body? Talk to your doctor about incorporating a regular routine of using a Cold Compress or Ice Pack and Circulation Boost into your everyday health regimen.

Call one of our AidYourTendon Advisers at no cost or obligation to address any lingering questions you have about using heat or cold for your hamstring injury - toll free 1.866.237.9608

 

Product Advisors are available 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday to Friday.

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During your recovery, you will probably have to modify and/or eliminate any activities that cause pain or discomfort at the location of your soft tissue injury until the pain and inflammation settle. The more diligent you are with your treatment and rehabilitation, the faster you will see successful results!