Hamstring Training & Injury Prevention
Getting a hamstring injury is a nightmare for any track athlete.
Whether it’s a strain, a tear, or even a tweak, hamstrings injuries can be severely debilitating for track athletes. And, unfortunately, hamstring injuries are one of the most common injuries in track and field.
That is because hamstrings are heavily used in track and field. Hamstring muscles are responsible for hip and knee movements in sprinting, jumping, running, and walking. Movements that occur at maximum velocity, like sprinting, exert a particularly intense force on the hamstrings.
In this article, we’ll go over the biomechanics of the hamstrings, the common causes of hamstring problems, and how to prevent hamstring injuries.
Jump to exercises to avoid hamstring injuries.
What are the Hamstrings? And what do they do?
The hamstrings refer to the group of muscles in the back of the thigh. It is made up of three individual muscles, called the Biceps Femoris [which has a short and long head], Semimembranosis, and Semitendinosis.
This muscle groups crosses over the knee joint and hip joint. Accordingly, this group of muscles plays a major role in hip extension and knee flexion. They are also crucial for stabilizing the knee joint during movement.
What factors increase the chance of hamstring injury?
Hamstring injuries can be the result of various different factors.
Non-modifiable factors, like age and pre-existing injuries, cannot be changed, but they do impact your chance of getting a hamstring injury. In particular, those with previous ankle injuries are far more likely to suffer a hamstring injury on the same leg as their ankle injury.
Modifiable factors are aspects of your training or physical condition that can be changed to decrease your risk of hamstring injury.
These factors include:
inadequate flexibility
inadequate muscle strength and/or endurance
dyssynergic muscle contraction – caused by a lack of agility training
insufficient warm-up and stretching before activity
poor running form
return to activity before recovery from a previous injury
All these factors can often be prevented by adding various stretching routines or additional exercises to your regular training. For working on flexibility & warm-up, see these warm up drills. For agility training, practice ladder workouts and hurdle drills. Finally, for strengthening routines, keep reading.
What causes most hamstring injury?
Generally speaking, hamstring injuries occur when one is rapidly switching between positions that require intense contraction and place load on the hamstring. During sprints, the athlete is required to switch rapidly from eccentric to concentric contraction in the stretch-shortening cycle.
Allyson Felix in the 4x400 - London 2012
Several studies have illustrated that muscle strain occurs due to excessive strain in eccentric contraction, and the speed and duration of muscle elongation impacts the severity of an injury.
So, the majority of hamstring injuries often occur when an athlete is running close to their maximum speed.
In addition, forces that are placed on the hamstring that try to extend an already contracted muscle can lead to injury. This is common when suddenly decelerating after sprinting. (This is why it’s important to decelerate slowly after a sprint) These actions burden the tendons, joints, ligaments, and muscles in the back of the thigh which can lead to internal tearing.
These imbalances in the power and strength of antagonistic muscle pairs aer one of the main reasons for injury of hamstrings muscles.
Exercises To Do to Avoid Injury:
Unfortunately, if hamstring injuries are left alone, they will not go away. If you simply stop running, the problem will not be corrected. You need to address why your hamstring hurts in the first place.
Several sports studies have shown that the incidence of hamstring injuries in sprinters can decrease as agility and flexibility are added to strength training. More holistic training better adapts the body to high-speed muscle contractions that occur during maximum velocity running.
Strengthening the muscles of the back of the thigh with concentric and eccentric movements is also very important.
Below are various yoga poses, strengthening workouts, and dynamic drills to incorporate to improve agility, hamstring strength, and hamstring flexibility.
Yoga Poses
Yoga can be one of the most effective methods of strengthening your muscles while gaining flexibility. The following yoga poses are beneficial to increasing hamstring strength, flexibility, and balance.
DEEP PSOAS STRETCH LUNGE
To do the deep psoas stretch lunge, get into a lunge position. Move your hips towards the ground, while keeping your knees from falling too far forward and keeping the pelvis square to the leg in front. You can alternate between pointing the heel towards your body and away from it to get a deeper stretch in different areas. Repeat on the other side.
Additional Posas Stretches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22xp4Qk9SF0&ab_channel=SETFORSET
PIGEON STRETCH
Extend one leg back behind you, keeping your hip space closed. Bring the knee on that side to the same wrist. The shin can be perpendicular to the front edge of your mat, or in towards the groin (~45 degrees).
Avoid having one hip higher than the other or one hip in front of the other. Adjust the back leg so it is long and extended on the mat, top of the foot pressing down.
Dynamic Movements
The dynamic stretching exercise consisted of walking lunge, hurdle walking forward, and hurdle walking backward.
STRAIGHT-LEG MARCH
Kick one leg out in front of you with your toes flexed toward the sky. Reach your opposite arm to your toes. Lower the leg and repeat with the opposite leg. Continue the sequence for at least 10 reps.
SCORPION
Lie on your stomach with your arms outstretched and feet flexed. Kick your right foot toward your left arm then kick your left foot toward your right arm. Begin slowly and build up to 12 times per side. Form is critical for this exercise. Make sure the chest stays on the floor and the opposite leg remains still.
HIP FLEXOR STRETCH
Place an exercise ball against a wall. Get into a lunge position with your left hip pressing against the ball. Press into the ball with the hip of the leg behind you. Keep your hips square. and your torso lifted upwards. To increase the intensity of the stretch, extend your backwards leg farther out.
INCHWORMS
Stand straight with your legs together. Bend over until both hands are flat on the ground. Walk with your hands forward until your back is almost extended. Keeping your legs straight, inch your feet toward your hands, then walk your hands forward again. Engage your lower abs to keep your back straight throughout the workout.
SPIDER MAN
Get down on all fours in a plank position. Raise your right foot off the floor and externally rotate the leg. Flexing your core, bring your right knee to the outside of the right elbow. Place the right foot on the ground at this position. Then, bring your left leg to your left shoulder in the same manner. Repeat the action moving forward as you do.
Strengthening Exercises
SINGLE LEG DEADLIFT WITH BANDS
NORDIC HAMSTRING LIFTS
Nordic hamstring lifts are a great exercise for developing hamstring strength. These exercises been suggested to be more effective than leg curls at increasing eccentric hamstring strength and developing higher maximal eccentric hamstring torques.
ARABESQUE SQUATS
Start standing with feet shoulder width apart and feet pointing forwards. Lower your butt into a bodyweight squat position, lowering slowly with control for about 2-3 seconds. Then, extend one leg behind you while flexing your toes. Hold this leg behind you then slowly lower it. Repeat on the other leg.
Tight Hamstrings:
Another aspect of hamstring injuries is having tight hamstrings. Track athletes may sometimes find that rather than a severe injury, their hamstrings are extremely tight. Tight hamstrings pull the pelvis down. This results in the back muscles lengthening which can cause back pain. When your hamstrings feel tight, it is likely due to having reduced hamstring stretch.
Tight hamstrings are common because of poor posture and/or a sedentary lifestyle. In your daily activity, make sure to sit upright and break long periods of sitting by getting up to walk/stretch.
In conclusion, due to the hamstrings’ significant influence in hip and knee movements, track and field athletes are more prone to get hamstring injuries. Hamstring injury can be avoided through proper warm-up and training that focuses on hamstring agility, flexibility, and strength. In daily life, one should try to limit the amount they sit and have great posture when they are sitting.
This Article was inspired from “Train Your Hamstrings” By Joy K