Muscle length is a fluid and dynamic quality that changes based on the status of the nervous system and muscle fibers themselves. For example, if your hamstrings are extremely stiff after a killer deadlift workout, their fibers and cells are highly sensitive and do not want to be tugged on and stretched.
Therefore, your nervous system knows this and disallows intense stretching. Your muscles did not physically shorten over night, and if worked back into range of motion properly, they will return to a comfortable resting length once the soreness is resolved.
After a hamstring injury, there are some gentle stretching and mobility techniques for the hamstrings and posterior chain that can be helpful. Some gentle mobility is OK, but this should not be a rehab focus until basic movements like lunges, squats, and bridges are pain-free and mobility is seen as a limiting factor. For many, a properly performed lunge or single leg deadlift is a mobility movement by itself. Make single-leg strength training the priority, not just stretching.
Here is a video of some gentle stretching techniques that can be used. Incorporating hip rotation into stretches will ensure the entire hamstring group is stretched equally.
Hamstring rehabilitation involves feedback and monitoring of pain and feeling in the hamstring. The more in tune you are with your body, the better your recovery and rehabilitation will go. It is important, to be honest with yourself and be disciplined here, as it is human and athletic instinct to want to constantly push yourself. Testing limits is OK and necessary. It just needs to be done correctly with the proper thinking and feedback mechanisms. The goal is to continually add progressions and challenges to the exercises while being able to distinguish between good pain, working muscles, stretch vs.
Good pain during a hamstring rehab is a slight stretch or a very small pulling feeling that improves throughout the exercise or set. Good pain is muscular soreness afterward. Bad pain is a strong or painful pull, a tug, and any strength of contraction that would not be able to be tolerated for a second hold.
If you are working with a patient, come up with some mutually shared ways to communicate about stretch vs. Athletes require more advanced ways to increase the strength of their hamstrings and move beyond the basic bridge and isometric progressions. Unilateral exercises can teach body stiffness, core control, balance, and controlled eccentric lengthening along with reciprocal hip movement. They can be beneficial for all athletes, including barbell lifters.
Developing single-leg strength is markedly different than lifting with both your feet on the ground, it will make you stronger and more resilient. These exercises are sure to challenge even the healthiest of hamstrings.
All of these exercises can be progressed with speed as well as weight. Hamstrings are called up on to contract quickly and need to be rehabbed accordingly. The band pulldown recreates the cyclical motion of gait with the swing leg. It can hard very quickly with ample band tension. This exercise also challenges the core and pelvis in a more generalized way to stay level and not get torqued by the band.
Like all of these exercises, increasing the speed makes this significantly more challenging to the hamstrings. At this point, the athlete should be able to resume normal lifting that does not stress the hamstrings. This exercise list includes a more shallow range of motion squats with forward knee bend, think of a front squat, or goblet squat. Pushing a sled can also be great during this time. The concentric work of a marching sled push can be a very effective way to tax the hamstrings. The hamstrings require a high amount of stiffness to propel the body against a sled pushing forward.
This can also serve as an ongoing assessment tool for physical readiness. The sled should be taxing but tolerable for hamstrings. Any sort of deadlifting or posterior chain dominant work should be progressed under the previously stated rules as well: gradually increasing range of motion, load, and speed. During gait or running, as the hamstring is lengthened, so is the contralateral hip flexor.
If you are having recurrent hamstring issues, you might want to look at the opposite anterior chain. Poor hip extension on one hip can make hip flexion of the opposite hip more difficult, thus affecting the hamstring. Here is an example of an active Thomas test that you can do yourself to asses hip flexor mobility and control as well.
The glutes and hamstrings play synergistic roles as powerful extensors of the hip. It would stand to reason that if one glute was weak, for whatever reason, that side hamstring might have to take on more load.
Training hip extension with both glute and hamstring dominant movements is just as important as training knee flexion in the rehab process. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.
Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Week Surging : Performed whilst performing the above continuous jog. To progress, reduce the distances in the acceleration and deceleration phases.
Week Sprints : x 50m sprints. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Check out James' marathon training plan for beginners [PDF]. His transition into distance running has taught him what his body is capable of, a process which is ongoing! Read more What is Overpronation? Good morning from Sparti Greece!! I would like to ask if you could inform me by providing me a programm for runners.
I am already running about 12 miles totally per week two or three times on road and I would to increase the distance periodically to 7 miles per time. Hi James excellent info as per usual. Re new runners and some great tips. As a coach I go right to technique as running with bad technique without getting into it right away only inforces bad habits. One of the first things I work on is cadence to get my runners up to or above. Some are naturally there already which is a bonus.
High cadence keep their foot strike low with less impact for injury prevention among other things, speed being one. I find a slight downgrade to run on makes it easier to increase cadence.
This is where an exercise therapist should be used by the physio to make sure the exercise or exercises are done properly to hopefully eleviate the problem. When new runners start it is usually through a running program eg. I say make an appointment with yourself to run at a certain time and this is set in stone.
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