Recurring hamstring injuries are one of the most common issues in sport. It’s normal to be carrying niggles or minor injuries from time to time; that’s just part of playing a sport or being active.
It is when these injuries don’t fully recover or recur time and again that things need to looked at a little deeper.
The first questions that need answering are:
Is the pain you are experiencing actual damage or injury to the soft tissue of the hamstring?
Is the pain what is known as neuropathic in nature, which basically means; is your brain thinking there is a problem when there actually isn’t?
The answers to these questions will and should have huge ramifications on the type of rehabilitation required. The problem though with a lot of traditional points of view are that recurring hamstring injuries are treated as the name implies, an actual injury.
Far too often any pain experienced by an athlete is instantly treated like an actual injury to the area affected. But when scans are completed there is frequently no signs of damage or inflammation. So the pain or tightness in the hamstring is put down to the muscles being weak. Here follows an intensive course of strengthening exercises, stretches and massages to try and make that muscle strong again.
But what if the muscle is already strong?
What if the hamstring is not the real cause for the pain?
What is going in the rest of the body? Can your ankles move to their full potential? Can your pelvis move freely? Is your lower back or neck stiff or struggling with niggles?
Why might the subconscious part of your brain see the movements that cause pain as dangerous when there is no actual “injury” of note?
Are you feeling burnt out or stressed?
These are all questions that simply must be explored when looking at a recurring injury of any sort, but particularly when assessing a hamstring issue.
If the medical team around you aren’t looking at these variables then perhaps you are missing out on one of the underlying cause(s) of your pain. It is important to look at injury of a dynamic and important part of your body through a critical lens and take into account as many of the variables and connections to other parts of your body as possible. This is why what we do here is different. We assess your movement potential, looking at the movement of every joint and take into account their limitations or increased ranges.
We think about how these limitations may affect or are affecting your movement/power potential and how/why this may be contributing to your pain or injury.
We test the musculoskeletal system through a functional neurology lens, looking at the ability of muscles like your hamstring to be able to fully contract or lengthen in all ranges and joint positions.
If there are limitations of movement ability or weakness/inhibition of muscles or movement, instead of just releasing the tight areas or prescribing strengthening exercises, we help find what is CAUSING those to occur in the first place. If you treat treat the underlying causes for pain or movement limitation, the brain no longer needs to keep your hamstrings or hip flexors tight. There won't be any need to feel pain. They will be able to resume their normal job.
But say for arguments sake you did have an injury or surgery to your hamstring or one of the muscles or joints around that area. These same questions need to be answered and improvements in the ability to move fully and for the brain to do so in a manner that feels safe.
It is important to realise that just because your injury or surgery has healed, it doesn’t necessarily mean your brain thinks that area is safe again.
What we do here is facilitate changes to the nervous system so that areas/movements that were once seen as dangerous (creating limitations in movement or pain), are no longer viewed as something that can cause harm or needs to be avoided.
Don’t presume, test.
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