Hamstring injury
Overview
Hamstrings are the muscles at the back of your thighs. You can injure them when playing sports or exercising. You can usually treat mild injuries yourself.
Symptoms
A hamstring injury can sometimes happen when you're exercising or playing sport. You may feel a sharp pain in the back of your leg, as the hamstring is damaged. If the injury is severe, you may also feel a snapping sensation or hear a ‘pop’. After the injury, the back of your thigh may feel tender to the touch and become swollen and bruised after a few hours. You may have difficulty standing or walking using the affected leg.
Treatment
You can treat mild to moderate hamstring injuries yourself. For the first 2 to 3 days, follow these 5 steps known as PRICE therapy: Protection – protect your leg from further injury.Rest – stop any exercise or activities and try not to put any weight on the injury.Ice – apply an ice pack (or a bag of frozen vegetables) wrapped in a tea towel to the injury for up to 20 minutes every 2 to 3 hours.Compression – use a tubular or standard elastic bandage around your injured leg (it should be snug but not tight); take it off before going to sleep.Elevate – keep your leg raised on a pillow as much as possible. To help prevent swelling, try to avoid heat (such as hot baths and heat packs), massages or drinking alcohol for the first 3 days. When you can move your leg without pain stopping you, try to keep moving it so your hamstring does not become stiff. Mild hamstring injuries usually get better in a few days. Severe hamstring injuries can take weeks or months to heal and may need treatment from a specialist. If your injury is taking longer to heal than expected, or you've had previous hamstring injuries, you may need to see a physiotherapist. There may be specific exercises they can show you that can speed up your recovery and prevent further hamstring injury. You can getphysiotherapyfor free on the NHS, but there may be a long waiting list. Staff at your GP surgery may be able to advise you about how you can get NHS physiotherapy in your area. Surgery may be needed for the most serious types of hamstring injury where there has been a complete tear of the muscle. During surgery, the hamstring is repaired using stitches or plastic clasps. It takes several months to recover afterwards.
Prevention
There are things you can do to reduce the risk of hamstring injury. It’s especially important to follow this advice if you've had a hamstring injury in the past and want to avoid it happening again. improve your fitness levels gradually if you’ve not done much exercise in a while – avoid strenuous sports like football until you’re feeling fit enough improve your fitness levels gradually if you’ve not done much exercise in a while – avoid strenuous sports like football until you’re feeling fit enough warm up before exercising– this helps keep the muscles flexible warm up before exercising– this helps keep the muscles flexible stop any sport or exercise you’re doing if you start to feel pain in your hamstrings stop any sport or exercise you’re doing if you start to feel pain in your hamstrings do not exercise if you’re feeling tired – you’re more likely to get an injury if your muscles are tired do not exercise if you’re feeling tired – you’re more likely to get an injury if your muscles are tired