Are hamstring injuries the reason you have to stay out of your favourite game? While playing a sport or exercising, do you experience unanticipated pain that brings you to a stop? This pain can also be felt in the back of your thigh even when you’re out for a walk! There might be slight bruising in that area as well.
Who is Prone to Chronic Hamstring Pain?
Athletes as well as runners and weekend warriors who take part in sports that involve sudden starts and stops like soccer, basketball, or tennis are prone to hamstring injuries. Identifying your hamstring is easy, these muscles are at the back of your thigh and run from your hip to below your knee. Overloading these muscles or stretching them too far can result in a strain in one or more of these three muscles. These can sometimes also result in hamstring tendon (attaches your thigh muscles to the bone) injury.
At 1 Health Medical Centre, our physician can help in determining if your hamstring is badly torn or simply stretched; if the former is true, you’ll need surgery. Having said that, with time, most hamstring injuries do heal without surgery. Here are a few things you can do when you start feeling symptoms to prevent further injury.
Treatment for Chronic Hamstring Pain
Here are a Few Effective Treatments for Hamstring Pain.
Reduce inflammation
Follow the RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) method after a musculoskeletal injury. Resting the injury is essential as soon as you feel symptoms, use ice packs if swelling is present so that you don’t cause further tissue damage. You can also use heat for damaged muscles and an elastic wrap to reduce swelling.
Our physicians at 1 Health Medical Centre can guide you on the use of ice and heat, also topical creams, pain relievers can be recommended to help control pain and reduce inflammation. However, pain medication for long periods of time is not recommended as the side effects may cause serious health complications.
Practice Strengthening and Stretching Exercises
Tight hamstring muscles and tendons are some of the main reasons you may have developed chronic hamstring pain. Our doctors at 1 Health Medical Centre can recommend stretching exercises to you to increase flexibility and improve your range of motion. As you start to feel better and your symptoms subside, the doctor can even ask you to add some hamstring-strengthening exercises to the mix.
Cross-train
It is recommended to cross-train with a low-impact exercise like swimming while you’re healing. This can take time, so be patient while you’re healing.
Injections
Your doctor may give you a steroid injection in case your hamstring doesn’t improve. Alternatively, they could also recommend a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection. These injections make use of your own blood platelets in a highly concentrated amount. The platelets help you heal faster as they contain rich nutrients that immediately rush to the site of your inflammation. In recent times, this regenerative medicine approach has gained a lot of traction in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, showing promise in hamstring tendinopathy.
Needle tenotomy
Needle tenotomy is a minimally invasive treatment in cases where a tendon is the problem, often helps in intransigent hamstring tendinopathy. A small wound is created by the physician with a needle in the tendon, bringing nutrient-rich blood and platelets to the damaged tissue.
You must maintain your cool and stay patient when dealing with hamstring injuries as they tend to take a while to heal. Just Relax and follow your doctor’s instructions as they are experts in the field and can help you get back in the game in the shortest amount of time.
Call 1 Health Medical Centre now or walk into our location and book an appointment for treating chronic hamstring pain and all of your musculoskeletal issues.