Hamstring Strains in Speed Sport Athletes

I’m a lifter but I also engage in a lot of weekend type sport activities where I'm required to sprint.  The only trouble is, I keep pulling my hamstrings during intense sprints.  What's going on?  How can I remedy this in the gym?

You are not the only one! The incidence of hamstring strains in sport is ridiculously and unnecessarily high!  There are a number of way you can reduce this.  From a long-term perspective, consider the following :

In my opinion most hamstring tears are a result of an excessively anteriorly rotated pelvis (top if angled forward). This results from

• More quad dominant training than hip dominant training.

• Weaker/less effective adominals than quads.

So from the longer-term picture, get better balance into your training program by :

• Doing your abdoms first in training until they are where they should be.

• For every time a quad dominant exercise appears in any program, ensure a corresponding hip dominant one appears also

• For every time a hip dominant exercise appears high in the sequence of exercises within the workout or week, have  a program where this is true for hip dominant exercises.

• Ensure that the your sprint conditioning is as good as your strength training condition. Don’t expect to be able to develop all you need to prepare yourself to sprint by doing workouts in the gym.  You need to do sprint training to condition yourself to sprint!

Now for the short term :

• Cut right back on squatting and similar quad dominant movements – do it later in the week, lower volume – and raise the sequence and volume of hip dominant exercises such as the deadlift and cleans.

• Do what I call ‘Thin Tummy Variations’ or similar lower abdominal training a few times a day, 4-6 days a week.

• And do go to your sprinting activity with fatigued legs! This will only increase the likelihood of tears!

• Ensure you warm up and stretch well. While this in itself won’t guarantee you won’t tear, what it will do is give you time to assess the length of the hamstrings. If you note any unusual tightness, keep stretching till it goes. If it doesn’t go away, don’t do the running training! Remember, these are going to be times when your body just isn’t right to do some things safely. Ignoring those warning signs is foolish!

Keep in mind that with a history of strains, the likelihood of re-occurrence is high. This is mainly because many don’t really remove or correct the true cause of the injury in the first place. Rather, they have the symptom treated.  Secondly, with scar tissue in the hamstring, your needs or challenges in preventing reoccurrence are even higher. You will need excellent hands on therapy/massage to ensure this scarring does not cause undesirable adhesions.

Finally, never rush back from a hamstring strain. I have seen so many re-occurrences because of this lack of patience!

© Ian King and King Sports International, Inc. This article is not to be reproduced in part of whole in any format without written permission of the author.

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