Anyone ever had a hamstring injury?

[Savak]

This is the first time i have ever had it in my life. Funny thing is that it has not happened due to playing any sport or doing any strenuous activity. I just remember waking up one fine day 6 weeks ago with a sharp pain behind my right leg b/w the buttocks and thigh area.

I thought it would self heal and the pain would go away with rest but it actually has only gotten worse and it becomes painful to put any pressure on the leg or to even sit which puts pressure on the hamstring.

I must give hats off to all these cricketers because it can be a painful, annoying injury.

I finally went to a Doctor a few days ago who i recommended i get an ultra sound done. Am awaiting the results now

Anyways thought i would ask whether has anyone ever had a hamstring injury before. How do you heal it and deal with it?

 

[Smbhayi]

used to have earlier when playing football or putting big dive. sometimes even in sleeps and that's the real pain. mostly get over within 30 minutes.

 

[F0ulu]

I have had it multiple times on my right hamstrings. I am not a sports guy myself but since I have ulcerative colitis and immense weight loss as a result, I often work out to maintain physical fitness to some extent. The first time I had the injury, it was during stiff leg deadlifts. I guess I overstretched the hamstring of my right leg because my hamstrings have very little flexibility and I can never touch my toes without bending my knees. So when I first had the injury, I remember how bad the pain was-- Unexplainable enormity thereof. The bar dropped off my grip and I gave in to myself falling on the ground. It took 2 weeks to recover from that horror but ever since, my right hamstring has always been weak and I often get it strained from unknown things I can not even figure out myself. Sometimes, the strain happens in my sleep, and I only realize it as soon as I wake up. Then I know the next few days would probably be hell, and they often are. Therewhile, when under that terrific pain, I can not fully bend nor fully straighten my right leg and keeping a sort of in-between posture kinda brings the pain down but never truly alleviates it.
The good thing is that I have recently graduated and become a doctor, and I also did a rotation in orthopedics so I know of a couple of good things that can be done to make pain bearable for the duration of healing. Applying topical cryotherapy balms (like BIOFREEZE) really helps, and taking a combination of analgesic + a muscle relaxant (eg Nuberol forte) is pretty much the staple mode of early treatment. Later, once the injury has healed, there are a lot of hamstring stretch exercises that you can do to increase their flexibility and make it less likely for the strain/pull to ever happen again.
I think that ever since I have started to do those stretch exercises, I can definitely feel that my right hamstring has regained strength to some level--although never quite back to its normality before the first injury.
If you want to know about those stretching exercises, feel free to PM me.

 

[RickyG]

I had an ACL reconstruction using the hamstring tendon as a graft. A couple of weeks after the surgery, I had a partial tear in the hamstring because it was weakened while I was trying to kick off shoes. Since then, I've hurt my hamstring twice as well. I've played sports all my life including soccer and never even pulled my hamstring.

Yours sounds a little more serious because if it's a strain or partial tear, it should heal itself in a week or two and you'll have to do exercises to strengthen your hamstring and stretches to keep it nice and loose. You might have a grade 3 tear.