Hamstring Strain

A pulled hamstring strain is every sprinter or speed athletes nightmare. You warm-up well, do a couple sprints at 90% and then all of a sudden when you go into a full out sprint, you feel a grab on the back of your leg. It’s an incredibly frustrating experience and many speed athletes, whether it’s soccer, track and field, or football, experience some degree of a hamstring strain during their competitive career.

The conventional wisdom is that a hamstring strain should be rested. Unfortunately, this often results in re-injury when athletes try to return to sport without going through a proper rehab process. Short durations of rest are certainly okay in the early stages (the first few days). However a hamstring strengthening protocol should be implemented as soon as possible after the injury has occurred to make certain that the hamstring is stronger than it was prior to the injury and that both sides are adequately strong to prevent future injury in the opposite leg.

A sample rehab protocol would consist of:

1. Hamstring curls (see video below)
2. Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) (see video below)
3. Nordic hamstring curls
4. Swiss ball roll-outs
5. Bridge walk outs
6. Single leg RDLS
7. Romanian Deadlift (RDL) (see video below)
8. Tantrums (see video below)

There are many modifications to these exercises and athletes at Kadalyst will be taken through a series of these along with other exercises to ensure that your lower body strength is higher than it was prior to injury.

​Below are a few samples of what rehab will look like. This will depend on what your current pain levels are and what your goals are!

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