What are Hamstrings?
The hamstring is a collection of three large muscles that connect muscles and bones. The location of the hamstring muscles is behind the thigh, precisely along the hip to the bottom of the knee. When standing or walking, the hamstring muscles are not used as much. However, when you do activities that involve bending your knees, such as when running, jumping, and climbing, your hamstring muscles will work very actively.
Causes of Hamstring Injury
The main cause of hamstring injuries is that the hamstring muscles are stretched beyond their ability to stretch during certain activities, such as running or jumping. These injuries are usually the result of the sudden or slow movement, but with excessive pulling or pressure. The following factors can also increase a person's risk of developing a hamstring injury:
Doing sports that involve intense kicking, running, or jumping can cause a hamstring injury. That's why soccer athletes are at high risk for this injury History of Hamstring Injury. People who have had a previous hamstring injury are at risk for it again and usually take a longer time to recover than a first hamstring injury Have Fewer Flexibility Muscles. Muscles that are less flexible are unable to withstand the load or pressure during strenuous physical activity.
Muscles Develop Unequally. According to experts, hamstring injuries can also be caused by unbalanced muscle development, for example when the quadriceps muscles are stronger than the hamstring muscles.
Hamstring injuries are generally divided into three grades, namely:
Grade 1: the pull that occurs in the hamstring muscles is still light
Grade 2: partial hamstring tear
Grade 3: the tear occurs in all parts of the hamstring muscle
Hamstring Injury Symptoms
Symptoms that you will feel if you have a hamstring injury include pain in the back of your thigh like something is torn or broken, accompanied by swelling, pain, and bruising. You may also have difficulty standing or bearing weight on the injured area.
How to Prevent Hamstring Injury
So, if you often do sports that use your hamstring muscles a lot, do the following to avoid hamstring injuries:
- Warm-up before exercising and cool down after.
- Perform regular hamstring stretching and strengthening exercises to prevent hamstring injuries.
- If you want to increase the intensity of the exercise, do it gradually. Immediately stop exercising if you feel pain in the back of the thigh.
How to Overcome a Hamstring Injury
However, if you already have a hamstring injury, here are ways to reduce the pain and swelling:
- Get plenty of rest and avoid doing activities that use the legs excessively.
- Position the legs higher than the heart to reduce swelling.
- Compress the injured leg using a towel containing ice cubes to reduce pain and swelling.
- Use an assistive device for a while walking so that the injured leg does not bear too much weight.
- Wrap the injured area with a bandage to reduce swelling.
If the pain is excruciating enough, you can take pain relievers such as ibuprofen and paracetamol which are also useful for reducing swelling.
Comments
Post a Comment