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DR. DAVID ROSENTHAL |
All athletes at some time in their career tend to injure, strain, pull their hamstring muscle.
In high school I played hockey and basketball. Unfortunately, my coaches had no idea of how to prepare the body for athletic performance and how to stretch after activity. This led to chronic hamstring tightness and pain for three days after every game. My hamstrings are tight to this day, 20 years later!
Most dancers will not have very tight hamstrings, however, their incidence of hamstring pulls and tears are high due to there constant lunging, running and jumping.
The key to decreasing the incidence of injury is to be aware of mild hamstring strains and tightness in the muscle. It is also important to stretch correctly and to have balance between the quadriceps (anterior thigh) and hamstrings (posterior thigh).
In this article I am going to discuss the basic anatomy of the hamstring, symptoms of injury, stretching and ways to decrease the incidence of injuries.
Lets begin with anatomy. The hamstring muscles are located in your posterior thigh. They consist of three muscles: the Semimembranosis, Semitendonosis and the Biceps Femoris (long and short heads). They originate from the Ischial Tuberosity of the the pelvis and part of the femur and attach to various portions of your knee, Tibia and Fibula.
Because they span the hip and knee joints, they have two functions; one, to extend the thigh (such as arabesque position), and two, to flex the leg.
Two extremely important structures that are overlooked in hamstring strains are the SACROTUBEROUS LIGAMENT AND THE SACROSPINOUS LIGAMENTS. To some these ligaments are an extension of the muscles. Many times the hamstrings will not release and repair, if there is dysfunction in these two ligaments. Sometimes scar tissue develops between the muscle attachment and the ligament. Stretching the muscle will never get rid of this scar tissue. I have seen immediate benefits and an immediate increase in range when releasing adhesions between these structures utilizing Active Release. (unfortunately you can’t stretch and work these ligaments by yourself).
This is a great picture of the 2 ligaments.
One more important anatomical fact: The Sciatic nerve, which is a combination of the lumbar and sacral spinal nerves, runs down your posterior thigh. Many times muscle spasm in the hamstring can pinch or irritate the sciatic nerve, thereby mimicking a disc herniation with nerve root irritation.
How do you know if it is your hamstring that is causing that posterior thigh pain or that chronic back pain. Remember, the hamstrings attach to your pelvis, which attaches to the spine. A constant pull on the pelvis can cause a low back syndrome.
An easy test for tightness is to try and touch your toes. This is a simple test to check for flexibility of the hamstring..
2 activities which may lead to pain and signal the hamstring as the culprit are the following: 1) Do you have pain in the leg or back when rising from a seated position?
2) Is there pain in the leg or back when walking up stairs?
These two activities cause the hamstring to contract and can give valuable information regarding the muscle.
Stretches
This is a great warm up stretch. Keep your feet shoulders width apart. Bend forward from the hips. Keep your back straight. Do not let your back curve. Hold for 7-10 seconds. If you are doing this correctly, you will feel it in your legs.
This exercise is based on the pilates move. Keep your leg flexed, then slowly extend the leg. Do not rush or bounce this stretch. Nice steady movement, and hold for 5 seconds.
To all those non-dancers. Sitting at a desk for long periods during the day is a prime reason for hamstring tightness. You must try to get up and move 2-3 times an hour. A great stretch for the average office worker is the first standing one. Do that a few times a day to stay loose.
Next month QUADRICEPS
