Hamstring Injury Prevention Tips

If you’re like me and were involved in some sort of athletics in your life that involved lots of fast running, quick acceleration and deceleration, and training nearly year round for enhanced speed and power- you’ve probably injured your hamstring at one point or another.

I think I’ve racked up 3 or 4 hamstring strains on each leg in my own athletic career. NOT COOL. A typical grade 1 hamstring strain (minor strain/tweak) can put you out for anywhere from 7-14 days before you’re back to full speed. Grade 2 pulls are a little more severe, and Grade 3 pretty much will put you out indefinitely (partial or complete tear). It’s very unfortunate that these injuries happen- but the good thing is, they can be prevented if you do things correctly in your training.

From personal experience and my own research, the majority of hamstring pulls during sprinting occur when the athlete is fatigued and the hips begin to drop. Think about it- you’re tired but you want to bang out that last 50m sprint in practice because “More is Better” right? WRONG. Even world class speed coach Charlie Francis says it best “…the more likely issue was the knee which would likely affect normal mechanics and/or hip height- known, strong risk factors for ham injuries.” (CharlieFrancis.com Forums) So what can we do to prevent this from happening in your own training? Read on!

1.) Stretch/Foam Roll/Mobility Work Must be done!- A proper warm-up is critical prior to training. Very simple; most athletes are pretty tight, especially in the hips. Performing some basic stretching, foam rolling, and mobility work prior to training is important so that the athlete is warm, the nervous system is prepped, and the joints/muscles are ready for the intense work ahead. Mike Boyle suggests the following order prior to training: Foam Roll, then light static stretching series, then get your mobility/activation work in. Don’t make this into a workout itself though! 10-20 minutes max should be sufficient.

2.) Get the Posterior Chain Strong!- Nothing is worse than having a weak backside. It’s not conductive to great speed and it leaves you open to further injury. During top speed running, the glutes are the primary hip extensors, followed by the hamstrings (secondary hip extensor). If these muscles are weak or inactive (not ‘firing’ properly), injury will happen sooner or later as a weak muscle cannot absorb the necessary forces applied during sprint training. Performing exercises in the weight room that strengthen this area are critical; forget isolation exercises, work heavy compound lifts that hit all the hips extensors at once, such as deadlifts, lunges, glute-ham-back raises, squats, cleans, etc.

3.) STOP Training SLOW- It makes me cringe when I hear that athletes are running mile repeats for speed training. Sounds weird doesn’t it? It still happens today and I have no clue why. Why on Earth would a football player EVER need to run a mile non-stop, or ANY team sport athlete for that matter. Performing high quality sprints with complete recovery will ensure the athlete is NOT fatigued and that every repetition can be performed with optimal form, technique, and relaxation. At any point during SPEED training fatigue starts to set in, or the hips drop during top speed running, or any other signs of fatigue, it’s always best to cut your losses and come back the next day. When it comes to true speed development, it’s best to undertrain and come back rested/un-injured rather than try to push through endless repetitions, injure a hamstring, and set yourself back a couple weeks. Be smart, regulate volume, and work your way up in distance and intensity gradually.

4.) LESS is MORE- You don’t have to sprint 5 days a week to get faster. In fact, that’s probably the dumbest thing you could ever do. Your body needs rest in between high intensity speed sessions; a general rule of thumb is 48-72 hours before you perform your next speed session. So if you run sprints on Monday, give yourself until Wednesday or Thursday to get back at it again. From personal experience, most athletes do just fine by having 2 “speed” days in a given week; some higher level athletes can get by with 3 speed days though. Again, less is more though.

Putting it all together

Now that you have these guidelines in place, I hope that this will lead to smarter training programming and ensure that you don’t injure yourself. It’s very frustrating when things like this happen, but if you have proper planning in place and listen to your body, you can prevent this sort of thing from happening.Sometimes the unexpected can happen too; stay tuned for the next part of this series where we discuss what to do and how to treat hamstring pulls if this ever happens!

Questions/Comments? Leave them below and I’ll answer them for ya!

See ya!

John Cortese