British athlete conquers hamstring injury
Treat your self like a commonwealth hero
Success despite Hamstring Injury
Congratulations to Greg Rutherford on winning a gold medal in long jump at the commonwealth games despite the injuries he has recently had. Greg suffered a hamstring injury which threatened his participation in the games. With careful physio treatments and a new coach he managed to come back, compete and win.
Hamstring injuries can cause huge problems to sportsmen and women. They can often reoccur and can be very persistent.
Ok, so we are not all gold medalists and able to afford all kinds of therapies and professionals advising us of every detail of our training programme but, not being able to participate in your normal training regime or being out of action can still be just as frustrating.
Thankfully there are a few things you can do to help!
Hamstring muscles are located at the back of your leg and are in fact tendons which allow you to bend your knee and extend your leg behind you.
Hamstring injuries happen when there is a sudden and explosive movement such as long jump. You can feel a “POP” or a tear. Pain and swelling often follow.
Hamstring injuries occur with differing severities and can last for between a few days and months.
In the first few days the advice we give is to rest the injury. Apply ice (wrapped in a tea towel) for 20 minutes 2 or 3 times a day, use a compression bandage to help reduce the pain and swelling and take time to put your feet up – literally, by keeping your leg raised which will help to reduce the swelling.
It’s important once the swelling has gone down that you return to some kind of exercise – swimming and gentle walking are great for this. Becoming inactive can cause further injury as it can shorten your hamstrings and complicate matters further.
Here at Sanderstead Physio we can advise you as to the extent of your injuries and plan a suitable plan of exercise and treatment to help you recover. Here at Sanderstead Physios we understand time is precious to you; we understand that you don’t want those niggling injuries to hang around; we understand that you need to get training again as soon as possible.
Hamstring injuries often reoccur time and time again unless treated properly so if in any doubt come and see us and we can advise and get you back into your normal training regime again whether its competing, regular training or being able to manage a walk to work.