Health Answers

People take up running and jogging in order to improve their cardiovascular health and to keep themselves in tip top condition. However, as with many other physical activities an athlete can be incapable of performing due to an injury for days or weeks, and in the worse case scenarios, even months.

Hamstring injuries are one of the main types of injuries sustained by sportspeople. Sometimes you will hear runners asking how soon after their hamstrain injury will they be able to run again.  This is confusing because although this type of injury is a strain, the correct name for it is not in fact a hamstrain, but a hamstring.

These muscles are located in the back of the thigh and there are three different muscles within the group.  They are called hamstring muscles because if they are cut the person is literally “hamstrung” or incapable of walking.

The three muscles are the biceps femoris, semitendonous and semimembranosus and they are attached at the bony prominence in the buttocks and the back of the knee.  They are in charge of the power behind each running or walking stride and you will find many sprinters are well developed in this area to give them the power to thrust forward from the blocks.

Hamstring injuries occur when the runner is not warmed up enough before starting out, when he stretches too energetically or as a result of constant physical stress. When the knee bends and the thigh moves backwards in relation to the trunk of the body the runner will most surely feel pain.

This topic will be continued in the next post as we continue to discuss hamstring injuries and how long you should wait before resuming your running or jogging.

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