Hamstring Strain Prehab/Rehab Phase 2

Fix It Friday will feature common injuries/difficulties in dancers with a few tips to improve or prevent them!

This is phase 2 of our rehab/prehab guide to help if you have mild hamstring strain symptoms! Check out phase 1 here.

Hamstring strains are a very prevalent injury in dance & all sports. If it’s too minor for you to seek further medical care or want a few extra exercises, here’s some we use to treat after the pain goes down & only feel after exercise. Though we want to limit aggravating the symptoms still, we want to really start strengthening the muscle, especially eccentrically & isometrically as shown here. Tune in 2 weeks from now for the final phase.

Alt SBall Hamstring March: The hamstring play a large role in hip extension so this is especially good for proximal hamstring irritation. Use the arms at your side for increased stability. Maintain full hip extension throughout, but not lumbar extension, keep core tight. 8-12 reps/side

SL Bridge on Roller: Don’t bend your knee too much, keep pressure on the glutes/hamstrings. Stopping the roller from rolling away keeps hamstrings involved. As gets easier, add holds up to 10 secs. Range should improve over time. 8-12 reps.

SL Eccentric Hamstring Curl (SBall): This is actually a great way to stretch/lengthen your hamstrings. Curl up with two legs to limit overworking the hamstring, then very slowly lower as far as able. Try to keep your hips extended as well. 5-10 secs on the lowering phase, 5-15 reps as gets easier.  

Every exercise should feel hard, but not impossible. Start with higher reps, then as able, increase resistance as get into the lower rep range.

Repeat these exercises 3 times 3-4 days a week. Can decrease to 2-3 times per week when feeling better and incorporate them into phase 3 once all feeling good and allowed a couple weeks for recovery. If pain is already very high, unlikely a few new exercises will help, you likely need a more specialized program. Fix It just features 2-3 exercises we use for given challenges.

This is not medical advice. This is general exercises performed for this condition. Please seek professional advice for injuries or pain persisting over time. If general exercise gives you pain, you likely need more specific and direct attention. Take care of your body.

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Scott DPT
#BeyondCrunchesandPilés