The hamstring is a set of tendons attached to the back of your knee. If your upper leg strength is unbalanced somehow you will most likely face hamstring injuries, especially if the front thigh muscles are stronger than the rear tendons. While these types of injuries are common in athletes and absolutely devastating in young children, they can be prevented and treated at home if the condition is not too severe to begin with.
Instructions
1. Treat your strain immediately by resting it, putting ice on it and elevating it. Wear a neoprene thigh sleeve for any activities you perform while recovering, but get medical care for the more severe strains. Make sure you stretch your leg thoroughly before any strenuous activity, particularly during your recovery. Take mild pain killers if needed to relieve the pain and swelling from inflamation.
2. Rest your strained leg because a hamstring injury is usually the result of too much exercise and if you try to treat it with more exercise it generally just makes things worse. It can take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours for an injured tendon to get back to normal again, so resting the injury as much as possible is recommended. Apply an ice pack wrapped in a thick towel to the injured area for about 20 minutes at a time, then 20 more minutes without the ice and repeat until your injury feels better.
3. Stretch the injured leg as slowly as you can as this will help keep the injured tendons loosened up and flexible, which can be a problem in a tendon injury as stiffness sets in easily. Stretching can also help to keep your muscles and tendons from getting injured in the first place which is a benefit all the way around. Prevent re-injury by keeping everything as flexible as possible through stretching.
4. Postpone running for several days to give your hamstring a chance to heal before you injure it more. If you must exercise do it very gradually without going all out like you normally do. This will ease you back into your exercise regimen without causing a lot of pain or further injury.
5. Treat children with hamstring injuries differently than you would an adult. With kids it is quite common for a piece of the bone itself to break off rather than just tearing the tendon away from the bone. Jumping and sprinting are common causes for this painful and disabling condition. Immediate medical care is necessary.
Tags: hamstring injuries, help keep, medical care