Hamstring Anatomy

The hamstring muscles are located on the back of your thigh. They work closely with your quadriceps muscles (front of your thigh), your gluteal muscles, and your calf muscles to ensure proper movement of your leg and hip. They allow your knee to bend, and your thigh to straighten and extend the leg back at the hip. Your hamstring muscles act as a brake to stop an action. You can feel this when walking or running downhill, landing from jumps or performing squats, and when trying to stop quickly after sprinting.

The hamstrings are made up of 3 long muscles that start at the bottom of your pelvis extending down the back of your thigh and along either side of your knee, to your shin bones. The lateral hamstring is the biceps femoris and the medial hamstrings are the semitendinosus and the semimembranosus. The tendons (tough fibers that connect muscle to bone) for these muscles begin at your ischial tuberosity (the bony bump under each buttock, known as your "sit bones") and attach on the outer edges of your shinbone (your tibia and fibula) just below the back of your knee. They help to stabilize your knee. Your hamstrings also have a lot of soft connective tissues and are innervated by your sciatic nerve. This part of your body is prone to injury because it crosses 2 major joints - your hip and your knee.

Hamstring Tendonitis

Hamstring tendonitis is often confused with hamstring tendinopathy or tendinosis. Hamstring tendonitis refers to inflammation (pain, swelling, warmth, redness and dysfunction) in one or more of the hamstring tendons located around the ischial tuberosity and/or just below the knee (on tibia and fibula). Hamstring tendinitis often leads to hamstring tendinosis (tendinopathy) over the long term.

Hamstring tendinopathy (or high hamstring tendinopathy) is a chronic tendon injury that involves degeneration of the hamstring tendons at their attachment to the ischial tuberosity or the shinbones (just below the knee). This type of tendinosis is a result of excessive tension, effort and/or repetitive use of your hamstring muscles and tendons. The initial damage can range from overstretching to partial tearing to complete rupturing of the small fibers that make up your hamstring muscles and tendons. If you do not allow your tissues to heal properly, your previous hamstring injuries will build upon each other. The inability of your tendon to repair itself encourages the microtears to accumulate faster than they can heal, increasing the degeneration in your tissue and reinforcing your pain and disability.

If you have hamstring tendinopathy or tendinosis damage happens at a cellular level - your tendon (which is made up of collagen fibers) becomes weaker and thinner over time and the hamstring tendon fibers begin to fray and separate. The tendon loses its glistening appearance and elasticity, and often changes to a soft texture that is yellow or brown in color (mucus-like appearance). Scar tissue (very fibrous tissue that develops in the healing of wounds) or calcific deposits (calcium phosphate) develop around the injured area which can decrease the blood supply to the tissue.

This condition can be in one or both of your legs and normally affects active people between 30 - 50 years old, especially distance runners, sprinters, tennis players, skaters, and soccer players (or those who participate in team sports with lots of running). Other conditions that are often seen with hamstring tendonitis are bursitis, rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes, avulsion fractures, stress fractures, and/or referred back pain.

Treating Your Hamstring Tendon Injury

It is important to treat hamstring tendon injuries as soon as possible, as any activity or strain you put on your tendon can re-injure it further. Though the pain, discomfort, and inconvenience of a hamstring injury can be overwhelming, it is possible to overcome it.

The trick with any tendon injury is getting it to heal with minimal scar tissue formation and with as much realignment of the tendon fibres as possible - something ultrasound therapy is great at! Even with optimum healing, there is always less elasticity in a previously injured tendon. This can cause the tendon to hurt during exercise and most everyday activities. However, if you heal your injured tendon efficiently and quickly, your chance of re-injury later on is much lower.

Although it is recommended that you rest your hamstring tendons following injury it can be difficult to do as it is an essential tendon for walking and daily activities. Fortunately, there are healing tools that can help treat your tendon and speed up the healing process so you can get back to a life without pain and risk of further injury.

Cold compression therapy, therapeutic ultrasound and BFST^® will reduce pain, swelling and tissue damage, treat scar tissue, and promote blood flow to heal your medial hamstring (semitendinosus tendon and semimembranosus tendon) tendons faster and more completely than any other methods available.

Freezie Wrap^® Cold Compression Therapy

To decrease inflammation of your tendinitis or your tendon strain when it first occurs, doctor's recommend cold compression therapy. For an acute strain, cold compression therapy within the first 48 - 72 hours and after any restrain is important to limit the amount of damage done to your tissue. Cold compression therapy will relieve pain and swelling as needed and will reduce, or even eliminate, the need for NSAIDs and pain medications.

The Leg/Arm Freezie Wrap^® is the cold compression tool you need to treat your hamstring pain in an effective and convenient way. It is so versatile it can be worn anywhere on your body, wherever you need treatment.

Cold Compression Therapy works by interrupting and slowing nerve and cell function in the injured area and reducing swelling that can block blood vessels. This is important because once blood vessels are blocked or damaged, they can no longer carry oxygenated blood through your hamstring tendons and tissue cells begin to break-down. Without cold compression therapy cellular break-down and tissue damage continues as the cells do not get the oxygen they need to survive. By limiting the amount of damage done to your tissue, you also limit the amount of healing that needs to occur. This is a very important step to heal your hamstring tendinitis or tendon strain faster and with less pain!

The deep cooling effect provided by the Freezie Wrap^® slows cell metabolism thereby reducing cellular break-down and tissue damage. Furthermore, because the cold wraps gently numb the nerves, the wraps also reduce pain!

The Freezie Wrap^® uses a supercharged cooling gel pack, that chills in the fridge, not in the freezer like ice or other freezer packs, giving you deep cold therapy without the risk of 'cold burns' or cryoburn.

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Ultrasound Therapy

Ultrasound therapy is a great therapeutic option to compliment your BFST^® treatments. Ultrasound therapy will decrease inflammation and pain and soften scar tissue. Therapeutic ultrasonic waves increase tissue elasticity while promoting healing in your hamstring tendons by opening up the blood vessels to allow greater blood flow.

If you are experiencing pain in your hip, knee, or ankle because of your hamstring injury, you can use therpeutic ultrasound to treat these areas as well. With hamstring pain you often readjust your posture and gait to take the pressure off. This puts extra pressure on other parts of your body and can cause strain. Using a home ultrasound will allow you to treat all the areas that need to heal easily and help you maintain a healthier body.

During the healing process, scar tissue builds up to 'repair' the tiny tears and other damaged tissue. Unfortunately, scar tissue can bind your tendon fibers and other tissue together abnormally. The inflexible scar tissue causes more pain and limits range of motion.

If scar tissue is left untreated your hamstring tendons become less flexible, making movement difficult and causing more pain. At the very least, scar tissue leaves your tendons weaker, and you are at greater risk of further injury. Fortunately, you can treat your hamstring tendons with MendMeShop^® Ultrasound System to soften scar tissue and improve the tightness in your leg and around your knee.

Ultrasound can also be used to administer therapeutic medicines deep into your injured medial hamstring tendons. This is a process known as phonophoresis. Ultrasound therapy with phonophoresis is rapidly becoming more popular than ultrasound therapy alone.

Therapeutic ultrasound with phonophoresis is safe, convenient, and easy and requires 5-10 minutes per treatment. It is based on a form of deep tissue therapy, which is generated through high frequency sound waves (that we can not hear). These waves send micro vibrations into your body and carry medicated molecules within the ultrasound gel deep into your damaged tissue to enhance your ultrasound therapy. Ultrasound waves and medicated ultrasound gel penetrate deep to relax your muscles, decrease inflammation and accelerate your recovery rate, so you can return to your daily activities as soon as possible.

Using MendMeShop^® Lavender Infusion Ultrasound Gel during your ultrasound therapy gives you 2 therapies in 1. You get the benefit of the regenerating sound waves from the ultrasound device itself AND the added bonus of the therapeutic ingredients inside the gel being delivered into your hamstring tendons where it is most effective to reduce your pain and heal. 1 FREE bottle of MendMeShop^® Lavender Infusion Ultrasound Gel comes with every MendMeShop^® Ultrasound Systemand it contains the therapeutic essential oils of natural Bulgarian lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, and menthol.

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Once the inflammation of your hamstring tendinitis or tendon strain has been reduced, nourishing and strengthening the tendon and muscle tissue is recommended. Using Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy^™ will speed your recovery and heal your tendon fibers more completely preparing them for strengthening exercises. Talk to your doctor or physical therapist to find out which exercises are appropriate for your situation.

Inferno Wrap^® Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy^™

After severe inflammation and swelling is reduced you can begin to treat your hamstring with Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy^™ (BFST^®). BFST^® increases the amount of blood that flows naturally to your tendons to nourish your soft tissue which speeds healing.

When you rest your leg and stop moving around because it hurts, the natural blood flow to your tendons is reduced, limiting your body's ability to heal itself.

By treating your hamstring tendons with BFST^® you can increase your body's blood supply to the fibers and increase your body's natural healing power.

The Inferno Wrap^® is the tool you need to treat your sore hamstring because not only does it speed healing, it relaxes all your muscles. With BFST^®, tissues are safely and gently stimulated. Your body responds with a rapid increase in blood flow to the area, increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to injured tissue cells to promote healing and loosen the tissue. Our Leg/Arm Inferno Wrap^® provides effective, non-invasive, non-addictive pain relief and healing with no side effects.

In addition, the improved blood flow whisks away dead cells and toxins that have built up from your hamstring strain, further reducing tightness and pain. When you stop moving your leg due to hamstring pain, your tendons, muscles, and other tissue can become weaker and dead cells and toxins in the area can cause further tissue deterioration - this can lead to atrophy (muscle weakness and/or deterioration). By clearing the area of toxins and increasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients to your muscle and other tissue, the risk of atrophy is greatly reduced. Keeping your hamstring tissue as healthy as possible throughout the healing process will allow you to improve upper leg and knee strength again once your pain has gone and your strain has healed.

Click here to learn more about how BFST^® and Inferno Wraps^® work.

With these 3 easy therapies, cold compression, ultrasound and BFST^®, you will notice significantly reduced pain and an incredible improvement in your hamstring pain.

During your recovery, you may have to modify and/or eliminate any activities that cause pain or discomfort in your hamstring until your pain and inflammation settle. The more diligent you are with your treatment and rehabilitation, the faster you will see successful results!

Please be aware that this information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider before starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

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