Hamstring injury causes

The most common cause of tendon inflammation is overuse of your hamstrings. It results from repetitive stress placed on your hamstring muscles and tendons during active sports (especially when running, kicking, jumping, or quick "start/stop" motions); your hamstrings will tighten to prevent your body from falling forward which results in a pulled tendon. Overloading or overexerting yourself by doing too much too soon, and too quickly can also be a cause. This sudden increase in the intensity and frequency of participation after being inactive for a while makes you susceptible to tendonitis. Improper training techniques (running on hilly or hard surfaces), incorrect form (overstriding in running or lifting too much weight) and old equipment (worn out shoes) will also put you at more risk for injury. Previous injuries that haven't healed properly are a frequent cause of tendonitis and tendinosis.

Other causes include: alignment issues (overpronation) and leg length discrepancies, which affect the way you walk, as well as strength differences in your muscles, lack of exercise and obesity, age-related weaknesses and/or degeneration, and genetics.

Hamstring Symptoms & Diagnosing
As tendonitis and tendinosis develop the symptoms get progressively worse. The main symptoms you will experience include:

Pain and tenderness in and around your knee (small area along the back and sides of your knee to the top of your shin bone) or around your ischial tuberosity (the bony part of your butt and the back of your upper thigh). Depending on your location of pain, you may experience discomfort in your knee and hip when you bend your leg or squat against resistance, or when you straighten your leg and extend your hip, because your tendon is forced to stretch. This pain often develops slowly and becomes more painful when overexerting yourself or after exercise. You can also experience pain with prolonged sitting.

Decreased mobility and stiffness in your hip or knee during and after exercise can be experienced, especially at night. If allowed to progress, you may start to experience stiffness at rest.

Weakness in your hamstring muscles and tendons can also be experienced that makes it difficult for you to walk or run and can result in you walking with a limp.

Swelling where your hamstring tendon inserts on your knee/shinbones (around the back edges of the knee) or near your upper thigh and "sit bones" can occur. However, if you have tendinosis, you may not experience any swelling. You may also notice some redness and warmth around the area of your tendon attachment, which can often indicate another injury to your joint capsule.

With hamstring tendinopathy you may also experience lumbar lordosis and an anterior pelvic tilt.

Stages of tendinitis pain:

• Minor twinges that occur early in your workouts and generally go away after warming up; we often ignore these, however they tend to indicate the first signs of tendinitis (normally a few weeks to 3 months)
• Pain that stays longer and returns after workout (normally 3 -6 months)
• Pain that is constant (normally have it for 6+ months)

Your doctor will take your medical history and will examine your hamstring for any inflammation and deformities. He/she will analyze your flexibility, stability, and gait (the way you walk). Occasionally an x-ray (check for bone and joint inflammation or arthritis), or MRI scans or CT scans (to show soft tissue damage) may be requested.