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Causes of a Pulled Hamstring Forces more than 70% make the hamstring muscle more susceptible to an injury. This extra stress placed on the hamstring muscles and tendons can occur during: Active sports that require speed, power and agility (soccer, football, baseball, softball, basketball, rugby, tennis) or track & field activities that involve a lot of jumping, kicking, running and fast "stop/start" motions with your legs (sprints, hurdles, long jump). During vigorous activities we often load our hip joint by up to eight times our body weight. Individual activities can put a lot of continuous pressure on your hamstrings (running, water skiing, skating, cheerleading, dancing, weight lifting, climbing). These athletes are susceptible to chronic pulls as a result of the repetitive nature of their activities. They often suffer from avulsion fractures following a burst of speed.  Muscle exhaustion and fatigue decrease your strength, power and endurance which increase your risk for injury. Over-stretching, overexertion and overuse of your hamstring muscles occurs frequently in sporting activities and/or daily life. When you have not warmed-up and stretched properly before moving, your muscles aren't ready for the stress, therefore your chances for injury are increased. Doing too much, too soon, too fast, or exercising and moving about in cold weather, puts you at even more risk for a pulled hamstring. Sometimes you will get a pulled hamstring doing very simple tasks like landing in a strange way from a jump, aggressively stretching in yoga class, or running after your kids or the bus. Utilizing a poor technique (over-striding in running or walking), improper equipment (old shoes) or hard and uneven training surfaces during activities will often put your body at a higher risk for injury. These will also make you feel more tired as the inefficient movements require you to use more energy to complete tasks than required.  Repeated hamstring injuries are very common. They decrease the function and strength of your hamstring over time, and encourage inflammation, scar tissue and calcification development, so these damaged parts never heal properly. Impatience and incomplete rehabilitation (not letting injuries heal, so your body can return to peak performance level) is often the reason for repeat injury. This is seen most frequently in runners. Previous injuries to your lower back, pelvis, knees, calf and/or achilles tendon can also instigate a hamstring injury (especially if they haven't healed properly). The above causes are often self-imposed; which means with a little self-management you can have some control over the outcomes. However, the following conditions can make you more prone to hamstring injuries and be the cause of a number of the above situations.  Muscle imbalances or weakness in your muscles (especially in your hamstrings and quadriceps, or your lower back and pelvis muscles) can cause strength differences and poor coordination that result in a pulled hamstring. Your quadriceps often overpower your hamstrings (generally if hamstring strength is less than 60% of quad strength), which is seen frequently with triathletes as they mix running and cycling.  Tight hamstring muscles often result from not stretching properly before your activities. However, shortened and tightened muscles, spine stiffness and poor flexibility can be hereditary and/or a side-effect of aging; it is seen more frequently in men than women. All of these can cause a lot of pressure on your body (low back stiffness can pressure your sciatic nerve which causes your muscles to tighten) and require a lot of work on your part (daily stretching).  Alignment issues, leg length discrepancies, or overpronation or supination (which affects the way your foot hits the ground when you walk) can put a lot of stress on your hamstring muscles and result in a pulled hamstring. Overpronation occurs in at least 60% of people with hamstring strains. Other factors that can put extra tension on your hamstring and influence your risk of experiencing a pulled hamstring include:
| Dear MendMeShop, I wanted to take a minute and write you a thank you note for the great service and the invaluable information that you have given me with my purchase of the MendMeShop UltraSound System. I am a retired auto mechanic 60 years young. Working on cars for 35 years has taken a great toll on my body. I take real good care of myself and eat properly and work out a few times a week. Around the second week of January this year my left knee started to hurt (and boy did it hurt, I couldn’t walk) and I was not sure what was wrong. So I went to the doctors to see what was wrong with my knee. The doctor said that I had torn a ligament and had a torn meniscus. He said that there was a good chance that it would have to be cut open and wouldn’t give me any kind of guarantee that it could be completely fixed. I told him I would think about it. So I figured I would try some of the over the counter remedies. Well, long story short nothing would help relieve the pain it only got worse. I searched the Internet and found a product that guaranteed it would take away the pain and heal it so that it would never come back, so I ordered it (and it was very expensive too). Well, once again it didn’t help just more pain so I returned the product for a full refund. Then I got real serious about finding a better fix for my knee. I found an article that reported that ultrasound is what some of the better doctors use in their office. So, I checked around and called some different companies and asked a lot of questions. When I called MendMeShop they answered all of my questions and gave me some real good information so I decided to give them a try. They suggested that I get the cold knee wrap and ultrasound unit combo, so I did. I have been using the system now for almost two full months and I have to tell you, the swelling has gone away completely and the pain has gone away 99.5 percent. I can walk again and most of the time not feeling anything. My mobility has returned completely. Also two of my fingers have been locking up for the past six months so I tried the ultrasound unit on my hand now it does not lockup anymore and the pain has gone away completely. My wife has tendonitis in her left elbow and she uses the unit too, took the pain away immediately and now she just uses it occasionally. I can not tell you in words how much the ultrasound unit means to us and the Lavender Gel is definitely the only gel to use. I will not ever be with out this unit! Rating: Al -         | ||||
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