5 Exercises to Heal a Hamstring Strain from Running

If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve been dealing with a hamstring strain injury on and off for the past year. It got especially bad this past spring and into the beginning of summer. I went to two different physical therapists, a chiropractor, had ART done on it, dry needling, rehabbed at home, and pretty much felt like I had tried it all.

I finally went and saw Kelsey at United Physical Therapy who did a gait analysis and got to the root of the problem for me. You can read more details about this injury in this post.

I hope (fingers crossed, prayers said) that it is behind me for good, and I have the exercises to stay healthy now! The following exercises are ones that Kelsey gave me as well as a couple others I picked up along the way. I also referred to the exercises in this article from Competitor Running on The Best Ways to Treat Hamstring Injuries. This article really resonated with me with several different things written in this article. For one, I have had a sense of discomfort in my horizontal butt crack–as I like to call it (or the “gluteal fold” is the correct term), and I finally had someone else articulate what I’ve felt periodically when sitting or driving.

A frustrating complaint following hamstring injury is a “toothache-type pain” that occurs near the upper hamstring while sitting and driving long distances.

That’s exactly what it has been–a toothache pain! I will occasionally get it while driving, but it will also happen at random other times too.

A few other quotes from this article that stood out to me:

More than two-thirds of runners that strain their hamstrings will suffer re-injury within one year.

Yep! Been there, and I reinjured it racing last year and the beginning of this year as well!

{. . . } compared to a protocol of static stretching and conventional hamstring exercises, an exercise regimen including agility and trunk stabilization exercises produced significantly better short and long-term outcomes.

None of the activities I was given or have been doing are your traditional hamstring stretch with your heel propped up on a bench or ledge and then leaning forward to stretch the area. Instead many of these are dynamic stretches (dynamic = with movement) and working the hamstring through an eccentric contraction.

So here are five exercises that helped heal my hamstring strain.

Hamstring Stretch

This is the only static stretch that was given to me by two physical therapists. I didn’t really believe that it was helping, but the more I’ve done it, the more I’ve seen it work and help.

I simply extend my leg as far as it will comfortably go until I feel a stretch and then hold it there for about 10 seconds. As you can see in the video, I still don’t have a lot of flexibility, but when I do this stretch 2-3 times in a row, I see a big difference in how much I can stretch.

Eccentric Hamstring Stretch

I found this eccentric hamstring stretch in the article mentioned above, and I also had a physical therapist recommend this one too. It isn’t difficult, but as you can see I don’t have much flexibility in my hamstring, which is not a good thing!

An eccentric exercise is when the muscle is being worked while it is lengthening. A concentric contraction is when the muscle is being worked when it is shortening.

Eccentric Hamstring Strength Exercise

There are a couple different ways you can work your hamstring through an eccentric contraction. In this video I show how you can use an exercise ball to take it through an eccentric contraction, but you can also use the hamstring curl machine at the gym and use both legs to push down on the weighted bar and then with one leg, slowly let the weight back down–working against gravity.

Jump Squat on One Leg

The jump squat is a strength exercise that Kelsey gave me to strengthen the hamstring, glutes, and mimic running. You will want to keep everything in alignment–back knee, front knee, not let the back leg go behind the other leg, etc.

Hip Hike with Clam Shell

This last exercise isn’t directly a hamstring exercises, but my hip drop–and subsequent hamstring injury–were all due to a weak side muscle (I believe the serratus anterior muscle.) that wasn’t strong enough to hold up my hip from dropping. So this exercise was given to me to strengthen those side muscles and keep my hip from dropping.

I know there are others of you out there that have experienced (or are experiencing) this same injury, so I hope these videos were helpful. (Sorry the videos aren’t the greatest quality–and my head it cut off in some of them. I also don’t know how to make the portrait ones smaller.)  But please comment below if you have any questions, and I will do my best to answer them.