hamstring tendinosis...does it ever go away?

Anyone?

Good timing for me on this thread. I have had upper hamstring problems for several years now. I've been able to train through them but once i start doing consistent speed, it gets tough. I also know that because the area is so tight and sore that i'm not able to run as fast as i think i can.

So after a recent race, i'm on a mission to get rid of it for good using 3 different strengthening exercises, some stretching, and running backwards.

Strengthenging exercises:

1) 1 legged dead lifts with 15-20lb weights

2) Bridge position on big ball with one leg and lower the butt down to the floor and back

3) 5lb weight strapped on my hamstring. lay on a bench on my stomach with the weight ham on the side and raise and lower it through a full range of motion (picture laying on your stomach and lifting the leg up and down but with the bench you get a wider range of motion

I do either 1 or 2 in the morning and #3 every evening

Stretching:

Yoga stuff: down dog, triangle

All other stretches i only hold for 4 seconds at a time then repeat over and over again.

Backwards running:

one of the only ways i know to strengthen the hams eccentrically. i'm doing 3-5 1 min backwards running sections during ever run.

i'm going to start up on doing planks (foward and side) this week.

i'm on about a solid week one of this routine. i'm running 5x/week and biking.

What were your initial symptoms. I have been having some issues with my hamstring, though minor probably compared to yours. I have pain at the very top of my hamstring that gets irritated after harder effort runs. I have been stretching and icing and have not had to take any time off. Sometimes if feels like it is getting better and then will reoccur.

It took 2 years for my hamstring issues to clear up. My problem cam from my back even though my back never hurt. Sitting in the office all day at the computer wasn't the best pre-run warm up. It left my back and hamstrings very tight and worst thing I could do was go for a run which I did every day. I fixed the symptoms through ART. I know you said you tried it, but the success of the treatment relies on how good the doc is. I fixed the root problem through better posture at work and got a lumbar support for my chair. I religiously did the exercises in a book called "treat your own back". I also did some lifting, not sure if it helped but it didn't make it worse and I kept the weight pretty low. While hurt I did some biking on one of those spinning bikes and pedaled backwards which worked to strengthen the hamstrings. Its been about 9 months now of running pain free. Good luck.

My initial symptoms were what felt like a strained upper hamstring. I first experienced these symptoms after getting on a bike last Spring. It was the first time I had been on a bike in years and the seat was too high.

I tried to continue running through the strain, even though it was clearly affecting my posture at the time. The tendon partially tore after several weeks of my attempt at forcing the issue. I've certainly learned from that experience.

Thanks for everyone's replies so far. The backwards running sounds like something I'll be trying very soon.

i decided that i'm going to update to bump the thread and to report changes - successes and failures. i think if we can get enough people trying different things, we can come up with something standard.

1) I stopped doing the 1-legged deadlifts. I think they are putting too much strain on the uppper hamstring since the leg is straight. Instead, i'm doing 1-legged squats on a bench with dumbbells. let the non-supporting leg hang off the back of a bench and bend over at the waist. you'll feel the difference on where muscle getting worked versus not bending over.

2) I'm going to experiment with stopping the stretching. While i risk the area getting very tight, i think that stretching is preventing the fibers from connecting which should mean healing.

3) On backwards running - work your way up. i included about 6 minutes worth today (4x 1.5 min segments) and my achilles feels a bit sore.

Here is my latest attempt. I'm a bit sore after doing all of this but i'm noticing that i don't feel as much strain on my runs.

1) Take an aleve every day.

Only ever other day right after a run:

2) go right into the "pedestal routine" (up until the lateral donkey kicks is all the time i have) in video number 2 here.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=16625

3)when you get to the donkey kicks, strap the 5lb weight on the hammy. unlike above, i found you don't need a bench to get the full benefit. i'm doing 2 sets on each leg. set 1 =30 set 2 = till i can't do any more

3) Bridge position on big ball with one leg and lower the butt down to the floor and back. 2 sets of 10-15.

4) no stretching - i'm just stretching the hip flexors and quads.

I had an appointment with a doctor earlier this week and was advised to stop my physical therapy stretches. I think you may be on to something here...

[quote]the big split wrote:

2) I'm going to experiment with stopping the stretching. While i risk the area getting very tight, i think that stretching is preventing the fibers from connecting which should mean healing.

I have experienced what you are going through. It wasted a year of my eligibilty but eventually I managed to come back my senior year better than ever.

Trial and error of gym and running loads was the only way I found what worked for me. Don't try too many different things at once or you won't know what you are responding positively to.

7 yrs later I am still competatively running and I still feel it. I have learned over the years what I need to do when it comes on (as far as massage, gym and stretches) and can resume full training within days or a week.

There is hope, but it takes time.

bump, I've been having a similar issue the past 2-3 months. Do you all recommend stopping my physical therapy stretching? It hasn't seemed to help a whole lot. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow about other options, perhaps massage therapy etc?

My therapist did ART, and prescribed simple eccentric exercises to do. He also told me to be patient (it takes a long time to heal) and also that I should keep doing the exercises in the future for prevention. When I first went in, he also made me take a couple of weeks completely off.

He said not to stretch either, while it was acute anyway.

I had hamstring tendinosis for two years. I tried every thing, ART, massage, acupuncture I even did PRP. What worked for me was a stem cell procedure. I had it last sept (2009) I was not able to run more then 50 feet with out it bugging me. I had the procedure and had to stay off my feet for a few days. After a month I could run with no pain, in Dec I ran a 1:20:44 half marathon. I could not believe how well it worked. I am a doctor of acupuncture and I tell all my patients who have this to get it done. It cost me $4000 dollars. It was not cheap but it worked. The day I had it done there was a football player from Texas A&M having the same thing as me. He came all the way from Maryland to have it done. I had my procedure videoed so I could show my patients. I am still working on it. The doctors name who did it was Dr Nathan Wei in Frederick Maryland. If you want to run pain free by mid summer I would do this. Good luck

John

I had the same problem back in 2004. I took three weeks off and it went away completely, then last fall I was lifting some weights and it came back. It wasn't as bad as it was in 2004, it's just a sort of nagging pain that lets me run but keeps me from doing anything really hard. I can sort of work out, but anything hard makes feel like it is about to rip in half (and by anything I mean anything, from a long tempo run to 200s). If I back off I'm usually fine, but if I run through it I'll have to take 2 or 3 days off and another 2 or three really easy.

I never had the tear, but had really tight hamstrings for a long time. I adjusted the sprinter's stretch (on back, one knee up, holding the other leg straight back and then to the right a bit) and had some success, but just walking backwards a bit has gotten rid of the problem. I didn't even have to try running backwards.

Get thee to an osteopath/ chiropractor who is experienced with working with athletes. if your hips and sacroiliac joint is aligned incorrectly, it pulls on the hamstrings and the upper hamstrings will first strain and then likely tear, especially with overuse as we distance runners are prone to. Check out this thread also:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1185388&page=0

(ps- i have no affiliation to osteopaths, but one solved my problems after two years. Worth a shot and a couple hundred dollars investment at least. Also, if you do get adjusted, work hard on your core/ gluteal strength to help hold everything in place). Good luck!

you don't have a tendinopathy

YOU HAVE A F***ING TORN TENDON

you are screwed if you have a substantial tear in a tendon

all the mickey mouse ball-squatting/back-bending/toe-sucking exercises in the kama sutra aren't going to fix it

you need an orthopaedic surgeon to attempt a re-attachment, which current surgery offers qualified results

if there is "just a tendinosis problem" on mri & you had a failed cortisone injection, i'd bet you 99/100 for any stake, you had some yeeeeeeeehah injecting 2mls of depo-medrone in the vague area of your upper butt

if you do this properly, you have to identify the tendinosis under concomitant ultrasound guidance until the needle insert & angle is found to be in the precise area of the tendinosis by the ultrasonographer & orthopaedist to their mutual satisfaction ( max delivery into tendon sheath & minimal leakage/waste into muscle ) & then the medrone injected

find a guy who doesn't mainstream at a theme-park in florida...

I have been suffering from this for about 9 months and currently cannot walk/sit without pain, what specific treatments/exercises worked for you?? Thanks! -karissa

Karissa wrote:

I have been suffering from this for about 9 months and currently cannot walk/sit without pain, what specific treatments/exercises worked for you?? Thanks! -karissa

Does it hurt-throb if you drive for more than 10 min. and you have to sit on the other buttock? Does jogging at a 9 min per mile pace put you in pain? I've had the same problem since March of 2011. After slow jogging every day with pain for most of last summer it slowly got better. But I had to forget about racing for 6 months. Then I did 3 5k's towards the end of last year, which reaggravated the problem. I finally reached the point where,if I keep the mileage low - ~40/week - I can run fairly hard every day and go race a few 5k's and I'm about 90 percent better than I was a year ago. If I try to push back up to 80/week like I did for 20 years, even running it slow makes the pain get worse again. So now I'm a low mileage runner and 5-10k racer (no more marathons) - and I'm grateful I can run at all. I never stretched before the injury, but now I do. I don't know if stretching really helps, but now that I'm better I'll say the stretching did help and keep I'll doing it. This is my experience with the problem. It did get a lot better, but it took some time and I had to change my routine and goals. I hope this helped and good luck to you!

Karissa wrote:

I have been suffering from this for about 9 months and currently cannot walk/sit without pain, what specific treatments/exercises worked for you?? Thanks! -karissa

I had the problem for 2 years. Find an Osteopath and get a prolotherapy injection. You can find out about the procedure by googling it. The injury needs to be close to the bone for prolotherapy to work. The injections are relatively cheap and the best thing: it won't damage the tendon the way corisone will.

It completey cured me. I felt it on every run and sitting in car for even 10 minutes made me try and adjust my seating position to escape the pain. I thought I was going to have chronic pain the rest of my life. Look into it.