I've had on and off hamstring/glute tendonitis for about 3 years now and it flares up from time to time. Right now happens to be one of them. Was wondering if anyone could shed some wisdom as to any remedies which have helped them with similar issues.
It would be helpful for you to share what you have tried. The traditional approaches are, in my opionion.
1. Rest - mean's no running or aggressive activity for 2-3 months.
2. Cortisone shot in the site of inflammation.
a. Also things like dry needling, massage, etc.
3. Return to activity
a. extensive glute exercises - motor dysfunction often contributes to
hamstring issues.
b. Eccentric hamstring exercises - helps to rehab the site
Just some thoughts on what I've seen work. Its been a case by case basis, but absolute rest is the only way to get the symptoms to abate, then motor patterns need to be evaluated and then aggressive re education needs to be introduced.
I've had the same problem, except it was knee tendonitis. If you want to run, I would suggest doing so on a soft surface that is relatively flat. Also, taking a good dose of ibuprofen before each run could help you significantly. I'm sure you try and stretch a lot, but like they guy above me said massaging, particularly with a roller, could help you. Honestly, I think that if you took a week off it would be fine, but inevitably come back again. Even if you took months off at a time it would come back. Therefore, doing exercises to help prevent another flare up may be your best bet.
The tendonitis has never been had enough to actually affect my performance, it is just very annoying/painful to run with so I have never gotten a cortisone shot. I am currently in College so a 2-3 month break isn't really realistic for me, unfortunately. I just took 2 weeks off of running though and am starting back up again. The area where I am running is very hilly so that may have contributed a bit to it. I try to foam roll every day and stretch as well. I have also incorporated more glute exercises like squats the last 6 months which may have helped a bit. The tendonitis is just in my right hamstring- not sure if that helps but thought I would include it. Thanks for the help!
Thanks for the help! I might try the ibuprofen route although I have heard that its not a good idea to take it for an extended amount of time.
I've had it for three years as well. Very painful and it stopped me from running for 3 months and I almost quit because I couldn't deal with the pain anymore. But I found that massage helped a lot, and also I had a running specific PT tweak my running form a little bit and that seemed to help too.