High hamstring tendinopathy

also if you can get to a pt asap and have them loosen up the hamstring and all surrounding muscles with dry needling or other techniques.

Thanks for posting this. I have been dealing with this for a few months and tried riding the bike for 10 minutes and it was really painful. Figured cross training would be safe so that clears up a lot of confusion!

Yes, most of what I've read says to avoid stretching. I'll give the massage ball a try

Thank you for the pdf. Looks good. Would you say walking is ok, even if it aches?

I also seem to have very tight calves, wonder if that is contributing, difficult to stretch though without effecting hamstring too much.

I have this same issue. good advice on this forum. I have had the pain for 5 months, prp and stem made it better but school offered limited treatment opportunities for it so once it stopped it got worse again.

These helped me too but I did them at home with ankle weights and higher reps, like 3 x 15. Very slow eccentric contraction.

As said in several posts, slow eccentric hamstrings. You do have to put a load on the tendon for eccentrics to work. It takes time. In addition dry needling and shockwave (RPW) may help. A MRI would show how much tendinosis is present. PRP and rehab may help. (Keep in mind that insurance usually does not cover PRP injections.) I have seen cases where surgery + rehab was the answer.

Seconding the love for dry needling, the Only thing that solved this problem for me. My PT explained it like this: Tendons have notoriously low blood flow, dry needling makes micro injuries which the body sends blood to heal, so the bigger injury is healed as collateral damage.

One of the worst, took almost a year to not feel any aggravation. Heating pad ended up being my best friend.

Don't know if your PT is right or not, but I'll hang my hat on it. I always figured microneedling was sadistic voodoo.

Day three of the glute bridge exercises and it's getting better all the time. Easy to find a comfortable sleeping position, sitting not painful, but ache does start after 20 minutes or so, but that's ok, just needs a quick walk around. Also had to jog a few minutes to catch a train today and did so without pain.

Planning to add the RDLs on Monday and will see the physio next week.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm a lot more.optimistic about running properly by the spring than I was a few days ago.

Glad to hear you're having some success!

If you're doing lots of sitting, you might want to try to use a pillow or something on the affected side, to avoid compressing the tendon too much at this stage (sitting on a hard surface is worst, and ideally you'd want something a bit softer & squishier than your average chair seat).

This isn't just to make it more pleasant to sit down, it's to reduce the overall compressive load, as tendon is literally wrapped around your "sit bone" (ischial tuberosity).

Sorry if this is a personal question but do you have discomfort in the rectum, like the hamstring is tugging on something? I have hamstring and adductor issues and can't get rid of it.

No, the pain was very much in the glute. I'd see a doctor if I were you

Bumping as still dealing with this. Thought I'd figured it out after time off and doing isometrics but sitting at work, then trying to run consistently brings pain in hamstring/glute back. Wanted to see about cross training methods/activation stuff before a run. Wanted to run all comers meets before spring but had to cancel one and one coming up is looking in doubt.

MoVB

I dealt with self-diagnosed PHT for over a year and am just now finally clearing it up. I did all of the exercises that others have mentioned, and that helped, to an extent. I was able to run again, and once properly warmed up, I could do decent workouts without too much of a flareup.

What has really helped recently though, is using the elliptical once a week for 30-40 minutes each time. It started out just as a way to get another workout in without putting too much stress on my hamstring. Now my PHT is completely gone. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has had success with this too, as it doesn't seem like it should be this simple. But adding one day per week on the elliptical was the only change to my workout regimen that I changed.

I took around 10 days with no running. The isometric single-leg glute bridge has been brilliant for me. I'm doing it twice a day. I saw my physio last week and he said my left glute is rapidly gaining strength. I'm back running now. I started with 5x1 minute at 8:30 pace, 5 minutes walk between "reps." No reaction so I went up to 2x5 minutes, then 10 minutes continuous, nothing faster than 7:50 pace. I'm now up to 50 minutes at 7:45 and yesterday I did 25 minutes at 7:00 pace just to see how everything would react to a little more pace. All seems OK but I'm nervous about going for anything really quick, even strides. Physio said I should try some strides next week. He also added a full programme of isometrics for my lower body.

Patience seems to be key. Consistent isometrics, twice a day, and adding exercises to strengthen all the surrounding muscles and tendons. I've also been good at keeping weight off that side of my body, adjusting seated positions, regular standing breaks at work, etc.

Great to hear progress. Sounds like mine isn't too bad but probably trying to get back into it too fast. Also will cut hills as that really flared up yesterday. Patience isn't my strength but think that seems required. Will also try some elliptical and rolling as warmup, sitting 8+ hrs at work has not been helping before runs.

Thanks

MoVB

The exercises mentioned on here are good for rehabbing the hamstring, but it might be a bit much for them while they are actively hurting. A couple of things I haven't seen mentioned on here yet:

Stretch your hip flexors. 30 seconds of stretching on each hip flexor a couple of times a day can work wonders for this issue. Tight hip flexors (specifically the Iliopsoas) tilt your pelvis forward (anteriorly) which puts your hamstrings under constant strain, especially on the proximal end. If you sit a lot you probably already had tight hip flexors and then when you over do your training it tends to tighten up your hip flexors even more. This I suspect is the root cause for many of us getting this issue. If your hamstring or hamstring attachment is hurting just lying in bed it's likely your pelvis is tilted forward even in this position. Try laying on your stomach and putting a pillow under your stomach to force your pelvis into more of a neutral position and see if that doesn't provide some temporary relief for your hamstring. You can try sleeping like this, for at least part of the night, to see if it gives your hamstrings enough of a break to start healing.

Someone else already mentioned strengthening the glutes, not only does this help take some of the load away from the hamstrings while standing/walking/running etc, but when the glutes flex it tilts the pelvis into a more neutral position which again helps take tension off of the hamstrings.

In summary: stretch the hip flexors, strengthen the glutes.