Hamstring hurting for six minths

So about six months ago I started training pretty hard, running 10+ miles every other day, biking 10+ miles and swimming a couple miles. While I was running I noticed a little tightness while running, started to hurt a little but I didn’t want to stop running and quit so I didn’t mind it.

Soon my leg started to lock up when I would swim and it was hard to fully extend, and at night I couldn’t fully extend my leg again. I didn’t want to be a baby so I kept running and doing everything on it. While running I was having major pain now but didn’t stop running, then while I was running, I noticed something sort of “popped” or “shifted” while I was running, and it was very painful. I finished the run and when back at it again a day later or so.

That same shift in my hamstring, behind my knee, kept happening everytime I ran and I couldn’t run anymore. I took two weeks off and went back at it again and same result, hamstring in a ton of pain and shifts around and causes me to stop. Then I take about 3 months off and go running again and I still feel a ton of pain in my hamstring and stopped running. I also started to lift again and when I did squats my hamstring would lock up and I couldn’t fully extend my leg.

Now, six months from initial injury, it still hurts almost every, very painful, but noticeable and prohibits running. Every day I notice a “pulse” in it from blood flow, I’m assuming that’s a good thing? I have completely stopped all running for a while now but it still hurts and seems to have no improvement. I went to a doctor about 3 weeks ago and he gave me ibuprofen, told me to ice, and stretch. Didn’t help. Anyone have any advice or know what’s going on?

See a real sports medicine doctor. You probably need some kind of physical therapy to fix the damage you did by not allowing the initial injury to heal.

A few years ago I had hamstring injury affected me for months, really a year until I didn't have to worry about it. I didn't need a dr. but that's because I did RICE for initial injury. After that I had tightness for a long time. I did self message on it to loosen it up before running and then light stretching after runs to get the flexibility back.

I think mine was a small tear, but still took a long time to fully recover. Sounds like you did much more damage, so I would suggest some professional PT.

Mostly commonly the issue is the hamstring attachment at the hip, however it can also be the gluts or another muscles in the hips.

I've found alternative forward / back leg splits to be helpful (one leg bent in front, the other straight back), like very slow motion running with hands on the floor in front of you. Then alternate sitting in low squat position, with raising your hips high with slightly bent knees keeping head and hands down by ankle. Hold each position for awhile and repeat, then repeat through the day, morning and night.

Icing is helpful, and massage, with fingers, roller, or pvc pipe.

Joey Montes wrote:

I took two weeks off and went back at it again and same result

Then I take about 3 months off and go running again and I still feel a ton of pain in my hamstring and stopped running.

The main thing you're doing is either nothing or full blast. Sitting around on your butt all the time is not doing you any good, and actually makes the injury much worse.

You should be at least walking every day, so you can keep improving and be able to evaluate the condition of your body on a daily basis.

What I meant by nothing is no serious run. I definitely walked a lot. But within those three months I ran about 5-6 times total. And not very far.

Okay. I'm just saying to keep at it, and work back gradually.

I've had similar problems over the years at one time or another. My advise would be to seek out a good massage therapist. Depending on where you live there is one in NY that I use and one in RI.

I know this is from a long time ago, but I am curious, would you be able to heal from your injury? I am having the same problem. It's been 5 months that I have this pain in my hamstrings and it does not heal. It got better at some point and I was able to go back to my regular exercises but then, one morning, my leg was in pain again and now it has been 3 weeks that it does not get better. I just want to have hope it will heal at some point.

Personally I would actually go a doctor as this has been going on for five months and just to exclude anything before getting a massage on that area. Then I would get a massage.

Stop running and see a doc. Tore mine badly over a year ago and it still bothers me when running anything @ medium to hard efforts.

I went to a doctor 3 months ago and he recommended PT. I did it for 4 weeks and also needling. It got better, but to be honest, it was getting better before I had started the PT, so it did not change much . And then, it started all over again. I have schedule a appt with the doctor again, but at this point I am not really optimistic that this is going to heal.

jussara wrote:

I went to a doctor 3 months ago and he recommended PT. I did it for 4 weeks and also needling. It got better, but to be honest, it was getting better before I had started the PT, so it did not change much . And then, it started all over again. I have schedule a appt with the doctor again, but at this point I am not really optimistic that this is going to heal.

Look into ART and exercises to strengthen the muscles around the injured hamstring.