Has anyone had a complete recovery from high hamstring tendonitis?

I'm going through high hamstring tendonitis or a mild tear right now and just started seeing a doctor 2 weeks ago. She is pretty confident I can beat this within 3 months maximum so I'm placing my trust in her. Other threads on this seem to show that ART is effective and I've been getting that with graston twice a week. Even though there isn't any pain while walking and it seems to be under control she wants me to cautiously go slow. Their office has helped a lot of runners who have had this and they actually see a lot of cases of this so I'm hoping they know what's best.

I think later on we'll move on to bridges and hamstring curls but for now I've been advised to stay away from running, cycling, elliptical, and swimming unless I only use my arms. Even though I've been eager to get over this fast and do a ton of strengthening I think taking it slow has actually helped. The only exercise I can do right now is a halfway squat since it hurts to sink too deep. I do two sets of 15 everyday and it hasn't caused any pain.

Another think I have been told to do is the figure 4 stretch, stretch the hip flexors, and foam roll or use a lacrosse ball lightly after I go on a walk.

I completely understand how frustrating it is since you can't even cross train much with this but everyday I do a ton of core work and every other day I lift weights and work on my arms since that's pretty much the only option I have. Some people are really uncomfortable when sitting down but I don't have that issue and sitting for a long period only makes the leg feel stiffer.

I would definitely suggest not running for at least a month for this injury or it can really go on for over a year. I've been increasing my walking as tolerated and even though I don't feel anything I still avoid going over 2 miles for now. I also find that if you're sitting on the sofa it's better to actually lie down so the leg is straight.

I still have a long way to go but I think I do see a major improvement so it motivates me to continue to be patient and hopefully be running by the end of January!

Hi Cati1234,

If you still need help with this injury or are fixed and interested in prevention, there is a community of over 800 people who have recovered or are talking about what has helped and not helped here:

https://www.facebook.com/ProximalHamstringTendinopathy/

had it for about 5 years now.

did 2 rounds of OT, gets better than comes back

it hurts. a lot sometimes but never so bad i can't manage

some aspirin, red wine, pot, problem solved....

I have been battling this for about 9 months now. I had a very gradual onset of hamstring problems that started after some faster 200s. Nothing more than some soreness, but I mostly ignored it. It got progressively worse, eventually to the point where I would feel a deep ache right at the ichial tuberosity after sitting for any longer than 30 minutes, but I also was feeling tension/pain radiating down my hamstring. Graston, ART, and some eccentric strengthening were able to fix the PHT within 5 sessions or so, so I was no longer feeling the PHT pain, but the tension/pain radiating down the hamstring was no better.

From the research I've done, it sounds like a complication of PHT is sciatic nerve entrapment. Basically some of the scar tissue thrown down during the initial injury will bind the sciatic nerve to surrounding structures. This makes the nerve tighter than it should be, and the muscles respond by tightening up to protect the nerve. I can get thorough a 4-5 mile run without too much pain, but it feels very tight and sore afterward.

Although there are promising results, I am reluctant to go the Amanda Rego route (

http://amandarego.com/2017/03/14/hamstring-syndrome-surgery-a-runners-4-year-struggle-with-injury/

), so I am looking into less invasive methods to free up entrapped nerves (US guided EPI, and sciatic nerve hydro-dissection). Unfortunately, the former seems to be done only in European countries, and the latter is scarcely done in the United States.

Thanks for raising this. It’s been interesting seeing the response. I had what I thought was a bit of a glute strain for maybe 5-6 months. Decided to go get a bit of treatment on it. Turns out it was high hamstring tendonapathy. Six months of treatment and strengthening exercises and i’ve had no improvement. The most pain is when I am sitting down. I haven’t even tried running. Cycling aggravates it, as does the elliptical trainer. Even 10 minutes on that and the pain is worse the day after. You are supposed to get the right balance of load in the strengthening exercises and then increase the load gradually, but I’ve been trying to do this for 6 months now with no success. Stretching and massage are a definite no go according to my physio, including foam rolling. Getting very frustrated at not being able to do any real cardio exercise. Can’t do many leg exercises either as most stretch the hamstring over the sit bone (such as squats) which aggravates it more. I’ve been told it’s the worst running injury you can get. Sorry I can;t be more positive.

Took me a lot of years to figure it out but there is a way to manage this.

The trick is daily massage on the hamstring belly. Throw your foot up on a chair, use some oil and run your fingers deep in your hamstring from knee towards your glute.

By giving yourself more elasticity in the hamstring, it will pull lessen tension on the tendon.

No days off with the massage. Even now, I cannot go running without first massaging my hamstring in this way. If I do, the tendon gets annoyed. This is 15 years later.

Here is a post I did today...re: my HHT journey

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=9031622

...yes.

Fix That Runner wrote:

Hi Cati1234,

If you still need help with this injury or are fixed and interested in prevention, there is a community of over 800 people who have recovered or are talking about what has helped and not helped here:

https://www.facebook.com/ProximalHamstringTendinopathy/

This is an old thread and I hope Cati1234 got better, but I’m thankful for the link. I had recovered enough from mine to run a full marathon without pain a couple of weeks ago, but now it’s bothering me again [insert swearing like a sailor]. It really is the most wretched injury.

In 2007 I ripped two of the three hamstring segments off the hipbone by running too hard. My error. Two months of PT and another six months of rebuilding exercises and gradual return to easy running fixed it. The exercises were for re-balancing the

tissues all around the upper leg. Both legs were eventually worked and my running improved significantly.

Wish i could work with your pt! Mine knows nothing about the topic .

I appreciate this is an old thread but people still find these forums useful so just to say you can get help and support with proximal hamstring tendinopathy on the PHT online community at:

www.facebook.com/proximalhamstringtendinopathy

and the PHT website:

www.proximalhamstringtendinopathy.org

plus the Twitter account at: @highhamstring.

I've had this for years and wanted to get people together to support each other as it's mentally and physically challenging.

To anyone visiting this thread, here is my story. It is currently January 2021 and about a year ago I was 8 months PP and decided to pick up running again. As I increased my mileage gradually, I noticed that my hamstrings were pretty tight, especially my right one. Some stretches that used to be easy were not anymore and frankly I was avoiding stretching for the most part because I heard somewhere that you didn't need to and I was getting by without it. So then I started stretching it a lot...the flexibility of my left hamstring improved, but my right hamstring just got worse. I came to realize that I had a whole lot of tightness in my glutes and hamstring. Like many people on here, I felt like I was out of balance. But I kept running through it, with pain being about a 5, and also realized that I was starting to develop a hop. I guess it was covid and this was my mental health issue! I never got sick from covid but this happened to me.

Anyway, I decided to go see a chiropractic to check out my hips. Turns out my right hip was super tilted. So after 2 months of lots of chiro visits, we took another scan and it was 70% back to normal. I kept coming back every 4-6 weeks, but I felt like I was always in the same place. To manage the pain, I saw a PT for dry needling. I found this very helpful to relieve chronic tight spots. The pain went from tight hamstrings to piriformis to high hamstring tendon pain. The problem is that this PT (although specialized in runners injuries) was more in-and-out and never really spent time on the root of the problem. I started seeing the PT in June, where I started from scratch in my running. I took one week off and then progressed pretty quickly. The tightness kept coming back though and my gait still felt wonky. At the end of September, my dense brain thought hill sprints was a good idea....not though because I went on a quick decline to where a week later I could run 2 steps...the high hamstring was stuck...couldn't function. I could barely take the dog for a walk.

I ended up seeing a sports med doctor who said "yep, you have PHT", gave me some strength exercises, and set up an appointment for 6 weeks later, which I never went to and just kept going to my regular PT for pain management. The good thing that came out of that was he taught me the importance of not just eccentric loading, which I was doing, but HEAVY eccentric loading. I found that to be very helpful. I did a lot of single leg presses, but when I started doing single RDL with weights was when I started feeling improvements in strength.

So 10 months later, but I kept going to my chiro and things kept being the same. I decided to visit a pelvic floor specialist for leaking problems that escalated after I gave birth, but that I've struggled with all my life. After 2 visits, she SHOWED me physically how my pelvic floor posture should be. This fixed the last 30% of pelvic that the chiro couldn't fix. 10 months later! Finally solved the root of the problem. After a few months of training my pelvic floor is when I was able to finally go on runs without pain or tightness coming back in the hamstring and glute. Also making sure that my shoes are not too worn out helps. I am no where recovered 100% as I'm only 2 months in returning to run. It truly does take time. Visit lots of doctors from different specialities to get a whole perspective. I have a visit with a sports massage therapist next week and I'm also changing chiros to a sports chiro. Also, my gait is slowly getting back to normal, so that is another sign I am on the tail end of this injury, but my muscles still have a little retraining to work synchronously together and get stronger.

In summary, if you developed PHT, definitely consider pelvic tilt . Pelvic tilt will increase the tension in your hamstrings and not allow your core to engage in the right way. I never had a doctor who told me the root of the problem, but I discovered it myself and did a lot of self-analysis and self-retraining to get to where I am now. Be intuitive and listen to your body. Through this whole time I also did elliptical, swimming, and lifting. Don't sit on the couch. Also, there is a thing called a piriformis/sciatica pillow which may help if you have to sit in the car for a while.

Hi - I know this is an old post but I wanted to see if you could share more regarding how to fix your pelvic floor/tilt issues. I am too a mom and have struggled coming back from my last baby. Most recently, it’s my hamstring bothering me but I’ve had knee and foot issues during the past year as well. I’ve felt similar to how you describe running - uneven gait and just “off” in general. I am fairly certain it’s my pelvic posture that is causing my issues. I’ve been to 3 PTs so far and they just want to treat the current issue.