The hobbling effect of a hamstring injury, the discomfort from sitting, and the frustration of not being able to run as you want can seem to go on and on. And as with many running injuries, the conventional treatment can be time-consuming and sometimes frustratingly ineffective.
The first thing you need to know is the same no matter what injury you have: stretching, ice, and anti-inflammatory medications actually interfere with healing. That’s often part of the reason why you’re frustrated that you’re getting better so slowly.
The second key thing to know is that how you run is often responsible for causing the stress that turned into injury to begin with, and then for perpetuating that stress so the injury seems like it will never go away.
You can often feel better quite quickly if you know what it is about your running technique that needs to shift.
How to Cause a Hamstring Injury
They thing I’ve seen most often in runners with a hamstring injury—particularly high in the hamstrings, just below the butt—is a tucked pelvis.
Many runners do this in an attempt to improve their form by “correcting” an anterior pelvic tilt.
The problem with this is twofold. First, your pelvis is supposed to tip anteriorly when you run. This is part of your forward lean, a critical element of healthy running form.
Second, though runners generally are instructed to use their abdominal muscles to pull their pelvis out of a natural anterior tilt, in fact the hamstrings nearly always participate in this as well, maintaining a continuous downward pull on the bottom of the pelvis.
This is stressful because at the same time the hamstrings are working through a range of motion to control the legs and propel the runner forward. So the very same muscles are being asked to contract continuously and continually vary their action.
It’s like being told to say “aaaaaaaaaaaaa” and “Mary had a little lamb” at the same time. It’s a direct contradiction.
Little wonder that eventually a hamstring seizes up under the strain.
There’s a second common way to really irritate a hamstring, which is to pull your hip back as your leg swings forward…or simply to be pulling your hip back all the time in an effort to maintain a perfectly stable pelvis. As I described in this article, this creates a yank in the hamstring as the leg swings forward.
How to Relieve Hamstring Stress
In my practice I’ve been able to quickly help runners relieve the stress on their hamstrings by helping them feel how to let the pelvis tilt anteriorly and move in what I call the core action.
You may be saying to yourself, “But my lower back will arch if I let my pelvis tip forward.” However that’s not necessarily true. Along with your anterior tilt, your head needs to move forward so your whole spine will move into a neutral alignment on a forward angle. This is your forward lean. I describe how this works for some elite distance runners at the Olympics here.
When you lean forward properly, your hamstrings work much better for propulsion, as your hip joints no longer need to hyperextend so much in order to allow your pelvis to pass your stance foot.
And again, when your core action allows your pelvis to move in support of the movement of your legs, your hamstrings don’t suddenly get yanked on your forward leg swing and can decelerate the swing leg without undue stress.
I’ve put together my best resources to help you learn to support your hamstrings with a good core action and better coordination for hip joint flexion and extension. I’ve also included a calf warmup that has a very positive effect on hamstring function as you run. Get these resources for free here:
Although you probably have some of your own personal movement habits intertwined with the patterns that have given you hamstring problems, taking these steps I've outlined should help put you solidly on your way to well-functioning hamstrings and smoother, better running.
I went to a Postural Restoration Institute therapist for help with my gait malfunction and ended up getting badly hurt…proximal hamstring pain. It hurts to sit. He gave me hamstring exercises to tuck my pelvis and fix my anterior pelvic tilt. Thank you very much for allowing me to tilt my pelvis! I used to be a decent runner and now I feel like a lost cause. Your posts are wonderful. Please post more advice for older runners.
I’m sorry to hear that, Katherine! What a shame. You’re definitely not a lost cause–you can unlearn what you learned from the PRI guy and get rid of your hamstring pain. And let me assure you that all my advice is appropriate for older runners–I have lots of students and clients between 50-80 years old!
I saw a physical therapist who gave me instructions to pull in the stomach while lying on the floor and then while walking about 25%. I believe because I brought this into my running, my left knee area started bothering me and it seemed things got worse. My feet felt stiff and after months of things getting worse, I stopped working with the PT. I bought some different more flexible low drop shoes and finally I saw the video you have where we are on our hands and knees and re-learn our movement in the back and hips. I have done this before however, without doing that lesson again, I was stuck! After doing that lesson a couple of weeks ago it seems much of my problems are dissolving. I may run just a bit slower but it is worth it to have comfort. Thank you!!!!!
Fantastic. I’m so glad the lesson did the trick, Laura! It sounds like that was the second lesson in The Hamstring Solution course–it really helps you start to learn how to let your back and hips move properly. If you need more help, we’ve got tons of courses and resources. Enjoy your running!
Out of interest:
a)If a runner has never tried to ‘fix’ their form but has the high hamstring issue what are other common non-running patterns that might have caused the poor form? Is it the far to prevalent these days sitting?
b)why does the pelvic tilt and pulling of hip back tend to only cause the high hamstring issue on one side? I would have thought if you have these movement patterns it would end up as both hamstrings rather than just one?
c)I know a lot of women get high hamstring tendinopathy post pregnancy-why might that be? (and on that one would love to see posts/videos from you about running post pregnancy)
Thanks for your questions, Carole! A posterior pelvic tilt that a person does habitually can cause this problem just as effectively as doing it on purpose. More effectively, probably. And few people are perfectly symmetrical, so the hamstrings are usually more active on one side, and that’s the side the develops the problem. That said, I have definitely seen runners who have it on both sides.
I haven’t looked at the phenomenon of getting high hamstring tendinopathy post-pregnancy, but one of the key movement patterns that moms of infants do all the time is overall flexion (you’re sort of wrapped around the baby both in sitting and standing) and that gets you to the same place as tucking your pelvis either intentionally or habitually. Another is holding your baby in your arms, which means supporting the weight in front of you. That activates your calves and hamstrings more to counteract the weight in front. That happens in pregnancy too, but obviously the baby is farther forward when outside of your body than when in. And oh they grow so fast! So the weight you’re carrying in front of you keeps increasing.