Friday Q&A: Hamstring Injuries

Q: I'd like to know how to manage a nagging pain at the hamstring insertion point. I bend my knees and never stretch to the point of discomfort, and yet it persists.

A: Hamstring insertion injuries are challenging to heal. They can take a long time—I'm talking 6-12 months—due in part to the fact that every time you stretch the hamstrings, even inadvertently, such as when bending down to tie your shoes, you tend to re-injure the area a little bit. This leads to chronic ongoing inflammation at the spot on the sitting bone where the muscles attach. And these attachments points often have poor blood supply, which also slows down healing.

So, in addition to bending your knees in standing forward bends, you need to modify, if not avoid, other forward bend for a while. How long? That depends on the person and the injury, but likely at least a few months. In addition, yoga teacher Roger Cole, PhD, recommends strengthening the hamstring muscles via back-bending poses like Bridge (Setu Banda) and Locust (Salabasana) as a first approach to healing.  Unfortunately, I don't know of any studies that have looked at this, but it is worth a try. You can read more about Roger's approach on Yoga Journal's web site in the archived articles section.

—Baxter