Sore and injured hamstrings are a common athletic injury, especially with sports involving running and rapid acceleration and deceleration, and treating sore hamstrings is very important.

In human anatomy, a hamstring is any of the three tendons contracted by three posterior thigh muscles (semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris), and the term is often also used to refer to the muscles themselves. Hamstrings are responsible for flexing the leg, jumping, pedaling, walking and running.

With a hamstring injury, whether it be from a strain, pull, or tear, it’s very important to be cautious as a small strain can turn into a serious tear if you do not give your body the chance to heal. Fortunately, there are several methods for treating and healing your sore hamstrings.

Mix up your workouts. Try mixing up your workout routine with one week of swimming each month so you’re not always doing the same thing and putting the same stress on your body.

Taper your training’s total volume every third week. Runners should cut miles by a third to a half to give your body time to recover.

Strengthen your glutes. If your glute muscles are weak, your hamstrings will have to work overtime to pick up the slack. So be sure to do exercises to fire up and strengthen your glute muscles, and make sure you’re feeling it in your glutes and not your hamstrings. Click here for a low-impact 15 minute home-workout courtesy of Greatist.

Cold Therapy.
Both ice packs and heat packs can help reduce pain, swelling and redness. Use ice during the first 72 hours. Apply an ice pack or frozen vegetables to your hamstrings for 30 minutes every three to four hours.

Heat Therapy.
After two to three days of cold therapy, as long as there is no redness or swelling, you can apply heat therapy. Place a heating pad, hot compress or hot water bottle on your muscle for 20 minutes, up to three times a day. The heat will help relax and loosen your hamstrings while also reducing your pain. Warms baths can also help ease sore hammies!

Massage away the Pain with Percussive Massage.
Use a percussive massager for self-care to ease sore hamstring muscles and loosen up knots. Percussive massage therapy is a breakthrough treatment for soft tissue pain and injury, accelerating the growth and repair of tissues by providing concentrated, rapid, short-duration pulses deep into the tissues of the muscle, heavily increasing blood flow to the area causing pain relief.

Percussive massagers, including the MyoBuddy Pro Massager® also provide a gentle stretch to muscles and connective tissues improving flexibility and increased range of motion and function.

In the video below, MyoBuddy Fitness Educator Mary Biancalana, MS. Edu CMTPT, LMT, Certified Personal Trainer demonstrates how to use the MyoBuddy Massager Pro® to treat sore Hamstrings.