Lower Insertion of Hamstring - Irritated Accelerating

Injury Clinic
1

On the lower insertion of my hamstring (behind knee medially) I get irritation whenever I’m doing accelerations (either flat or up hill) and also when doing hamstring curls. It doesn’t hurt when fully upright sprinting or straight-leg hamstring exercises (unless I’ve really pissed it off doing the former).

I’ve tried resting from accelerations, but it has hung around for months now. I don’t do hamstring curls, but never did much of them before so I don’t think they’re the culprit.

I’m thinking it could be mechanics while accelerating, but even when focusing on “pushing down and back”, it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

2

Just my two cents…

Worked with an athlete of Coach 62’s (as he is known on Elite Fitness Systems) who had similar complaints.

In his situation, the culprit, or at least main culprit, ended up being that he did NOT do any knee flexion work. With the addition of effective, but low intensity, knee flexion work, his pain in the distal hamstring ceased to exist within a few weeks.

As Duxx and many on the forum have said before, it is quite difficult to diagnose and treat properly while in a virtual world, but thought I would share my experience with this particular football player.

3

Interesting Blair - did you put it down to solely lack of knee flexion work?

Jeremy - Which side?
It in some cases can be tight ITB and Gastroc insertions rubbing over the Ham insertion too.

4

In his case, no23, I do think the main issue was lack of hamstrings strength as a flexor of the knee. Being in the weightroom I had no access to “laboratory-esque” diagnostic equipment, but his diet (and therefore… H2O, electrolytes) seemed to be in check; he had no problem whatsoever contracting his gluteals to instigate extension of the hip; when manually muscle tested, was very weak flexing the knee.

Again, I am not sure this is the issue on this thread, but I felt my experience could at least offer an option to try.

5

BTW…very true. Tight IT band and/or gastroc can be a killer…

6

many times the region of pain is not the source of injury, this is why typical rehab often falls short.

7

Bair

Thanks for the reply. I have never done a whole lot of knee flexion exercises, just the occasional hamstring curl or stability ball hamstring work usually for higher reps. However, I usually feel that my knee flexion strength is fairly good. But of course it’s not getting a whole lot of work in that way right now becomes it quickly feels irritated.

What specifically do you mean by “effective, but low intensity, knee flexion work”?

no23

It is the inside part (medial) behind my knee, around the tendinous area you can feel with your fingers (but it is not usually sensitive to touch). The gastroc doesn’t seem to be terribly involved (e.g. no pain or discomfort when stretching or exercising gastroc). Hamstrings, hips, IT band all pretty flexible.

One more thing I wanted to mention is that I ride my mountain bike daily (as a source of transportation, maybe 3-5 miles per day). I have been for quite some time now. My hamstring doesn’t bother me when I’m riding, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

Thanks again for any ideas and help that can be offered.