If someone has an irritated/slightly strained hamstring, how soon is it ok to resume squatting? I’m looking for opinions here. I strained my hammy a bit in the fall and it didn’t hurt at all to squat but even 10-20m accels and light hamstring curls were fairly irritating. Does the recommendation to stay away from squat workouts apply even if there is no pain/irritation to the compromised area? Comments are appreciated?
Personally I squatted all the way through my issues and was fine but I had to lay off cleans and any hopping/jumping movements for a couple weeks.
What is the location of the injury? There is going to be significant differences in what can be done based on the severity of the hamstring injury, along with the origin of it.
How does the athlete respond by ROM? You say the athlete has no pain, but is this through the entire ROM? Is this dependent on load?
Many people are also great at modifying movements and making adjustments on the fly, even if they don’t realize it. I am not sure what your squat looked like, but video might help show any possible adjustments made (ie in pelvic tilt, tibial rolling, etc.) that might have taken some load off your hamstrings.
In general, if a movement can be performed correctly doesn’t cause irritation during the movement or after, I don’t necessarily see a reason why it could not or should not be included. I personally would still be conservative about progressions, intensities, and volumes used in this situation, but I would use it.
I pulled my hamstring last season and began squats 2 weeks after the initial injury without issues, though I was conservative on the load and total volume. Within 2-3 weeks, I was back to PR weights with a healthy hamstring for sprinting and other lifts.
Occasionally I will get lower-outer hammy strains, I think stemming mainly from a tight rectus femoris which creates more work during stepping over for hamstrings.
I used to do nothing for legs during the injury periods, but then I lost fitness.
So then I started doing full squats or full squats with heels elevated (to use more quads), and also found I could do jump squats with either dbells in hand or a med ball held on my chest (the med ball JS’s especially use more quads).
I personally could never do the CF recommended hamstring recovery accelerations after my strains, but I could do all the above.
After combining these HI elements + heavy upper weights with some easy tempo or elliptical on LI days, I lost much less fitness during these injury periods. If it felt ok with a movement, I just did it.