Hamstring injuries are a relatively common occurrence in all levels of sport. To understand how to prevent a hamstring strain, we need to understand what the risk factors are.
You can roughly divide risk factors into two categories. Modifiable, and non- modifiable.
Non- modifiable risk factors relate to factors that you cannot change. These include
- Age
- Previous hamstring injury
- Previous hip, groin, or knee injury
- Type of sport (you are more likely to tear your hamstring playing soccer compared golf!)
What we want to focus on are the modifable factors. They include
- Poor Hamstring Strength
- Increased Quad strength compared to hamstring strength
- Fitness
- Flexibility
- Neural tension
- Poor warm-up
As you can see, thought here are a number of risk factors for hamstring strain, there are also a number of factors that you can modify and influence.
