What is Hamstring Injury?
Hamstring is a club of three muscles placed at the back of your thigh, starting from your hip region, running through your thigh up to the lower of your knee. While being involved in any physical activity when even one out of these three muscles gets overstretched beyond its limit then it results in an injury. You are more prone to a hamstring injury if you play sports like soccer, basketball, tennis, or similar sports which involve continuous sprinting with sudden stops and starts. Dancers might also get a hamstring injury.
Symptoms of Hamstring Injury?
Hamstring injury particularly causes pain at the back of your thigh. There are chances that you might also feel a sensation that something is popping out or there is a tear in your thigh muscle. Swelling and swiftness usually develop within a few minutes of the injury. You might see inflammation start forming up at the back of your thigh. A red spot or the greenish-blue bruised spot can be seen. You might feel weakness and the inability to walk or put any kind of weight on your injured leg.
When is the Right Time to See the Doctor?
Mild hamstring strains can be treated at home with little attention and care and with the help of pain relief therapy. But if the pain is severe and you can’t put even a little amount of weight on your leg at all then you should see the doctor or a physiotherapist.
Hamstring Pain can be unbearable sometimes when it is for a longer time. Physiotherapy can be your one-stop solution when you want to get rid of the pain you’ve been facing for a longer time. Physiotherapy helps speed up the healing process and even covers a broad range of physical problems. From feeling even a little stiffness in your shoulder, or recovering from surgery, physiotherapy can even help you with getting over any symptoms of concussion. Physiotherapists are well equipped with the techniques to help people through every process that brings about correct healing.
How Does Physiotherapy Speed Up the Recovery Process?
Several people wonder and are unable to understand how physiotherapy can aid the whole healing process. They think that conventional medical methods are only the full proof plan for healing but this is not the case. After all, healing is a multi-dimensional concept that involves many different things. Environment in which we live plays an important role in speeding up the healing process, and on the other hand, our dedication towards the prescribed regimens and remedies plays an important role. According to the chartered society of physiotherapy, physiotherapy takes up the ‘whole person’ approach toward comprehensive healing. It includes the patient’s general lifestyle.
While some medical practitioners see physiotherapy as the ‘last resort’, others believe that early intervention can speed up the process in multi-folds.
In one of the medical journal’s research was published, they studied two groups of people, one group where people got physiotherapy right after the injury while the other group waited for several days for the pain to get subsidized. Surprisingly it was observed that the group which received prompt care required further less medical services for a year following the physiotherapy. Therefore the conclusion was made that the people who get physiotherapy at the first sight of the pain have more chances of healing quickly and more importantly correctly.
If you are also suffering from hamstring injury or any other muscle related pain, then visit best physiotherapy clinic in mumbai .
Physiotherapy Treatment Options for Hamstring Injury
Depending upon the severity of your injury, you might be receiving the combination of the following:
- Ice and heat application on the injured area
- Electrotherapeutic modalities such as ultrasound or TENS
- Recommended crutches/ crutch walking therapy
- Gentle range of motion exercise
- Gentle stretching (manual or active)
- Progressive strengthening exercises
- Work or sports-related strengthening program
- Rehabilitation program
With the appropriate management, patients with minor hamstring strains can usually recover between one to three weeks. With larger tears, recovery may take three to four weeks longer duration. And in case of a complete rupture surgery may be recommended.
