Hamstrings - What are they?
Hamstrings - everyone has heard of them at one point or another, but what are they, what do they do, common injuries and why are they so hard to rehab. Over the next three blogs I will be exploring all three.
There are three muscles that make up your hamstrings - the Bicep Femoris, Semitendinosis and Semimebranosis. The hamstrings sit at the back of your thigh and help with a number of hip and knee movements. They attach onto your butt bone or ischial tuberosity and attach down to the outside and inside of your knee. Together they assist with knee flexion and hip extension due to there attachment above the hip and below the knee. The Semimembranosus and semitendinosus work together to externally rotate the knee and the bicep femoris works to internally rotate the knee.
So what do they do in your usual everyday activities? Hamstrings assist with stabilising and controlling movement through your knee and hip. They assist with your running and walking movement in stabilising the knee, slowing the knee for heel strike and helping extend and stabilise the hip during the stance phase.
Why do hamstrings cause so many issues with the general population and amongst sports people? In general the gluteals or butt muscles extend the hips with running and walking, but what happens when they aren't walking? Something has to take over and the hamstring has that job. In the Physiotherapy clinic I see so many people who use everything other then their glutes to complete activities, not only making it harder on their hamstrings but harder on themselves!
As for soccer and football players - due to the range of movement needed in the hamstring to complete the movements needed to score goals. If their anatomy doesn't have the full range to complete that movement the hamstrings are the first thing to let go.
Stay tuned for the common types of injuries and how you can help prevent and manage them over the next couple of blogs!
