Early stage (phase 1) hamstring rehabilitation

If you’re suffering from a hamstring injury, you need to focus on restoring strength, flexibility and function while preventing re-injury.

Here are some early-stage hamstring rehabilitation exercises that you can incorporate into your recovery program.

Isometric contractions are those that generate force without a change in muscle length (i.e. you will see effort but no joint movement). The length the muscle is positioned in, as well as the force of contraction, can be adjusted to suit the muscle’s current capacity.

Eccentric contractions are those that see the muscle lengthen whilst generating force (i.e. a braking force). Repeating a movement involves alternating concentric (shortening) and eccentric (lengthening) muscle contraction, and at times a muscle may be injured during its eccentric (lengthening) phase of contraction.

The inclusion of eccentric based exercises in hamstring rehabilitation is protective against future injury and can be included in the early stages of rehabilitation.

Exercises:

• Isometric contractions (0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees)

• Isometric double leg bridge

• Isometric single leg bridge

• Isometric double leg bridge with weight

• Assisted eccentrics

• Swiss ball eccentric slide outs