Train for Length! My favourite eccentric exercises for hamstrings

Active individuals can sustain a variety of injuries to the hamstrings, ranging from a minor strain to a complete rupture.  Here are my three favourite exercises to help prevent hamstring injury and to aid in the rehabilitation of the walking wounded.

First of all a brief anatomy lesson is needed.   You have three hamstring muscles on the back of your thigh, semimembranosis, semitendinosis, and biceps femoris.  The two semi’s, and the long head of the biceps femoris all attach to the butt bone.  The sciatic nerve runs very close to the area of the hamstring attachment, and if irritated can cause sciatic symptoms down to the back of the knee.   The action of the hamstring group is to extend the thigh (leg swing backwards) and to flex the knee (heel to butt).  Like any body part, if the demands are too high and the recovery phase is too short, the hamstring tissue will wear down and eventually result in injury.

Runners are particularly susceptible to injury to this area because of the amount of stress put through this area while training.  The hamstrings work hard to slow knee extension during the late swing phase of running, and some runners have inadequate hamstring strength to deal with this stress.  The type of contraction that the hamstrings undergo during the late swing phase is called an eccentric contraction.  This is a muscle contraction while the muscle is lengthening (picture doing a bicep curl negative repetition).  Research supports that eccentric hamstring training can aid in the size, strength and flexibility of the hamstring group to help prevent future injury or to rehab back to sport after an injury has already occurred. 

One injury that can cause runners a great deal of grief is a tendinopathy (tendon-op-pathy).   A common area to get this type of injury is the Achilles.  If your brain naturally jumped to the thought of “Achilles tendonitis” you are on the right track.  A tendonitis is an injury to a tendon that causes acute irritation and inflammation.  If proper measures are taken a tendonitis can return to normal in most cases.  However, athletes tend to play through the pain leading to incomplete healing or further damage.  As this tendonitis injury becomes chronic it has made the transition to a tendinopathy, which is one type of hamstring injury that responds well to eccentric exercises.

Here are three exercises that you can add to your workouts to help condition your hamstrings at different lengths.

1 leg dead lifts – Slight bend in your knee & hinge forward through your hip. 

Hamstring rollouts – push your pelvis skyward, stabilize pelvis and extend lower legs away from your body.

Nordic exercise – anchor your lower legs or use a partner.  Start kneeling with an upright body position and let yourself fall forward while controlling the decent with your hamstrings.   *This exercise is difficult, when you start use an exercise ball to aid you on your decent. 

Have fun with these exercises and remember to consult with your Chiropractor about your health/condition prior to using any of these exercises!

Stay healthy my friends,

Dr. Adam


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