A Very Disgruntled Footballer - needing advice urgently!

[DaveSadler]

Ladies/Gents, I am new to this and am keen to seek professional/expert advice from anyone who feels they can help. I am a 28 year old keen footballer playing an OK standard in the UK. Approx 2 years ago now I experienced a grade3 tear of the hamstring to which it took me 3 months to recover. From this moment the season came to an end and I recieved one session of physio where I had accupuncture and various massages.
Anyway since I have been back I have felt my hamstring go 3 times - probably a grade1 and most annoyingly my quad muscle has gone twice. I get a pulling pain that is fairly disabling in the left side of the top of my quad. I am a fit, agile guy but cannot understand for the life of me why this keeps happening.
So, I need some advice, are the hamstring and quad injuries related? why does it keep happening? Do I have to warm up more than anyone else? If so why? Do you have any specific stetches that would help? Do I need more physio?

Your help is greatly appreciated because right now my confidence is shot and it feels like everytime I pull on a jersey within 15 minutes I am going to be injured again! I play cricket and golf and havent suffered the injuries playing those; although having not warmed up once I did feel a slighty pull when sprinting for a cricket ball.

Please help......

Regards,

Dave

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[markmiller]

Dave-

Hamstring tears are usually the result of poor glute activation and overactive and/tight hamstrings. My guess is that you have kyphotic posture although you would want to find out for sure. Look in a mirror from the side and see if your butt tucks under your pelvis. Then, see if your hips are tilted back a little bit. That would put your hamstrings in a constant shortened position. Then, when you go to run, they are not capable of handling the load and tear.

I would suggest figuring out your posture distortions with the help of a physio and then work on specific exercises and stretches to balance those out. That should help a great deal!

[SMILER2013]

It is very hard to assess injuries like this without seeing somebody and there are so many variables. In truth you may need to enquire locally from other athletes as to who is the best physio in the area for dealing with and assessing these types of injuries. A few things you might look at however are 1. Was the injury you received to your hamstring properly worked out or is there still a ball of scar tissue there. I have found this a common cause of reinjury because with bad injuries alot of people aren't strong enough to work them out, dry needlying is not enough. 2. Are you doing alot static stretching prior to exercise, rather than warming up and doing dynamic stretching. This can prime the muscle for spasm and tears because you are overstretching the muscle and priming the stretch receptors to react and protect the muscle by causing spasm. Static stretching is the correct form of stretching after training and should be done religiously to help the muscle recover.3. Another condition players need to be on the look out for with recurrent hamstring/groin injuries etc. is ''femoral acetabular impingement'' which is basically bone impingement in the hip area which prevents the hip joint from functioning normally putting pressure on other structures. 4. Was progressive rehab strengthening program used after your hamstring injury to strengthen you and test you back to play........These are just a few things to look out for but my advice is to you is search and find a good physio early in your career, somebody also good at tissue work, somebody honest, somebody who will refer you when need be . Outside of that though grade three hamstrings are hard conditions to get right and care is needed. Best of luck, I hope I was of some help.