Bilateral Hamstring Issue

Hi All,

Thanks for reading....

So for about 7 weeks now I have had some issues with bilateral hamstring/thigh pain after vigorously stretching (I Think)... A bit of background on the issue for context

Male 50y
Gym 4 days a week _ Interestingly I have naturally muscular legs so I don't really train legs anymore, so I can rule out a gym injury.
Cycle - I use my bike most days to commute
Walk - For the last few years and through the first couple of weeks of this injury I would walk 4-5 miles a day 10-15k steps.

It was all very acute... My calfs were aching one day after a lot of walking so I did some stretches, the next day I woke up and all that day my hamstrings were kind of achy, very unpleasant... A bit like when you have just finished a heavy leg day and the actual ache was like when you have been on your feet all day. So I started stretching my hamstrings, quite aggressively looking back thinking it was the right thing to do. The stretches were mainly bending over and touching the floor in between my legs and a type of straight leg rear lunge type stretch and holds...

Over the next few days it eased off and then I went to my allotment and done quite a bit of bending and on and off my knees as I picking out weeds, during which I felt my hamstrings start to become painful again. I used a heat pad quite a lot over the next few days rather than RICE ( I guess this was wrong)... I would wake up in the morning and my hamstrings felt weak and would ache within minutes of moving around. I have to say my initial thought was it felt like a tendon issue and not muscular. Its worth mentioning also that through the first few weeks I carried on riding and walking daily which i suppose didn't help but because of this you can see the pain never was excruciating and the weakness wasn't actual weakness.

I have backed off the long walks for the moment but I am gently riding my bike still... I have carried on being active throughout.

Over the weeks, the intensity of the aching has diminished quite a bit, now it just kind of annoying... It is mainly if I am pottering around or standing still. They don't seem to ache after riding my bike, and I can move around for a few of hours before I feel like I need to rest them and even then it only needs a little rest. So it does seem like its getting better but super slowly... I haven't really needed to take any painkillers and certainly not recently but if I do, 2 Ibuprofen does the trick for long periods of time.

I have to state, they never really ache at rest. I can comfortably relax, especially lying down and any pain eases off quite quickly. They sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable if I sit on a firm surface for a prolonged period but not like if I am standing around or on my feet for a while.

About the pain and location...

The pain is mainly smack in the middle of the back of both thighs slightly over half way up, however it usually starts higher initially. At the the very top of the hamstring below my butt cheek and off centre towards the lateral side towards the hip... I will say, It does not feel sciatic in nature, I have had sciatica before some years ago and all through this I have never felt it is from my back, I have always felt it is a tendon issue. There no burning, doesn't feel sharp or stabbing and it doesn't radiate from my back, to my glute and then legs... I have no significant back pain or pain in my glutes other than what I mentioned above and I move and bend freely without issue, my legs move in all directions without pain. It seems very coincidental that this only happened after vigorously stretching...

After googling the 2 things that fits my symptoms are:

Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy - Physiopedia

Greater trochanteric pain syndrome | NHS inform

I am booked to see a Physio but am travelling for work at the moment so I was wondering if anyone had some thoughts and any ideas on exercises etc... Im reluctant to stretch!!!

So to sum up, it definitely isn't as bad as it was, some days its very mild but annoyingly there and then others it seems to be more prevalent. It doesn't seem progressive... If I am honest, I often wonder if my thinking about it makes it worse, I wake up and go looking for it to see if its gone... Also I wonder if this is just the reality of getting older and that if I did pull them then these things take time to heal.

Anyway, thanks for reading...