I’m sick and tired of reading about another player having a hamstring injury that prevents him from playing. Is this only happened occasionally it would not be so bad. But it seems to happen on a regular basis almost weekly, and in more than one sport. Simply check the number and kinds of injuries that most football and baseball teams are now experiencing.
According to the papers, once the athlete has experienced an injury the team “wants to be extremely cautious with the team’s faster players”. Being cautious now seems to be a little too late. Why weren’t measures taken to prevent the hamstring problem? As I’ve stated many times previously, hamstring problems are one of the simplest to avoid but one of the more difficult ones to rehabilitate.
The problem as I see it is that teams don’t do any technique work or specialized exercises to strengthen the muscles exactly how they are used in execution of the running or cutting movements. They would rather chalk injuries up to being “part of the game” and then lament the fact that the player cannot play. Sadly, this will continue until the teams realize that hamstring injuries, as many other injuries, are almost always due to improper technique and insufficient strength of the muscles as they are used in execution of the skill.
As far as I know, there is not a single professional or collegiate team that does technique analysis or scientifically based work on improving or fine-tuning the player’s technique. Nor do they do any specialized strength training. They continue to do general strength exercises such as the knee (leg) curl to prevent hamstring problems. But as is well known, this exercise will never prevent hamstring injuries that occur at the hip joint.
Recall that the hamstring is a two joint muscle that crosses the knee joint to attach on the shin, with the other end attaching on the hip bone. The leg curl involves the hamstrings and the lower tendons that attach to the shin. It has no effect on the tendons that attach to the hip joint where most injuries occur.
Because of this, even though the leg curl is effective for strengthening the hamstring muscles, is not effective for strengthening the tendons in the attachment of them to the hip joint bone. Because of this it is not a very effective exercise to prevent hamstring injuries. The most effective exercise that strengthens the hamstring muscle and the tendons at both ends, in sequence, is the glute-ham-gastroc raise. It can only be performed on a Glute Ham Back machine such as the one by Legend which is made specially to do both the hip extension and glute-ham-gastroc exercises.
I have never had an athlete experience a hamstring injury if he did the glute-ham-gastroc raise on a regular basis and had proper technique in execution of the running and cutting skills. These are the two key factors for the prevention of injury. But yet they are lacking on almost all teams.
Teams also have the players constantly stretching the hamstrings with static stretches. This too is often the cause of many injuries. Many players are proud of the fact that they can touch their toes when they bend over with straight legs. However, in this exercise, because you have a rounded back to reach this far, you overstretch the ligaments of the lumbar spine more than you stretch the hamstrings. As a result, you end up with a looser back more prone to injury rather than a safer or stronger back or hamstring muscle.
But yet by doing the glute-ham-gastroc raise and exercises such as the good morning or hip extension on the Yessis Glute Ham Back machine, you get dynamic stretching and strengthening of the hamstrings so that the muscle is capable of performing in dynamic situations. This is a key factor in prevention. It is very easy to implement but yet it is lacking on almost all teams.
Probably the most glaring factor that is typically omitted on all teams is a lack of technique analysis and effective work on perfecting and improving running and cutting technique. This is the number one factor that must be dealt with before any other measures become effective. But when technique is ignored all other factors are only partially effective.
Technique is not an unknown entity; there is much information available that can easily be incorporated by the teams. But it appears they would rather moan and groan and spend considerable amounts of money on medical and rehabilitation bills rather than taking a few simple and extremely effective measures to prevent hamstring injuries.
The next time I hear of a player getting a hamstring injury I may feel sorry for the player but I can only say that the team should have expected it. They could have prevented it but they did nothing. Ignorance is no excuse here. It appears that they would rather spend their money on buying another player and hope he will not get injured.