Prevention is better than cure and there is evidence that a programme of eccentric hamstring exercises can reduce the incidence of hamstring muscle injuries.
This exercise, which can be done in the field without the use of any equipment, has been shown to increase the eccentric strength in the hamstring muscles in male professional soccer players. Players start in a kneeling position, with the torso from the upward held rigid and straight. The training partner ensures that the player’s feet are in contact with the ground throughout the exercise by applying pressure to the player’s heels/lower legs. The player then lowers his upper body to the ground as slowly as possible to maximise loading in the eccentric phase. 32
This makes sense as the majority of hamstring muscle injuries are located in the long head of biceps…show more content… It is surprising that flexibility of hamstring not a strong predicting factor for future hamstring injury, but it do more evidence in improving performance post hamstring injury.
Askling et al 13 performed two identical studies, one in footballers and other in sprinters and jumpers, 43 and demonstrated that a rehabilitation protocol consisting of mainly lengthening type of exercises (L-protocol) is more effective than a conventional protocol in promoting return to sport after acute hamstring injury. The most conspicuous characteristics of the more successful L-protocol were the systematic attempts to put load on the hamstrings during maximal dynamic lengthening, using exercises entitled The Extender, The Diver and The Glider. On this basis, they recommended that hamstring injury rehabilitation protocols should be preferentially based on strength and flexibility exercises that primarily involve exercises with high loads at long muscle–tendon