Torn Hamstring Recovery time

[owwee]

A Google search for "torn hamstring recovery time" comes up with this thread in the top results, and that's how I found this page. It's ironic, because I am also a TGR forums reader, but the find was unrelated. Now that I am mostly recovered, I wanted to share my experience. It's wordy but hopefully helpful to people. Bottom line is that you should be prepared for a long recovery if you've injured your hamstring severely...

Background: I tore my hammy on October 3 (~4 months ago). I'm 33, active, and in good health otherwise; not a "slow healer." My mechanism of injury (MOI) was somewhat unusual; I tore my hamstring while stretching, not while contracting. I believe the end result is basically the same in terms of injury, but it's worth mentioning. Basically, I was in a hurdler type stretch with my right leg forward, and I inappropriately and abruptly leaned forward. (I wish I knew what the hell I was thinking!) It didn't hurt at first but I *heard* it! The sound was like rubber bands snapping, and I felt a simultaneous strange sensation on the back of my leg above the knee. I was at the gym and immediately got an ice pack on it. My leg felt "weird" all day but didn't hurt until the next day. Even though it didn't hurt, my body was instinctively not letting me walk on it normally.

I went to an urgent care clinic the next day and got the diagnosis: hamstring strain (the official medical term, though tear seems more apt). The doctor would not give a firm prognosis, and this became a consistent theme for every practitioner I subsequently saw. They all said, a hamstring heals when it heals... period. But he did say they usually heal in 6 weeks on the long side (not true!). Based on my limited pain and bruising, he didn't think mine was too severe and so I figured I'd be on the low to mid end of that range. I started physical therapy that week and got good care: ultrasound and tissue massage twice a week, and daily stretching and rehab exercises. My physical therapist also would not give me a recovery estimate. I ended up going 2x a week for 2 months and then 1x a week for another month.

It was an excruciatingly slow process and also one I would describe as "non-linear". My PT warned (and he was right), that the biggest risk is over-exerting trying to rehab, and causing a setback. You've got to be patient!

The first 2 weeks, I was unable to walk remotely normally or contract the muscle at all. Then, I was able to walk with a normal stride as long as I did it carefully and deliberately and not too fast. This lasted for a week, and then I had the first of several setbacks. Went a bit too hard in PT (3 sets of 10 leg curls with 10 pounds was too much!), and I flared up bad. Back to limping and took a week to get back to previous point. At this point I was feeling compensatory pain in my left knee and right adductor (inner thigh muscle) from my constant strange posture and walking. After another week of feeling pretty ok, I did some exercises just of my upper body and core (pushups, situps, pullups), but to my surprise this really messed me up! For a week, I was in bad pain and could barely walk with tiny shuffle steps (this is 6 weeks post-injury now mind you!).

So, I saw a sports medicine doctor then who diagnosed adductor strain in addition to hamstring strain. I'm still not sure if this was completely from the original injury or from compensatory strain during recovery. He believed there was nerve impact from the scar tissue of the hamstring that was aggravating the adductor, causing it to be overactivated. (I've googled around and seem to see this correlation in other cases as well.) So the focus in PT shifted to the adductor and after another 2 weeks (2 months post-injury), I was finally feeling somewhat normal in being able to walk, spin on the cycle with no resistance, and do my PT exercises.

It took another month though to really stabilize and maintain that level of recovery. It was really a fine line between doing rehab exercises to maximize my recovery and going a bit too hard and causing a flareup. You've got to be really sensitive to any discomfort in the muscle and stop right away! Finally, after 11 weeks, I was able to introduce a 5 minute very slow jog every other day into my recovery regimen. The good news is that at 3 months, the beginning of January, when I wanted to start hitting the mountain at Squaw, I was able to. I'm limited to snowboard only; my PT and I didn't think the leg was stable enough for skis yet. And I used a neoprene thigh compression wrap to help provide some reassurance and support. Other than that and staying away from big drops, I was able to go hard and have fun.

I'm now 4 months post-recovery and my right leg is almost equal to my left again in terms of flexibility, and I feel generally fit and strong other than: 1) Running: still gradually working my way up on that. And 2) pushups: maintaining the plank position is surprisingly a huge aggravator on my adductor. Honestly, I think it may be 9-12 months in total before I totally forget about the injury day-to-day and am fully back to normal.

I've read that there are 3 general grades of severity: Grade 1 consists of minor tears within the muscle (recovery likely measured in days). A grade 2 is a partial tear in the muscle (recovery likely measured in weeks). And grade 3 is a severe or complete rupture of the muscle (recovery likely measured in months). I now believe I had a Grade 3 "tear" where muscle fibers completely snapped (the rubber bands I heard), but luckily only a relatively small amount of the total muscle fibers were affected. My MOI was unusual in that someone who gets a Grade 3 tear will usually be in the middle of intense exertion and then instantly on the ground in sheer pain, followed later by major bruising, and a large amount of the muscle tissue will be torn, leaving a major divot in the middle of the muscle. I had pretty minimal bruising in the days following the injury and only a small depression in the muscle. My physical therapist told me late in the process that my recovery time has been comparable to someone who comes in with a completely black and blue thigh, and I think the difference in symptoms was due my unusual MOI.

Bottom line: hamstring tear... don't do it! Warm up before exertion, maintain flexibility through stretching, and do some eccentric exercises regularly.

Here is a good info link I've found: http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cy...ringstrain.htm

[Chnaiur]

The recovery times I see in this thread are amazing. I had a minor tear in my hamstring a few years ago - very high, right where the muscle attaches to the bone.

Even though I could get back to exercise quickly, it still hurt after several years when I stayed immobile for 2-3 hours.

[drsmonkey]

...and something just seems wrong after re-reading this thread.

I tore mine at the beginning of spring (completely ruined my spring skiing season) last year pulling up on a heel hook climbing in the gym. I heard a loud pop and then fell. I found this thread the next day and it helped me to "design" my recovery plan. Thanks!

Very similar to others here, couldn't walk at all for 5 days, then slowly with support for another week, it got better and better over the next 2 months. Lots of icing, stretching, ROM type exercises, etc.

By summer I was riding my bike and doing long climbing routes in the mountains again. The only pain came from a ~ 8 foot fall off a rock to my feet while riding early in the season. Lots of hiking in the fall for hunting season and feeling OK. This winter I have been snowboarding and even got back on skis for the first time in years.

Here is where it gets weird. The side I tore is extremely flexible now, which seems the opposite of most other people. I have always been more flexible than the average guy, but now I can fold over my injured leg and stick my head on my knee with no resistance at all. For comparison if I am warmed up I can just get my forehead to my knee on the other side with considerable work and resistance.

The other thing is that despite all of the exercise I have done (running, squats, lunges, skiing, riding, skinning, postholing, leg curls) my torn hammy isn't getting any stronger. It is still at about one tenth the strength of the other when doing hamstring curls on a machine.

The tear was just under my ass toward the inside. I am starting to worry that I my have permanently detached part of my muscle. Is that even possible? I have been to a PT but not convinced she is totally understanding the situation (which could be my fault.)

Should I see a different PT ? Ortho? Accept the fact that I will never get it back the way it was and live with it? (My PT did say I was getting to the age where I would not heal like I used too.)

This thread has been helpful along the way, but I'm starting to get bummed about facing the fact that I may never have even close to the same strength in that leg and all of the repercussions of that.

[owwee]

Update... I'm 8 months post tear of hamstring and adductor maximus (lower inner thigh) muscles. Still dealing with weakness and diminished flexibility. Not an issue day to day but can't return to full activities (martial arts) because the muscles lack the strength and flexibility for kicking (harder actually on the leg that isn't kicking but is supporting weight). Not even close yet! After 5 months though I was solid enough for aggressive skiing and snowboarding, just needed to be careful against getting pitched forward and yanking on the hamster suddenly.

At this point I would need to do weights to try to rebuild the muscle further to normal, but I tore my meniscus in my other leg and am on crutches for 6 weeks, so that will have to wait. Heck of a year!

On the road to recovery, patiently!

[Wibby]

great info... actually found this thread through a google search. I heard a pop in my leg durring a soccer game and looks like I have the long road to recovery.