The GAA Hamstring Debacle. My Experience.

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This is a blog I have wanted to write for a long time because its close to my heart. And it's about hamstrings. From the ages of 16-23 i was absolutely crippled by every muscular injury known to man but most notably a left hamstring tear followed by a right hamstring tear followed again by a second left hamstring tear. I thought the world was against me, I wasn't in a great place. All i wanted to do was play ball but every time i tried to run i was getting worse. But how could this be happening ? I've done all the hamstring strength exercises under the sun. I was doing loads of work in the gym and then i gave up. I didn't play football one summer freeing up time leading into Christmas and i contemplated throwing in the towel with the GAA altogether. Until a chance conversation with a physio in Waterford city that posed a question to me that my groins could be the cause. Had i ever had a groin tear before which i knew the answer was yes. I found myself asking but why is that related. Bear in mind this is before i even thought about retraining as an NMT. then the more research you do the more you realize how wrong you were. Once i learned a bit more about how my body actually worked i began to realize why stretching and strength exercises for a hamstring are probably the worst possible way to recover from and to develop a hamstring muscle. With the lessons I've learned and a lot of training changes in my routine I have not had so much as a tight hamstring feeling in either over the last 5 years; given that this injury five years ago I thought was going to retire me I feel it's pretty significant to share. The reason i'm writing this is to try and touch base with the following person because this was me. A young guy or girl that's training as hard as they can on the pitch and in the gym and can't quite seem to get right. Frustration level building. Sleep lost. Stress high. Facing a race against time to get right for games. Spending hours doing injury prevention work. Still getting nowhere. If this sounds like you keep reading.

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Now the first thing I need to clear up is that if you're having an issue with the same muscle over and over again you should find yourself a “good” physio who doesn't just needle it and tell you to stretch it because there may be some underlying factors like an old injury, hip and rib cage mobility issues, foot issues etc which should be cleared up if we really want to progress. This is more along the lines of how's and whys surrounding why we should do and shouldn't do certain things as much if our main focus is getting over persistent injury. So without further ado into the nitty gritty. This will be highlighted in terms of my lessons.

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Lesson One : Stop stretching your hamstrings 

The classic response to tight muscles is to try to stretch it but if you have read my blog on the monosynaptic reflex arc you will know it is not a fantastic thing to do. Multiple studies recently have shown there is a chance that if you statically stretch prior to physical activity that the risk of injury actually goes up. Due to the reflex arc when we hold static stretches hard for 10-15 seconds we are actually just fighting against our bodies innate response to contract the muscle and what you think is stretching your hamstrings is actually just pulling fibers apart. This is due to the fact that muscles do not lengthen. They have defined length and when we move past this length we are actually stimulating the elastic properties of that muscle; not lengthening the fibers as many think. Is stretching bad? Not exactly but the classic stretching we see pitch side really is. Long static relaxed holds similar to yoga poses can be beneficial for certain scenarios however in general I wouldn't bank on these as your only form of recovery post exercise. Instead i learned to Keep mobility work separate to my training on the field bar during the warm when doing some dynamic movements and Stimulatory movements for each muscle group. Think More about a warm up consisting of mimicking on a low level the activities your about to perform and then gradually raising the heart rate, increasing blood flow and lowering tissue viscosity. Don't just pull it apart to attempt to warm it up. A Tutor of mine in the NTC posed the question that we don't cook a steak by pulling it apart.

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Lesson Two: Most injuries aren't from overtraining; they are from under recovery.

This was probably the hardest lesson I learned. Even though I was studying weekly about biochemical reactions in the body and knew what the body needed to heal, I was blind to it. I'm not really sure to pinpoint but I have my suspicions that social media and progression anxiety surrounding sport in young males has a huge amount to do with it. With social media exposure we can see everything the top echelons of sports people are doing with their daily lives and worse we tell ourselves that we can do what they're doing. In that bracket of 16-23 is where if a GAA player is good enough they will begin to make minor and 20s panels and fuel dreams of seniors which comes with tonnes of pressure and drive to succeed. But i think we all get lost in it and we don't listen to our bodies and worse ; when Strength and conditioning coaches (Who are paid to get people bigger and stronger) tell you need to get bigger and stronger we again push and push and push. But everything comes at a price. It's an opportunity cost. The same as going to the shop with 5 euro in your pocket and deciding whether to get milk and bread or to get coffee and a scone. Either decision will influence the other and ultimately be at the cost of the other. So what happens if we train 5-6 days a week hard and fail to recover? A lot of bad things. Now when i talk recovery I'm not talking ice baths, massages, and compression boots. That is the 10 percent. I'm talking about 90 percent. This is the stuff we all know but frequently ignore. Am I sleeping right? Am i Eating enough quality food? Am I minding my head? Am I doing some gentle exercise that will add value to my life and not my training ? 

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When I was suffering with my injuries I was training 4-5 nights a week, eating what i thought was good food but in reality was high protein low nutrition enriched foods. When I ignored the simple, whole , complex foods I should have been eating. I was probably drinking too much as I was in college. I was definitely not sleeping enough and for a lot of reasons I was absolutely stressed to the hilt. So was the real cause of my hamstring issues my training ? Or was it my actual life outside of training? Again a quote from A friend "Do the easy stuff easy so you can do the hard stuff hard".

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Lesson Three: Training for function 

This was my favorite lesson to learn. Because once I let go of my preconceptions I actually began to enjoy my sport again. To put it simple, If we spend more time in the gym than we do on the field we are genuinely at nothing. From a skills, movement, recovery and everything point of view. We are amateur athletes. Don't spend two nights in the field and 5 in the gym, Spend 4 on the field and one in the gym. Play your sport. Emphasize athleticism over heavy weights. Train smart, Add plyometrics and full sprints to your routine instead of nordics and squats. Train movements. Why spend hours building arms to hit the ball further if you're not actually trying to hit the ball further. When we train the body repeatedly to brace and train it in a rep range of 6-12 repetitions under high load, why are you surprised that you can't fully open to a sprint ? You're not training to open into a sprint often enough. Once I learned this I dumped most of the crap I was doing in the gym and got back to baseline training. My enjoyment levels went up, my injuries went down and I got fitter, most importantly I was happy again. When I looked back through my new lens and added back the gym work I trained for athleticism not for standalone strength. Now that might be a trigger for the strength and conditioning people reading this, and the fact is yes in an ideal world strength and conditioning can aid in the preparation and playing of sports to a high level. But my point is when we get lost in the drive for success and begin to forget about the reasons were doing the gym work we begin to train for the wrong reasons. In a young athlete who spends 4 nights a week in the gym doing heavy lifting and neglecting things like plyos , core efficiency aerobics etc; We end up training stiffness. We spend our days more sedentary than ever and then spend our training splits under heavy loads training to brace and not being in control of our breath. And when it comes to move then we are untrained for that form of movement. The same terminology applies if we are marathon runner but train like a sprinter. Are we going to be a better sprinter without training sprint mechanics probably not.

If anybody wants to see training specificity in action take a look at how Dutch athlete Femke Bol trains and it will open your eyes.

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Lesson Four : Tension and compression.

As a neuromuscular therapist we look at the body as a series of tension and compression. This simple phrase really had me look at my own body and see the signs of everything I was trying to ignore. We subconsciously add compressions to areas of tension when we are sore. Think of your tight upper traps and the feeling of somebody giving them a squeeze or a rub for relief. The last thing we want to do with that is add tension. So why do we fight tension with tension in the hamstrings? LIke I said in lesson one stop stretching your hamstrings. Instead think well if i tension in one area then i must have compression somewhere else. What I started to do was general mobility work in 3 key areas, The foot/ankle, the hip and the ribcage. Any movement for the musculature in my lower leg I did dynamically and with some resistance like a band. Another key learning of this is that the core is a force transfer system. It transfers force from top to bottom and vice versa. The rectus abdominis is an eccentric loading muscle so why do we train it concentrically ? it controls downwards motion of the pelvis so why don't we train it to do this? Simple alterations to core training and mobility practices at key compressive areas can shit this. Think less about lengthening and more about compression. Target areas of compression with some gentle mobility work and then train in those ranges movements you can utilize for your sport. If we leave areas of excess compression and worse make these worse through compressive training practices we will increase tension by default in certain regions of the body (hamstrings being a key area) and then decide we need to stretch the and the dogma continues.

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Lesson Five : Don't believe what you hear online.

I have S&C qualifications. I see what the level of training is like now but i don't agree with a lot of it. Some of the statements made during my training in my teenage years were laughable. Papers that were quoted as saying stronger athletes are faster and more resilient to injury with a reference beside the name. The body is too complicated to make buzz word statements like this aimed at young people and I resented that. You will find people who know what they're talking about and when you do hold them close. Don't fall into the trap of someone selling you a dream that a 12 week plan will bulletproof your hamstrings. It is a lifestyle alteration, It is a mindset alteration and ultimately it is a change of viewpoints. One issue I have with some of the strength and conditioning approaches for pre season is the emphasis at times on heavy lifts. While getting baseline strength is a necessity these motions are being pushed under high weight and load when the client is unable to control their own motion and breath through bodyweight let alone with a barbell. Something I get clients to try is a closed chain hip lock exercise and some single leg hinge variations to get an idea of the control the client possesses. If that is poor then generally I get them doing stability and proprioceptive work prior to getting into “Pre season". I have also found that big bilateral lifts contribute a lot to the “Hip Stiffness” a lot of GAA players suffer with. Compound that with a desk job and high stress levels and we fall into the trap of spending hours doing work trying to undo what I've spent hours doing throughout our day. Also what happens when you complete the 12 week plan? A few options. You either leave the strength training go by the wayside and concentrate on the pitch work. You sign up for 1-1 training with the person you just completed the plan with. Or you make a stab at programming yourself which ultimately ends in a dysregulated training schedule emphasizing bilateral lifts and mobility drills.

Lesson six - Your hamstring is a Brake

When we analyze Gait cycle from a fascial point of view we can see the hamstring has multiple functions. When we get bogged down in the ins and outs it gets confusing but we can pinpoint a few key things. When we decelerate during running gait at foot strike, the force will absorb through the plantar fascia up through the peroneal and tibialis anterior through the hamstrings and into the hip. Theres 2 key concepts i was to pose. One is that strength training a hamstring does not instill the qualities of this force transfer and a common loop i see is bridges, nordics feels okay at training opens into a sprint and pulls up again. Its true we need a certain amount of rebuilding after a hamstring injury and to retrain baseline strength in the tissue but that is not the same as training the fucntionality of that tissue. During late stage rehab we should be Putting more empahsis into downforce of the foot and force absorption instead of just blunt strength. The second is that idea again of tension and compression. If we are training in poor format we will end up training the anterior portion of the body more. It happens. When we have more compression on the front we have more tension on the back. When we sprint were at max tension. We need to be smarter about our training. So my magic hamstring strength exercise, the golden bullet, The best hamstring prehab exercise there is ....Maximal sprinting.

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Once a week I do 2 sets of 4 Sprints varying distances lasting no longer than 8 seconds. With 1/2 mins rest between each run it takes 15/20 mins. Its not about getting it done quickly. Its not about developing energy systems. Its all about putting maximal load through the hamstring. Do it before training it wont tax you too much. Do it on your off day. when ever you get the chance. At the start it might take a while to get used to it but when done repeatedly it the best form of hamstring rehabilitation there is.

In summary Key points

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• Stop stretching your hamstrings 
• 90/10 rule for recovery trumps all
• Train for your sport and your role
• The hamstring is a break train it like one (Max velocity sprinting)
• Train the fascial system (Plyometrics|)
• Mobility work on Foot, hip, ribs. Don't focus on blindly stretching muscles; it doesn't work.
• Don't spend all your time in the gym. Get back on the field and fall back in love with your sport.
• Stop fighting tension with tension.
• Training your core for force transfer
• Don't believe everything you hear on Instagram from “elite” strength and conditioning coaches.

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