An athlete can go through many different injuries throughout their career. But among all the injuries, hamstring injuries are really common among athletes. Hamstring injuries can be really serious at times, and the pain can be too much to bear. Runners, Footballers, basketball players, skaters, etc. players suffer from hamstring injuries more often. If not treated properly, hamstring injury can be a real threat to the career of any athlete. So, an athlete must take care of their hamstring injury properly if they ever suffer from any.

What is a Hamstring Injury?

Hamstrings are basically a group of three muscles, which run along the back of one’s thigh. They are not just a single string. You are able to bend your leg at the knee because of the hamstring muscles. If you face a hamstring strain, then one or more of these muscles get overwhelmed, and they might even begin to tear. Athletes and other people that are involved with a lot of jumping and running are more likely to suffer from a hamstring strain. It can also happen sometimes during a sudden starting or stopping of physical activities.

When Do You Have More Chances of Facing Strain in The Hamstrings?

There are some situations when you are more at risk of facing a strain in the hamstrings and suffer from a hamstring injury as a consequence. The chances of your falling victim to hamstring injuries will increase if you don’t warm up before starting exercising, or any other hard activities. Also, if your muscles in the front part of your thigh get tight as those muscles stretch your pelvis forward, and tighten your hamstrings, then you will have a high chance of experiencing hamstring strain.

Another time when you can face hamstring strain is when your glutes get weak. As hamstrings and glutes work together, hamstrings can get overwhelmed and strained if your glutes are weak.

Symptoms of Hamstring Strain

A hamstring injury generally causes a sudden and sharp pain in the back portion of your thigh. Whereas the mild ones might cause a lesser amount of pain, but the pain of the harsh injuries can be unbearable. If you ever suffer from a severe hamstring injury, you might feel it impossible to walk, or even stand. Among other symptoms of hamstring injuries might include-

• Unusual and unbearable pain during exercise, along with a snapping or popping feeling
• Swelling and tenderness
• You can also experience bruising or discoloration along the back of your leg

Risk Factors of Hamstring Injury

There can be risk factors of many different aspects for someone to suffer from a hamstring injury. These include-

Sports Participation

Different sports that need running or sprinting, or other activities such as, dancing that might need extreme stretching, can cause hamstring injuries frequently.

Prior Hamstring Injury

One can have a high chance of having another injury after facing one hamstring injury. It can happen if you try to continue all your regular sporting activities at pre-injury levels.

Poor Flexibility

Your muscles might be unable to carry the full force of any action if you have low flexibility, during certain physical activities.

Muscle Imbalance

You might be more likely to injure your hamstring muscles when your muscles along the front of your thigh become more improved than your hamstring muscles.

Red Light Therapy For Treating Hamstring Injury

In order to go through light therapy, you will need a light therapy device. You can go through the therapy as a part of your regular workout, as it can help to build muscle, give an energy boost, help to relieve stress, and many other things.

But most importantly, light therapy can help with different pains and injuries. As light therapy can penetrate your skin, and work on your muscles on a cellular level by generating different hormones and chemical reactions that can work to relieve pain and heal injuries, you can resort to light therapy for your hamstring injury without any doubt.

Among different types of light therapy, red light therapy works the best to deal with pains and injuries. Red light therapy works through developing blood flow and stimulating cell regeneration in the injured area. The mitochondria in the muscular cells get their necessary energy for completing their respiration circle properly with the help of red light therapy, and this makes the muscles suffer less fatigue. And this development of the mitochondrial respiration cycle leads to better activation and formation of the stem cells of the muscles and improving healthy muscle tissue as a result. So, using red light therapy on the injured area can improve healthy muscles in the place of injured muscles.

Red light therapy also helps to reduce the inflammation that can make the muscles ache, and damage the cells Light therapy works through the muscles on a cellular level, and generate necessary hormones and reactions to ease the pain. After taking the therapy regularly, the pain will gradually cease to exist, and as healthy muscles will grow, the overall injury will get cured soon,

Final Words

Light therapy can be a really effective method of taking care of any type of injury. So, if you are an athlete and are going through a hamstring injury, you can resort to light therapy for treating it.