A pulled hamstring is a common sports injury in Saint Peters, Missouri, and people who have one are likely wondering how long a pulled hamstring takes to recover. There isn’t really a specific answer to this question, but generally it can take anywhere from a few days to several months for a pulled hamstring to heal. The reasons there is such a large range is that there are three factors that affect pulled hamstring recovery time.
1. The severity of your injury
One factor that has a lot to do with pulled hamstring recovery time is the severity of the injury. Hamstring injuries are typically classified into three levels of severity. People with a level one injury have a hamstring that has been overstretched, but there’s no tearing involved. Such an injury won’t usually affect your ability to walk, but it can make running or jogging painful. As this is the lowest level, injuries in this category tend to take less time to heal, and they can often feel better in just a few days.
If someone has a level two hamstring injury, it means that the hamstring is partially torn. This tearing typically takes longer to heal than a level one injury, and it’s not uncommon for a level two injury to take several weeks to recover. The worst and longest-lasting hamstring injury is a level three injury. A level three injury means that the hamstring has been completely torn, and this means you are likely to spend several months recovering from it.
2. Did you keep playing?
Many people are tempted to continue doing the activity that caused the pulled hamstring, but this is a mistake if you’re trying to reduce your recovery time. Sports players especially may be tempted to push through the pain, and this can actually make the injury worse. To help decrease your pulled hamstring recovery time, it’s important that you immediately stop whatever activity you’re doing. Also, you’ll want to stay off the injured leg as much as possible for the first few days after the injury. This will give the injured muscle time to rest and jump-start the healing process.
3. Are you using physical therapy?
Physical therapy can make a huge difference in the time it takes your hamstring to recover. Therapists can perform manual therapy on your leg, and this can help break down scar tissue that forms as the leg heals. This is important because scar tissue can cause muscle tension that increases pain and stiffens joints. It can also reduce blood flow to the injured muscle and make it harder to heal. Therapists can also show you how to perform exercises to strengthen and stretch the recovering hamstring, and these exercises and the other therapy techniques in your treatment plan can help decrease your risk of reinjuring the hamstring.
Excel Sports & Physical Therapy in Saint Peters, MO, can help with pulled hamstring recovery
Our team at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy has experience treating many types of injuries and medical conditions. To help create an effective treatment plan for you, we’ll start by doing a free screening. This will help us determine what issues you’re dealing with, and it will also give us the information we need to build you a personalized therapy plan. Our treatment plans for hamstring injuries will include multiple therapy techniques, such as:
- ASTYM® therapy
- McKenzie Method
- Manual therapy
- Dry needling
Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment to begin treating your pain.
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