Constant Hamstring Soreness

I weight train 3 times a week and perform a sprint session once as well. The problem is that every time I train my legs and after every single sprint session, my hamstrings are so unbelievably sore.

This may not sound so strange seeing as I do perform hamstring strengthening exercises such as RDL’s and good mornings but I squat as well and my quads seem to recover much quicker than my hamstrings. One possible reason I can see is that while I’ve been training my quads for a long time, I’ve only strarted to appreciate and implement hamstring training for the last few months.

Now after I sprint, my hamstrings are always hella sore. No other leg bodypart, just them. I’ve tried massaging, stretches, warmdowns, etc… all on the day of my sprints but every single time DOMS kicks in the next day and I always wake up with fried hamstrings.

Do I just have piss-poor hamstring recovery? Or am I stressing them too hard? Can anyone recommend anything I can do to alleviate the soreness?

How long has it been? Usually the muscle will adapt after a week or so.

You have to also remember that you’re training your hamstrings pretty hard wiuth squats as well.

I think you’ll have to halt progress in your quad training until your hammies catch up.

RDLs and good mornings only attend to the hip-extension function of the hamstrings and are more glute exercises than hamstring.

As much as the culture of T-Nation us intolerant of machines, you need to get yourself on a hamstring curl machine and doing as many sets and reps of slow-eccentric leg curls as you do knee-extension type movements (squat variations, leg presses) until your leg curl strength is at least 70% of your leg extension strength.

Don’t train with leg extensions, though, just test your 1RM or 6RM and use that as a benchmark for your hamstring progress.

Beef

[quote]AlbertaBeef wrote:
I think you’ll have to halt progress in your quad training until your hammies catch up.

RDLs and good mornings only attend to the hip-extension function of the hamstrings and are more glute exercises than hamstring.

As much as the culture of T-Nation us intolerant of machines, you need to get yourself on a hamstring curl machine and doing as many sets and reps of slow-eccentric leg curls as you do knee-extension type movements (squat variations, leg presses) until your leg curl strength is at least 70% of your leg extension strength.

Don’t train with leg extensions, though, just test your 1RM or 6RM and use that as a benchmark for your hamstring progress.

Beef[/quote]

Great post.

Have you let your hamstrings get fully un-sore yet? If not, please do so. They might just need to get completely recovered before starting back in on that program.

Sounds like you just went for too much too soon. Pay attention to the number of sessions you train the body per week, as well as intensity, and of course listen to the body when it is speaking. There’s a balance between undertraining and overtraining, and this way you will find it. Good luck.

[quote]AlbertaBeef wrote:
I think you’ll have to halt progress in your quad training until your hammies catch up.

RDLs and good mornings only attend to the hip-extension function of the hamstrings and are more glute exercises than hamstring.

As much as the culture of T-Nation us intolerant of machines, you need to get yourself on a hamstring curl machine and doing as many sets and reps of slow-eccentric leg curls as you do knee-extension type movements (squat variations, leg presses) until your leg curl strength is at least 70% of your leg extension strength.

Beef[/quote]

I’m aware that RDL and good mornings train the hip extension, I forgot to mention that my hips/groin area are actually the most sore after I weight train, but my hamstrings are the most sore after sprinting.

[quote]El_Animal wrote:
How long has it been? Usually the muscle will adapt after a week or so.
[/quote]

I’ve been training my hamstrings for a few months now, so it’s well past the “week to adapt” phase. It’s frustrating because I actually have lowered the volume of my hamstring training, I only weight train once a week for that bodypart and only sprint once so I only train them twice in total.

[quote]Kailash wrote:
Have you let your hamstrings get fully un-sore yet? If not, please do so. They might just need to get completely recovered before starting back in on that program.
[/quote]

Definitely. I always have a minimum of 3 days (the time it takes for the soreness to dissipate) before weight training and sprinting.

I bet you won’t try this but it works for me.

Dyno-mins Magnesium supps from Natures Plus.

The western diet/produce is poor in absorbable magnesium. The magnesium oxide found in muti’s is junk.

Muscle soreness (especially hams for me), mitral valve prolapse, and restless leg syndrome are all attributed to magnesium levels. I used to have all three. Now I have none.

Most of us are walking around with mineral deficiencies, particularly mag.

I agree with a lot that Beef said.

Other than that, I’ll just add that it doesn’t seem like your doing anything wrong, just that you are just starting to appreciate your hamstring training. This is going to alter the way your muscle fire when you train (you’ll be using more hamstrings when you sprint, the way it should be). So in addition to your body not being used to training hamstrings, you are now also getting a better hamstring workout from your sprinting.

[quote]wressler125 wrote:
I agree with a lot that Beef said.

Other than that, I’ll just add that it doesn’t seem like your doing anything wrong, just that you are just starting to appreciate your hamstring training. This is going to alter the way your muscle fire when you train (you’ll be using more hamstrings when you sprint, the way it should be). So in addition to your body not being used to training hamstrings, you are now also getting a better hamstring workout from your sprinting. [/quote]

Actually that does make sense. I used to sprint before but my hamstrings were never this sore, I guess my hamstrings are learning to “fire” more when I sprint.

[quote]ScienceGuy wrote:
I bet you won’t try this but it works for me.

Dyno-mins Magnesium supps from Natures Plus.

The western diet/produce is poor in absorbable magnesium. The magnesium oxide found in muti’s is junk.

Muscle soreness (especially hams for me), mitral valve prolapse, and restless leg syndrome are all attributed to magnesium levels. I used to have all three. Now I have none.

Most of us are walking around with mineral deficiencies, particularly mag.[/quote]

I’ll look into that Nature Plus supplements, there probably won’t be that exact brand over here in New Zealand but thanks for the suggestion mate. That’s definitely something to try.

[quote]AlbertaBeef wrote:

As much as the culture of T-Nation us intolerant of machines, you need to get yourself on a hamstring curl machine and doing as many sets and reps of slow-eccentric leg curls as you do knee-extension type movements (squat variations, leg presses) until your leg curl strength is at least 70% of your leg extension strength.
[/quote]

Or/and, if possible, do glute-ham raises.

I’m no kineseologist(sp?), but I remember Poliquin saying that the hamstrings contract eccentrically during sprints. I think eccentric contractions are largely responsible for muscle soreness.

Hope that helps somewhat.