A Comprehensive Method for Recovering from Hamstring Injuries: Strength, Flexibility and Preparedness for Returning to Competitive Sports

Abstract

The hamstring injury is one of the most common and widespread musculoskeletal problems in sports. It can lead to a lot of down time, a drop in performance, and a return. The presented and evaluated research involves a more complicated model of rehabilitation that concentrates on the eccentric strength, dynamic flexibility, and psychological preparedness to successful recovery and safe playing (RTP). The holistic and evidence-based rehabilitation program was evaluated in comparison with the conventional treatment methods in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) study of 60 athletes with Grade I-II hamstring injuries. The intervention group had structured eccentric exercise, dynamic flexibility programs and sport-specific functional assessment and the control group had the traditional version of stretching and concentric training that were performed in the form of stateness. According to the quantitative analysis, the intervention group was significantly better in all parameters: a reduced RTP time (32.1 + 3.5 days vs. 44.3 + 4.2 days, p < 0.01), the lower incidence of re-injury (8% vs. 27%), the increased range-of-motion (21.3 o C, and 2.4) and the maximum eccentric torque (139.2 Nm vs. 112.4 Nm). Moreover, intervention group (8.6 ± 0.4 vs. 6.9 ± 0.8) had a significantly larger psychological preparedness scores (I-PRS) and it is necessary to add that the mental recovery is one of the major aspects in reintegrating athletes. The findings validate the successfulness of a composite rehabilitation paradigm that integrates physiological, biomechanical and psychological factors in contrast to a traditional paradigm that dwells on symptoms. The paradigm shift in sports medicine according to the evidence-based and individualized and holistic rehabilitation techniques accelerating the recovery process, lowering the possibility of reoccurrence and sustainable sport functioning is proposed in this paper.