Hamstring Strain Treatment in Norwest & Dural
The Short Version
The hamstring is the most re injured muscle in sport, and the reason is almost always the same. People come back when it stops hurting rather than when it is strong again, and those are weeks apart. A first hamstring strain is a manageable injury. A second one in the same season is a different conversation, and the thing that decides which one you get is what happens in the four weeks after the pain goes. The rehab that works is not stretching. It is loading the muscle at length, progressively, for longer than feels necessary.
The Hamstrings We See Most
The most common version is a footballer or a runner who felt a sharp grab at the back of the thigh during a sprint, limped off, and is now two weeks in feeling almost fine walking around. They want to know when they can train. The honest answer is that walking around comfortably tells us very little, and the tests that matter have not been done yet. The second version is someone on their second or third hamstring injury in eighteen months. That is not bad luck. It is a strength deficit nobody has measured, and it is the most fixable version of this problem once someone actually looks.
What Is Actually Driving It
Hamstring injuries are not random. These are the six things that decide how long you are out and whether it happens again.
How you did it, and where it hurts
What you have done to it before
Whether rehab finishes or just stops
Strength at length, not just strength
Coming back on feel rather than what it can do
Sprinting volume without the strength behind it
Do You Need a Scan?
Usually not. A hamstring strain is diagnosed on history and examination, and for most people an MRI will not change what we do. We would image or refer if the pain is right up at the sit bone with significant bruising and weakness, which can indicate a tendon avulsion needing surgical review, if you cannot walk, if there was a pop with immediate and dramatic loss of function, or if you are a professional athlete where the return to play decision carries enough money that the extra information is worth having. Scan findings correlate less well with recovery time than most people assume. How you are progressing week to week tells us more.
Whether you need imaging is something we work out with you at the appointment. Your practitioner will talk you through whether a scan would change the plan, and organise one if it would.
When You Should Be Seen Urgently
A couple of hamstring presentations need looking at quickly. Tell us when you book if either fits.
Go to emergency if you felt a pop high up near the sit bone, there’s heavy bruising down the back of the thigh, and you can’t walk properly. A proximal tendon avulsion can need surgery, and the window for doing that well is short.
Book in with us soon, and tell us when you book, if you’re a teenager or young adolescent and the pain is right on the sit bone after a sprint or a kick, because the growth plate there can pull off and it’s managed differently. If you’ve got numbness, pins and needles or shooting pain down the leg alongside it, which points at the sciatic nerve. If there’s deep buttock pain rather than pain in the muscle belly. Or if this is the third or fourth time on the same leg.
If it’s a familiar pull in the middle of the muscle that came on during a sprint or a stretch, you’re in the right place.
How We Actually Treat It
The thing that makes hamstrings different from most injuries is that the first one usually isn’t the problem. The reinjury is. Most of them happen in the first two months back, which is exactly the window rehab is designed to protect you through.
So the whole plan is built around two things: rebuilding the hamstring at long muscle lengths, and working with you on the return so the odds of it happening again are as low as we can make them.
On the rehab itself, this is one of the areas where the right program makes a genuinely large difference. Programs built around lengthening exercises, which load the hamstring in the stretched positions where it actually gets injured, get athletes back roughly twice as fast as conventional rehab, and that finding holds up in footballers and in sprinters. It’s the single biggest lever we have on this injury, and it’s why we don’t just rest it and reload.
On prevention, Nordic hamstring curls work, and they work best on exactly the group who need them most. In a trial across fifty clubs, players doing them had far fewer hamstring injuries, and the effect on repeat injuries was bigger again, roughly one recurrence prevented for every three players who did the program.
The catch is that they only work if you keep doing them, and most people don’t. That’s not an argument against Nordics, it’s the reason we build them into something you’ll actually stick with rather than handing you a sheet and hoping.
What Recovery Actually Looks Like
Days one to five. Settle it down and start gentle loading early. Complete rest isn’t the answer, and the old advice to wait until it stops hurting has been abandoned for good reason.
Weeks one to three. Progressive strength work through increasing range, including work at long muscle lengths. This is the part that distinguishes a hamstring that holds from one that doesn’t.
Weeks three to six. Running progression, then sprinting, then whatever your sport does. Sprinting is not the last step before return, it’s a step you have to complete well before return.
Return to sport. Decided by what the leg can do rather than by the date. We’ll give you the criteria rather than a date.
A realistic average for a footballer with a mid-belly strain rehabbed properly is around four weeks. High hamstring injuries near the sit bone, and injuries in sprinters, run considerably longer, often eight to twelve weeks. The single biggest mistake is returning when it stops hurting, because 69 percent of re-injuries happen in the first two months back.
What Else It Could Be
Pain at the back of the thigh isn’t always a torn hamstring muscle.
High hamstring tendinopathy. Deep pain right at the sit bone, worse sitting on hard surfaces and running uphill, built up gradually rather than in a moment. Much slower and treated differently.
Proximal tendon avulsion. A pop, heavy bruising, and difficulty walking. Assessed urgently because it can be surgical.
Referred from the back or the sciatic nerve. Pain down the back of the leg with pins and needles or numbness, or that doesn’t reproduce when the hamstring is tested directly.
Deep buttock or gluteal pain. Often mistaken for hamstring, and loading the hamstring won’t fix it.
Growth plate injury in adolescents. Pain right at the sit bone in a young athlete after a sprint or kick. Needs a different plan.
Related pages: Calf Strain, ACL Rehab, Lower Back Pain.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will I be out? For a typical mid-thigh strain rehabbed properly, around four weeks is realistic. In a randomised trial, a lengthening-based program returned footballers in an average of 28 days against 51 days for conventional rehab. Injuries high up near the sit bone, and injuries in sprinters, take considerably longer.
Why do hamstrings keep re-tearing? Because people come back too early. In 21 seasons of professional football data, 69 percent of all recurrences happened within two months of returning. It isn't bad luck, it's a timing problem, and it's the main thing rehab is designed to prevent.
When can I go back? When you can do what your sport asks rather than when it stops hurting. That means full-speed sprinting completed comfortably, strength restored at long muscle lengths, and no apprehension. We'll give you criteria rather than a date, because a date is what gets people re-injured.
Do Nordic hamstring curls actually work? Yes, with a caveat. In a trial of 942 players they cut hamstring injuries by around 70 percent, and the effect on recurrences was bigger again. The caveat is compliance: when researchers surveyed 50 professional clubs, the full program was completed in only about 11 percent of seasons. The exercise works if you do it, and almost nobody does it.
Should I stretch it? Not aggressively, and not early. Stretching an acutely torn hamstring can aggravate it. What the evidence supports is loading it, including at longer muscle lengths, which is a different thing from stretching and is done progressively.
Do I need a referral to book? No. You can book directly with any of our chiropractors or physiotherapists. If you've got a GP care plan or you're claiming through a fund, bring the paperwork and we'll work with it.
Who Treats This at Strive
Hamstring injuries are treated at both clinics by our physiotherapists and chiropractors, with strength and conditioning built in rather than bolted on. The first two weeks are the easy part. What we are actually for is the six weeks after that, where the reinjury risk is decided.
Tammy Ong
Women’s Health Physiotherapist
Rehabilitation Pilates Instructor
Tammy helps women and active individuals recover from injury, improve movement, and return to the activities they love.
Warren Zhou
Chiropractor, competitive powerlifter, and trail runner who treats athletes from the gym floor to the platform to the start line.
Tegan Webster
Chiropractor
Providing evidence-based care to help patients achieve their health goals.
Richard Kan
Sports Chiropractor
Strength and Conditioning Coach
Helping athletes and active individuals recover, perform, and stay injury-free.
Rawan Haydar
Physiotherapist
Passionate about personalised care that supports recovery and long-term wellbeing.
Jess Larder
Physiotherapist
Passionate about rehabilitation, movement, and helping people achieve their goals.
Getting Here
We treat hamstring injuries at both our Norwest and Dural clinics.
Norwest
301/10 Century Circuit NORWEST NSW 2153
Inside Norwest Central Building Complex - 8 - 12 Century Circuit
Entry doors next to Zaatar and Zucchero Cafe
Operating Hours
Mon - Fri 8am - 6pm
Sat 8am - 12pm
Sun CLOSED
Ready to Stop Tearing Your Hamstring?
We treat hamstring injuries for patients from across The Hills, including Dural, Round Corner, Kenthurst, Glenhaven, Castle Hill, Kellyville, Baulkham Hills, Cherrybrook and Bella Vista, at our Norwest and Dural clinics, and in Canberra at Giralang.