I like American football. In fact I went to play with a group this past weekend right here in Singapore. 2 of them were nursing hamstring injuries. This is common in sports where there is a lot of sprinting. But why do hamstring injuries happen?

Remember that my philosophy as a sports performance coach and personal trainer is that when it comes to injury prevention, all non-contact injuries are preventable. That means that if you hurt your hamstring running, it can be prevented.

Sure, you need to train your hamstrings both as hip extensors (dead-lift type movements) as well as knee flexors (I like leg curls, slide board leg curls, or leg curls on a ball).

But I believe that if your hamstrings are weak, they are not that likely to be injured. You just won’t be fast!

However, it is you gluteals that prevent hamstring injury. Most athletes have terrible gluteal function. One of my most gifted basketball guys this year is an awesome player but with bad glute function. Thats what makes him injury prone!
Both the glutes and the hamstrings do similar things in movement. And if the glutes are weak, the hamstrings take over and do more work than they can. Then you get a pull. So get those glutes functioning and your hamstrings will thank you for it.

We test the glutes, hamstrings and many other muscles of every personal training and athletic training client for their ideal range of motion and movement so that you can get the best exercises for your current ability and goals. Preventing injury is a taken very seriously at the Genesis Performance Center. Below is a video of just a few of the assessments we do.