hamstring tear - will change up my warmup routine

Tore both muscles in my hamstring last week cranking over a heel hook. Very painful for the first few days and really hard to move around, even on crutches as I had to physically hold my leg up in a bent position as I crutched. Back of my leg looks like a Rorschach test from the bruising. Made me realize that doing body weight squats as part of my pre-climbing warm-up is not that effective for heel hooking. I'm thinking that laying down on the pad and doing some hip thrusts and standing mule kicks is probably a much more effective way to warm up when climbing steep, as we tend to be using the posterior chain much more.

I tore my hamstring heelhooking earlier this year.  My leg warmup is really only a brisk pace on the approach and maybe some deep squat stretches to loosen the hips.  But I don't think warming up was my specific weakness, I think my leg was.

After it was healed, I started to incorporate strength specific training to toughen up my hamstrings.  Seated good mornings twice a week for two months and my heelhooks feel indestructible.  Helps the lower back as well.  

Sam D wrote:

I tore my hamstring heelhooking earlier this year.  My leg warmup is really only a brisk pace on the approach and maybe some deep squat stretches to loosen the hips.  But I don't think warming up was my specific weakness, I think my leg was.

After it was healed, I started to incorporate strength specific training to toughen up my hamstrings.  Seated good mornings twice a week for two months and my heelhooks feel indestructible.  Helps the lower back as well.  

Interesting, never done seated good mornings ill have to try those. In a few weeks of course. I was on my maybe 5th boulder of the day, felt really warmed up and ready to try hard and then...rip. I have some hip/low back issues so I assumed if this ever happened it would be my chronically tight right leg but ended up being the other. How did your healing time go? How long until you felt 100%?

As Sam D said, the issue may not have been lack of warm-up but a lack of strength.  Climbers tear hamstrings more frequently than you'd expect.  Most of us don't train hamstrings ever, then all of a sudden we do a hard heel hook, subjecting those muscles to a large amount of force.  Since we've rarely, or never, loaded that muscle in that way, we tear the muscle.

Once you're healed enough to train your hamstrings, Romanian deadlifts, TRX or stability ball hamstring curls, and Nordic hamstring curls are good options.  Machine leg curls are good too, if you have access to those machines.

I don't "feel" my hamstrings when I do seated good mornings, but that's probably because all I feel are my adductors stretching, which is another benefit of that exercise!

Seated good mornings are good. I do those just as a stretch, because that's where I'm at. My hamstrings are very very strong, but also very very very tight and I can't do the full range of motion, yet!

I'll throw in back extensions too as a suggestion. You can start those by statically holding them, then statically holding them with only one leg.

You may be a little far from doing a deadlift, depending on the tear. Take it slow - it's a big muscle. 

You may also want to self-assess how much you're using your butt vs your hamstring. Do you have a lazy butt?

Bolting Karen wrote:

Interesting, never done seated good mornings ill have to try those. In a few weeks of course. I was on my maybe 5th boulder of the day, felt really warmed up and ready to try hard and then...rip. I have some hip/low back issues so I assumed if this ever happened it would be my chronically tight right leg but ended up being the other. How did your healing time go? How long until you felt 100%?

I have lower back problems as well.  It's all connected...
For my hamstring tear, pain while walking was gone in 3-4 weeks and pain while climbing was gone in about 6 weeks.  I avoided left heel hooks for a couple months, and felt confident to start doing them again after the aforementioned strength training.  Overall about 3 months to come back to 110%.  

Thanks for the tips everyone. Didn't feel like I have an imbalance or weakness as i'm pretty persistent with hamstring/posterior chain exercises as they help with my lower back arthritis and I need them for heel hooking but you never know.

Bolting Karen wrote:

Thanks for the tips everyone. Didn't feel like I have an imbalance or weakness as i'm pretty persistent with hamstring/posterior chain exercises as they help with my lower back arthritis and I need them for heel hooking but you never know.

But you only seem to focus on quad exercise… Everything you mentioned in the op has nothing to do with pulling and activating the hamstring

Bolting Karen wrote:

Tore both muscles in my hamstring last week cranking over a heel hook. Very painful for the first few days and really hard to move around, even on crutches as I had to physically hold my leg up in a bent position as I crutched. Back of my leg looks like a Rorschach test from the bruising. Made me realize that doing body weight squats as part of my pre-climbing warm-up is not that effective for heel hooking. I'm thinking that laying down on the pad and doing some hip thrusts and standing mule kicks is probably a much more effective way to warm up when climbing steep, as we tend to be using the posterior chain much more.

My wife ruptured her left hamstring off - lots of bruising visible. That was 2018. She had it surgically repaired. Recently she tore her right hamstring mountain biking. No bruising but the surgeon was 50:50 with whether she needed surgery. Eventually decided no but rest 6 weeks with light physio . Key point is bruising means a bad tear and likely a rupture. Rupture requires surgery within 2 weeks or it becomes much worse. This is due to muscle retraction. See a specialist now and get an MRI. You have no time to lose. I h I am wrong and it is a minor tear but your symptoms mirror my wife’s experience from 2018

John Clark wrote:

But you only seem to focus on quad exercise… Everything you mentioned in the op has nothing to do with pulling and activating the hamstring

If you're doing squats correctly, you are definitely activating the posterior chain.

John Clark wrote:

But you only seem to focus on quad exercise… Everything you mentioned in the op has nothing to do with pulling and activating the hamstring

Hmm, maybe I’m not naming the exercises right, they are both focusing on hamstring and or glute retraction. 

Jkug Kug wrote:

My wife ruptured her left hamstring off - lots of bruising visible. That was 2018. She had it surgically repaired. Recently she tore her right hamstring mountain biking. No bruising but the surgeon was 50:50 with whether she needed surgery. Eventually decided no but rest 6 weeks with light physio . Key point is bruising means a bad tear and likely a rupture. Rupture requires surgery within 2 weeks or it becomes much worse. This is due to muscle retraction. See a specialist now and get an MRI. You have no time to lose. I h I am wrong and it is a minor tear but your symptoms mirror my wife’s experience from 2018

Thanks for the concern, I hope that’s not the case. I can’t get MRIs because I have some shrapnel in my body. I’m getting some flexibility back and being able to walk pretty normally so I hope it’s improvement. Would an ultrasound or ct be a good alternative? Not that it matters much anyway cause I use the VA for medical care. 

I would say ultrasound is better than ct scan for that injury. Good luck with the injury and recovery. Hopefully it is a muscle tear and not tendon rupture. I actually ruptured my bicep tendon and had decent strength after but it was a full rupture. lots of bruising. Got surgery and really good now. If surgery is required then it is urgent- hopefully your VA does that.