Just as your favorite pair of jeans can become worn and threadbare in the knees, your tendons can also develop chronic injury through wear-and-tear. Tendinopathy refers to a disease of a tendon. The clinical presentation includes tenderness on palpation and pain, often when exercising or with movement. Several terms have evolved in the medical terminology to refer to injuries that cause tendon pain: Tendinitis – acute tendon injury accompanied by inflammation.
Why does chronic tendinopathy occur?
There are 3 tendons in the back of the thigh that connect the hamstring muscles to the ischial tuberosity (the sit bone) in the pelvis. When people engage in sports or activities that subject these tendons to repetitive motions, the elastic collagen proteins in the tendon become injured and start to break down, causing degeneration of the tendon.
Chronic tendinopathy may be triggered by:
- An acute tear of the tendon that doesn’t heal properly (See: Acute Hamstring Tears), or
- Prolonged inflammation of the tendon (known as tendinitis), which can trigger eventual degeneration (known as tendinosis or chronic tendinopathy).
Symptoms of chronic hamstring tendinopathy
The signs that the hamstring tendons have experienced a chronic injury are fairly distinctive:
- Pain deep in the buttocks, upper thighs, or back of the hips that starts gradually.
- Pain or discomfort when sitting down, especially if it gets worse after sitting for a long time.
- Pain that is triggered or worsened by an activity that involves repetitive leg motion, particularly running or biking. The pain may even begin at the same point in the workout.
- Pain when bending fully at the waist, for example to pick something up off the ground.
- Pain that gets worse when accelerating or sprinting.
07/08/2015
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