A 58-year-old woman came to our clinic complaining of nagging pain in the back of her leg. This hamstring pain relief case describes how we identified the source of her pain and created a treatment plan to heal the injury and the positive response she had from acupuncture.
Hamstring Pain – More Common Than You Think
When you think of chronic pain, the big categories that jump to mind typically include back pain, neck pain, migraines, and stomach pain. But people have lots of pain all over the body, including the hamstring. It’s the one that gets stretched when you do a “runner’s stretch,” placing your leg on a table and leaning forward. Here’s some data about hamstring injuries.
Anatomy of a Hamstring Injury
Muscle overload is the primary cause of hamstring injuries. As muscles lengthen and contract beyond their ability, they are prone to strains and tears. You see this with overtraining, overexertion in competition, or the opposite – underuse from a sedentary lifestyle. In addition, people over 50, who walk as their primary form of exercise, are also at risk for a hamstring injury.
Risk factors for hamstring injury include:
- Exercising without warming up.
- Muscle imbalance, specifically between the hamstring (in the back of the thigh) and quad muscles (in the front).
- Being out of shape – weak muscles are less able to deal with the demands of certain activities.
- Muscle fatigue – tired muscles don’t lengthen and contract efficiently.
Hamstring Pain Relief Case Study
Our 58-year-old patient had injured her hamstring while hiking outside Boone the previous Fall. But unlike her other injuries, this one was not healing. Instead, she had a nagging, 5 out of 10 pain in the back of her left leg that irritated her every time she walked more than a short distance. She could no longer walk for exercise and was worried the injury would never heal. In addition, the pain radiated up into her hips and down the leg into her foot, making the pain even more frustrating. If anything, the injury was slowly getting worse.
Acupuncture Diagnosis for Hamstring Pain
Upon examination, it was clear that her injury resided along the Bladder channel (a.k.a. meridian), which runs down the back of the leg. In Chinese medicine, blocked Qi in the channels is often the cause of pain. Six meridians run up and down the leg, and the bladder channel is the one down the center line in the back of the leg. Therefore, most hamstring injuries involve the bladder channel.
Hamstring Pain Relief Treatment
Our treatment plan consisted of needling her tight hamstring muscle to improve blood circulation and promote healing while also reopening the Bladder channel in the back of her leg to restore proper Qi circulation. We included acupoints BL36, BL37, BL40, BL57, and BL60. The critical point for healing the hamstring muscle was BL37.
After the first treatment, our patient reported 10 percent less hamstring and leg pain. The back of her leg was less stiff, and she could stretch more effectively. Following her second session, her pain was 30 percent reduced, and she felt encouraged – she could tell that the treatments were working. And after six treatments, she was pain-free. This hamstring pain relief treatment got the job done quickly by healing the damaged muscles and getting Qi to flow through the leg normally again. A six-month follow-up revealed that she was pain-free and happily walking and hiking again.
Raleigh Acupuncture Hamstring Pain Treatment
Acupuncture facilitates hamstring pain relief because it treats the injury from multiple angles:
- It releases muscle spasms. This technique, commonly referred to as “dry needling,” is a component of acupuncture.
- Acupuncture opens blocked channels. In this hamstring pain relief case, we opened the Bladder channel.
- It increases qi and blood circulation to the injured muscles, speeding up the body’s healing potential.
Next Steps
Try acupuncture if you have hamstring pain. Treatments are safe, cost-effective, and deliver long-lasting relief.
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Additional Resources
Second Hamstring Pain Case Study.
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What our Clients are Saying
I came to Raleigh Acupuncture for severe plantar fasciitis and hamstring pain. They helped me with both of them. My pain was a 10 out of 10 beforehand, and now I’m barely a 1 out of 10. The process is amazing. I don’t know how it works but I KNOW it works!
