Technical Sprinting in the Early Phase of Hamstring Injury Rehabilitation to Accelerate Return to Full Participation in Track and Field Athletes: A Comparative Study of Two Rehabilitation Strategies.

Introduction: Hamstring injuries are common in track and field athletes with a higher incidence in males than females. It causes a significant loss in training time and a decline in performance. This study evaluated rehabilitation strategies to accelerate return to full participation following hamstring injury.

Methods: Thirty-three athletes (22 males; 11 females) were screened from November 2021 to October 2023 until their final major competition. Out of these, 17 athletes with hamstring injuries were included in this study which were further divided into two groups, A (n=8) and B (n=9), using stratified random sampling with single blinding. Group A received technical sprints using mini hurdles as part of their training from the early stages of rehabilitation, while Group B underwent high-volume low-intensity rehabilitation before progressing to sprints. The progress of each group was monitored on a weekly basis. The average time loss was calculated using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft® Corp., Redmond, WA) and Google Forms (Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA) with built-in validation.

Results:  The two groups demonstrated a significant difference in recovery times. In group A, the length of hamstring tenderness (LHT) improved from 9 ± 2.7 (95% CI 2.27) to 0.15 ± 0.3 (95% CI 0.62), active total knee extension (ATKE) from 161.8 ± 7.1 (95% CI 5.95) to 175.4 ± 2 (95% CI 2.3), and Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) in the isometric test from 5.6 ± 1.09 (95% CI 0.88) to 0.6 ± 0.5 (95% CI 0.63) with p<0.05, and in Group B, LHT improved from 6.8 ± 2.1 (95% CI 1.62) to 0.6 ± 0.7 (95% CI 0.55), ATKE improved from 168.7 ± 8.2 (95% CI 6.3) to 178.7 ± 2.7 (95% CI 2.06) and NPRS with resisted isometric test improved from 6 ± 1.4 (95% CI 1.08) to 0.8 ± 0.7 (95% CI 0.51) with p<0.05. However, Group A took an average of 3.55 weeks (1.22 SD 95% CI 1.08) and Group B took an average of 4.53 weeks (1.98 SD, 95% CI 1.52) to resume full participation. Three athletes from Group A and six athletes from Group B experienced hamstring tightness during the competition, two athletes from Group B were forced to withdraw from the competition due to hamstring reinjury.

Conclusions: The findings indicate that an early technical sprint program can facilitate an early return to full participation. This research can be a guide toward accelerated and integrated hamstring injury rehabilitation among track and field athletes.