Ribs sent me this in an email.  I'm posting it here for anyone else who might be interested.

Bill

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Hamstring Set on Stability Ball

Because of your height, use the biggest stability ball there is.  You will do ten repetitions of 3 different exercises, total of 30 reps.   Then you repeat the whole thing for two sets, 60 reps.  In two weeks of so the hamstring muscles AND the smaller muscles that surround it, will be stronger and a bit more stretched out.  Hamstrings pull mainly because of the running stride developing the quads to the exclusion of the hams.  They get weak and pull easily.

First ten reps:  Lie on your back, arms out to the side, like a cross, and put your heels on the stability ball.  Now, without touching your butt to the floor, do ten bridges. Lift your hips up high as they can go, lower them without touching and raise them again. Do ten.

Second ten reps:  Now move straight into the next set of ten. In the bridge position from the first set, in other words, hips in the air and heels on the ball, draw the ball toward you, then push it back away from you, hips off the ground the entire time.  Do ten.

Third ten reps: Now here is the hard one!  Just your toes on the ball, hips in the air as before, and this time you will do ten more bridges, similar to set one.  But you will be surprised at how much harder it is to do starting with your toes on the ball.

The two sets take just a few minutes, but you will be surprised to see how quickly the hams strengthen.  This set was given to me by the top Physical Therapist in the Dallas area, so it's not just some junk exercise  I made up.  Give it a try and let me know.  Ribs

...been there myself Burger//.........of course, I would recommend a brace for running,

actually

Soccer Style are very good

and more supportive

so here's one I would get

http://www.braceshop.com/bauerfeind-myotrain-elastic-thigh-brace.htm

since my OA started out as what I thought was a hamstring pull, might get it xrayed if it doesn't ease up

Good Luck with it

Wondering where in your hamstring do you feel the pain?

The source could be located elsewhere.

I say this because if I have an active trigger point in glute med, then it sends sharp pain to the top of my hamstring.  So, while I feel it in the hamstring, the actual problem is somewhere else. Once I work on the spasm in the glute, the ham pain resolves.

Also, quite some time ago, I had a severe "hamstring pull". I tried every hamstring solution in the book, but it got worse and worse. Finally couldn't run, got so I could hardly walk around the office. Went to PT and lo and behold the source was a trigger point in my back (quadratus lumborum) which sent a signal out to the belly of the ham to spasm and get it's own knot.   The QL and the hamstring both had to be worked on for the problem to resolve.

So just a recommendation to widen your net in looking for the source of the problem.

And get better soon, happy .

Thanks for the well-wishes, but I didn't mean it to sound like I'm injured because I'm not.

Hope you find a solution to your sore hamstring, Breger.

Breger - Rib's hamstring strengthening exercises are perfect, but I, too, support getting an official diagnosis.  See if you can find a PT who treats runners.  If you live near a community college or university, contact the track or cross-country department and find out who they refer their athletes to.

Both of mine put me in the injured reserved for about 4-6 weeks. In my case, my issue was at what I call my "butt bone" and it got irritated by sitting, running, fast walking. my PT said  they (the medical/PT community) were seeing more hamstring issues in endurance athletes.  The best way I can describe it is that they're finding that micro tears occur in the hamstring and the only way to get "fix it" is to break up the scar tissue. For about 4+ weeks, 2x a week, he first warmed the area up with heating pads then did intense, friction massage cross ways across the affected area - that is, if your hamstring runs north to south, the friction massage was east to west and on the specific area.  Hurt like the dickens the first couple of times he did it, but gradually got better, and now I am able to run without pain.  HOWEVER, I do have to keep up with regular hamstring strengthening.

Also, as Ribs said, runners have a tendency to have overdeveloped quads - compared to their hamstrings - and this will pull in the hammies.  When I first started running, this issue was so bad for me, I did a lot of 5-min easy wall stretches to counter act the pulling of the quads, then incorporated hammy strength training.  Ribs' bridges are perfect.