I'm of no help really with your inquiry, but one thing I tell everyone who is injured is...stop stretching sore or injured areas. You will get some good responses I am sure, but just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. Sorry you are having this issue though. TimBo

flyin, I can't give any advice but I can sympathize with you as I dealt with a hamstring injury for months last year. At first I tried to run through it then started cutting back distance and skipping runs. If it felt a little better, I would try a little longer run unless it got too bothersome. Eventually, it got better. I probably did it all wrong, but I understand the frustration. Good luck. TomS

I've had two hamstring pulls in my 6 years of running, both in the left leg. They were very 'acute' when they occurred, meaning they hurt like heck and shut me right down. I literally had to take about 3-4 weeks off with no running. It was about 6 weeks before I was back running at somewhat normal mileage. Not to discourage you and everyone is different, but this was my experience. It sounds like your PT is allowing you to continue running. Mine recommended no running. I had acupuncture and massage treatments, and did recommended stretching exercises. But there was no quick solution. It just took time. When I did start back, my PT had me ease back with a very slow build - 10 min to start, 20 min , 30 min ... every other day, that sort of thing ... as long as there was no pain, I could keep building. Not sure what the right answer is for you. The good news is that you can still do a lot of cross training. Good luck. Hope you heal quickly. PJ ETA - my current lower ab issue is partly due to tight hamstrings. Seems like this is a chronic thing for me. I'm becoming very disciplined in stretching my hamstrings regularly.

You could be reinjuring your hamstrings with stretches. My advice is to head to the Injured Runner web page and read what they have to say about hamstring injuries. One thing they have, if not on the web page then on their DVD, are some stretches and exercises that have been shown to be effective in medical studies. I would do those. After that you are just guessing with the rest of the world as to what may help or hurt. But, before you try random treatments remember you can do things that make it worse all the while thinking you are doing yourself some good. Absent a good reason to believe something is effective, and good does not include your friend whose cousin did X and said it worked, I would not do it. Better safe than sorry. If you do nothing, and by nothing I mean no running, no stretching, no nothing, you will heal and get better. So that should be your baseline. Good luck and you will need patience. From everything I have read hamstring injuries heal slowly and reinjure easily even after they heal.

"I know I am not much of a help," Tim, no! You are immense help! And it makes sense. Your suggestion is the only thing I have not tried so far. So basically you are suggestion I let it heal before stretching and strengthening. Which makes perfect sense. Twocats. thanks for the links. I think the injured runner page is where I need to be right now. Laurie

I'll throw some things out there. Try to keep as active as possible. I think you are better off working through it rather than doing nothing at all. The key here is that you stop if you feel any pain. This includes stretching. Do not stretch until you are good and warmed up. Go for a walk or something first. Massage. A tennis ball works real well on the hamstrings. Try some strengthening exercises. A good one is to lie on your back with your heels on a chair and your knees bent at 90 degrees. Picture a sitting posture but you are on your back. Lift your butt off the floor and then lower it back down. Do a few sets of 10 of these. You'll definitely feel this in your hamstrings. Also, this might be totally unrelated to what your problem is but you may want to read it anyway. http://www.runningahead.com/forums/topic/783ffe01904c462794dfb492334b68bf Good luck. MTA: One more thing. If you do run try to avoid hills.