| Hamstring tears are very common soccer injuries. A | | | | training makes muscles stronger so that they can |
| study in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & | | | | withstand greater forces and therefore helps to |
| Science in Sports shows that preseason strength | | | | prevent injuries. |
| training helps to prevent injuries to these muscles in | | | | You can help to prevent injuries by stopping exercise |
| the back of the upper legs (Volume 13, Issue 4, | | | | when you feel pain and by not exercising intensely |
| 2003). Players from two of the best soccer teams in | | | | when your muscles feel heavy or sore. |
| Sweden were divided into two groups. One group | | | | Muscles are made up of millions of individual fibers. |
| received specific hamstring training of 10 weeks of | | | | When you first contact a muscle, you use only one |
| twice a week, using a special device to overload the | | | | percent of the fibers. As you continue to exercise, |
| hamstrings eccentrically. The trained group had less | | | | you contract more fibers, which share the load, place |
| than one third the hamstring injuries of the untrained | | | | less force on each fiber and help prevent injuries. So |
| group, and also had greater improvement in | | | | go slow before you go fast. When you feel pain in |
| hamstring strength and running speed. | | | | one muscle during exercise, that's a signal that it may |
| The findings of this study should encourage | | | | be starting to tear and you should stop exercising. |
| preseason strength training for other muscle groups | | | | Every time that you exercise intensely, your muscles |
| stressed in any sports. While stretching can make | | | | are damaged, causing them to feel sore on the next |
| muscles longer to exert a greater torque on joints, it | | | | day. Exercising intensely when muscles feel sore |
| has not been shown to prevent injuries. Muscles are | | | | injures them. So do not exercise intensely when |
| injured because the force on them is greater than | | | | muscle feel sore. It usually takes at least 48 hours |
| their inherent strength, so they tear. Resistance | | | | for muscles to recover from hard exercise. |