Hamstring Injuries

What It Takes to Get an Olympic Body Slideshow

• What are the hamstrings?
• What is the function of the hamstrings?
• How can the hamstrings be injured?
• How are hamstring injuries treated?
• Can hamstring injuries be prevented?
• Hamstring Injuries At A Glance

What are the hamstrings?

The hamstrings are the tendons that attach the large muscles at the back of the thigh to bone. The hamstring muscles are the large muscles that pull on these tendons. It has become common in layman's terminology to refer to the long muscles at the back of the thigh as the "hamstrings." Academic anatomists refer to them as the posterior thigh muscles, and more specifically as the semimembranosis, the semitendinosis, and the biceps femoris muscles. These muscles span the thigh, crossing both the hip and the knee. They originate or begin at just below the buttocks, arising from the bone on which we sit (the ischium). They connect by means of their tendons onto the upper parts of the lower leg bones (the tibia and the fibula).

The origin of the word "hamstring" comes from the old English "hamm," meaning thigh. "String" refers to the characteristic appearance and feel of the tendons just above the back of the knee. This article will refer to the "hamstrings" in the commonly used sense as the large muscle group at the back of the thigh.