Runners and sometimes field based athletes can present with lower buttock pain in the clinic. This can reduce performance and be painful carrying out normal daily activities. After assessment, this is usually diagnosed as a proximal hamstring tendinopathy.

A proximal hamstring tendinopathy is when the tendon that inserts into the bony point of the bottom, the ischial tuberosity, gets overused and causes structural changes in the type of collagen present in the tendon. This can cause pain to the bony area, especially with sitting on hard surfaces, in cars, etc.

The main symptoms are:

  • pain on running activities,
  • pain when sitting down, especially on hard surfaces,
  • pain when flexing the hip e.g. putting on a sock.

In a clinical setting, the main reasons behind development of the tendon issue is due to overload of the tendon i.e. the tendon has been asked to do too much work for it’s ability to recover. So the typical story of a patient who presents with high hamstring pain is how they felt great during their runs over the preceding weeks and decided to increase the volume or intensity of their runs, or sometimes both! Another factor that may cause the issue to develop is hill running, which causes the hamstring muscles to come under increased eccentric stress, leading to tightened hip flexors, which in turn will contribute to the hamstrings working harder.

It’s important to get the region properly assessed to rule out other pathologies such as: lumbar referral, bursitis of the ischial tuberosity, glute max pain, sciatic nerve irritation, referral from the hip joint.

The best solution short term is to reduce and avoid the causing factors until the pain has subsided and get a proper assessment from one of the team to get a good structured rehabilitation programme under way..

Thomas Divilly

MISCP CSCS