Chronic hamstring pain

[Kristy007]

Please help me..............

I am a 30 year old female suffering chronic hamstring pain.  My pain has been affecting my quality of life for the last year.

My pain is not nerve pain.  My hamstrings ache & ache.  I am hyper-flexible & stretching doesn't seem to help my legs, they always feel tight, yet I have NO problem  touching my toes or stretching?  

My legs ache the worst @ night & I take Tylenol EZ tabs as if they were candy, sad but true, they allow me some sleep.

Sometimes it feels as though my legs are paralyzed & I must pick them up to move them, very strange.  They feel weak & sore beyond belief.  I do not have pain anywhere else except in my great toe in my left foot & left heel bone after a 12 hr shift on my feet.

I was told I had fibromyalgia, whatever, no trigger points for me & my pain is so specific to my posterior legs it didn't make sense & so I continue to suffer.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated & I am curious if having been severely pigeon-toed as a child might be affecting me now?

[francodo]

About 10 years ago, I had the SAME pain non stop for over a year.  One day a doctor gave me flexeril to take at night.  After 3 nights of sleeping deep, my legs stopped hurting.  I was so happy, I cried.  
I have found deep sleep and regular exercise are the only things that got me out of it.  I can feel that pull high in my hamstring when it is coming back and get some sleep.
I too have always been very flexible and can stretch pretty far.  
I have never been pigeon toed.  
Hope you have found relief by now.
***@****

[westportjill]

I have suffered from chronic back of leg/hamstring pain for 10 years.  Pain in both hamstrings - tightness that is worse when sitting or sleeping.  During deep massage, the pain can be brought on by extremely deep pressure, which for me, feels like scratching an itch.  It comes on for months and them it goes away for months.  I don't sleep well, I'm a light sleeper and I have 3 small children that are up a lot.   I am in pain right now and even taking oxycondon doesn't help.  I have tried so many things: chiropractors, neuromuscular therapy, stretching routines, physical therapy, acupuncture.  I have seen orthopedists, infectious disease specialists, rheumatologists, and no one knows what it is.   I was pain free during 2 of my pregnancies, but not with the last pregnancy.  The pain is often brought on by nothing, or exercise and sometime but not always, after a night of standing for awhile.  
I sit on tennis balls a lot to get at the pain, but it's short lived.  Does anyone know what is going on?

[orthotics]

I also had chronic hamstring tightness/inflammation.  However, I was able to help diagnose my problem after 10 years!  I am typing this in the hopes someone is also able to recover from this nagging/debilitating issue.  I am not a doctor, however, I have done plenty of research over the past few years.  For those of you who have occasional muscle tightness only after jog or physical activity then this post may not be for you.

Before I had an issue I was able to run 2 miles in under 11 mins and the 40m in under 4.5.  Then one day... I could barely walk because of the tightness in my hamstring.  I tried everything - strethcing, taking ibuprofin, heating, icing, building up my quads, building up my cavs, building up my hamstrings, and etc. -  nothing worked.  I went in for an MRI but everything came out clean.  Then the pain started radiating up and down my body to the back of my knee, to my achilles, and to my back.  The tightness was especially severe several hours after an activity (basketball, soccer, hockey, walking).  The pain would even radiate up and down my leg while I was laying down in bed.  Then one day I read about orthotics (no I am not a salesman, I am just telling my story).  Your feet act as your foundation - if they are out of alignment then your entire frame above them will be in constant distress during load bearing conditions (standing, wlaking, leg pressing, etc).  

After years of chronic pain I went to another doctor.  His immediate impression was everything looked ship shape.  My gate was normal when walking and I appeared as healthy as a horse.  I pleaded with him for another opinion and he sent me to a podiatrist.  The podiatrist ran the same tests except he also asked me to stand up straight and look up.  As soon as I looked up the light bulb went off in his head.  The arch on my left foot appeared normal during non load bearing conditions, however, as soon as weight was applied to my foot the arch collapsed.  The lack of support caused my hamstring to tighten in order to support my body's weight and thus led to my tendonitis.  The longevity of the injury caused back and knee problems.  Now I wear custom orthotics to support my arch and my frame.  The pain has abated and I am now able to run 3-5 miles on a regular basis.  The takehome message is if the pain has no warning signs, is immediate, and long lasting I would advise to have your feet checked out.  Symptoms to look for would be chronic ankle, knee, hip and/or lower back pain that is especially severe after physical activities.    If this is the case then the force vectors on your body are not aligned properly.  Other indicators include hereditary symptoms of weak arches.  I hope this helps someone out there.