Biceps femoris long head architecture: The association with hamstring injury and response to training

Abstract

Hamstring strain injuries (HSIs) are the most common injury in many running based sports, and following the initial insult the risk of recurrence remains high. In order to reduce the risk of a hamstring strain re-injury, developing a greater understanding of the maladaptations associated with a previous insult is important. Despite continual research over the past decade, recurrence rates have not declined suggesting the aetiology of re-injury is still not well understood. Whilst non-modifiable risk factors (e.g. increasing age and previous injury history) have been implicated in the incidence of first time and recurrent injuries, there are still a number of modifiable risk factors that are yet to be examined in detail in the scientific literature. One such factor hypothesized to influence the risk of HSI is the architectural characteristics of the biceps femoris long head (BFlh). The primary aim of this thesis was to explore the association between BFlh architecture and the aetiology of HSI and re-injury. If BFlh architecture was found to be associated with the occurrence and recurrence of HSI, the secondary aim of this thesis was to then determine the malleability of these architectural characteristics in response to a resistance training intervention.