In today’s show, adapted from an article written for the U.Va. Engineer , the Alumni Magazine of the UVA School of Egineering and Applied Science, by freelance writer Charlie Feigenoff, we discuss the research of Silvia Salinas Blemker, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who is trying to identify reasons and mechanics of hamstring pulls.
When the world’s best sprinters stepped up to the mark at the 100 meter final during this summer’s Olympic Games in Peking, they were moments away from subjecting their leg muscles to thousands of pounds of force as they fought to be first across the finish line less than 10 seconds later. By and large, their leg muscles handled the strain well, but inevitably one or more of these elite runners, despite intense conditioning, will suffer a hamstring pull during the track and field season.
As Silvia Salinas Blemker, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science has said, “Of all the muscles that work together when we run quickly, the muscles in the hamstring group are most subject to injury, and one particular hamstrings muscle, the biceps femoris long head, is most commonly injured.”
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