The hamstrings are a group of three muscles that run down the back of your upper leg. A pulled hamstring is a common injury that requires proper rehabilitation, followed by light stretching exercises. You should stop any stretching exercises if you feel significant pain or discomfort and then talk to your doctor.
Sitting Hamstring Stretch
Starting out with a simple stretch will help ease your pulled hamstring muscle into recovery and prevent you from doing too much stretching too fast. Sit on the edge of a bed or a table with your injured leg hanging over the side. Keep your back straight and use your leg muscles to lift your injured leg up off the table, while keeping your knee bent. Push your knee toward the ceiling slowly until you feel a stretch in your hamstring muscles. Push the stretch as far as you comfortably can and then return your leg to the table.
Standing Table Stretch
Stand next to a counter or table that sits at about your waist level with your injured leg closest to the table. Lift your injured leg up onto the table so your leg is straight and fully extended and running the length of the table, not across it. Keep your back straight and lean forward slowly, resting your hands on the top of your injured leg until you feel the stretch in your hamstring muscles. You can also put a bag of ice under your hamstrings as you perform this stretch to help decrease any swelling that may be associated with your pulled muscle.
Door Stretch
Find an open door frame and lie down so that your noninjured leg is through the door frame and your injured leg is propped up against the wall. Scoot your body closer to the door frame so that you leg is flush with the wall. Straighten you leg as much as possible until you feel it stretching, then pull it back from the wall while keeping it straight to stretch it further. If you need to rest, scoot back from the wall and bend your injured leg at the knee and rest your foot flat against the wall.
Chair Scoot
Find a chair with wheels and sit in it with both feet flat on the floor. Lift the foot of your noninjured leg up off the floor and rest it on one of the chair's wheel bases. Extend your injured leg out several feet and use your foot and your hamstring muscles to scoot your chair forward toward your foot.
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