Full Squat Regularly Aggravates Old Hamstring Injury on Left Leg

When trying to reset my squat to full depth, I consistently (basically every time) have significant soreness in a specific spot on my let hamstring that was injured years ago. I want to continue squatting at full depth, but my concern is that the soreness will require more recovery time or eventually re-aggravate the tear to a greater degree.

I’m leaning towards staying low weight with full depth for numerous weeks to see if it adapts before increasing load. For instance, it doesn’t seem to get nearly as aggravated under warm-up load. But when I start adding weight it bites me in the following days. Does anyone out there have experience similar to this?

I don’t believe it is an issue with form as it is only on the left leg.

Thanks.

Sounds like a good plan. You can also try and improve flexibility. Stretch and foam roal your hamstrings properly (yes, there’s a proper way to stretch hamstrings).

Also, even if you don’t think it’s a form issue, you could post a video just to make sure there’s no hip shift when you squat. You may subconsciously be depending on one side more because of the old injury

Thanks!

Depending on the locaton of where the hamstring injury took place, recovery times can vary. In some cases the tear is visible on ultrasound or MRI after 500 days. Usually it’s a problem with the connective tissue (within the muscle itself, tendons or insertions) which has an half-life of 300 to 500 days, in other words it can take up to a 1000 days before the tissue has renewed itself. So this means that rehabilitation should be taking that long too. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do squats this whole time, but you should be taking extra care of your hamstrings. Find a good physio who can help you with the right exercises to tackle your hamstring issues.