Sports Medicine Injury Care · Los Angeles

Hamstring Injuries. Sports Injuries. The clinic where the research started.

Physician-led, ultrasound-guided sports medicine in Beverly Hills — built around the published fascial hydrodissection research of Dr. Jacques Courseault, MD. For the hamstring that will not heal, the injury imaging cannot explain, and the athlete who needs back on the field.

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Why Hamstrings Are Different

The injury that refuses to heal on the timeline it should.

Hamstring injuries are the most common soft-tissue injury in sport. Sprinters tear them. Footballers re-injure them. Soccer players spend whole seasons working around them. Even patients who are not athletes get hamstring strains that refuse to fully resolve — the kind of injury that improves to about eighty percent, plateaus there, and stays.

The reason hamstrings behave this way is that the injury is rarely in the place the patient thinks. Acute muscle fiber tearing usually heals on a predictable timeline. The pain that lingers afterward — the tightness, the catch, the inability to sprint fully — lives in the fascial envelope around the muscle, not the muscle itself. That is the layer conventional MRI does not resolve well, that physical therapy cannot reach with stretching alone, and that does not respond to cortisone the way other tissues do.

This is the population our sports medicine practice was built around. The athlete who has rehabbed correctly, returned to play once, re-injured, returned again, and is now wondering if anything will work. The recreational runner whose hamstring tightens every time they push the pace. The patient who has been told their MRI is clean and their PT has done everything they can. The injury did not lie. It is real. It is treatable. It just is not where everyone has been looking.

The Published Research

The procedure Dr. Courseault published on chronic hamstring injury in 2019.

Primary Citation

Courseault J, Kessler E, Moran A, Labbe A. Fascial Hydrodissection for Chronic Hamstring Injury.

Current Sports Medicine Reports. 2019 Nov;18(11):416-420. PMID 31702723. The first published case series describing ultrasound-guided fascial hydrodissection for chronic hamstring injury — athletes whose pain, tightness, and performance limitation resolved after the procedure, with quicker return to play.

Dr. Courseault was the first to publish on this technique for chronic hamstring injury. The procedure — ultrasound-guided fascial hydrodissection — uses precisely targeted fluid, delivered under live ultrasound, to release the fascial restriction around the hamstring muscles and their tendinous attachments. The release happens in the office, in minutes, with patients walking out the same day.

In the original case series, athletes reported immediate resolution of pain and tightness following the procedure, alongside increased performance and a substantially quicker return to play than conventional rehabilitation alone had produced for them. The same technique has since been refined in our practice into the Hydrofascia Release™ protocols (HFR-A and HFR-P), which are now applied to fascial restriction throughout the body.

Our group has continued to publish on the technique. The follow-up paper, “Ultrasound-Guided Fascial Hydrorelease for Persistent Pain After Hamstring Injury” (Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 2025), extends the original work into a larger persistent-pain population and confirms the procedural and recovery outcomes seen clinically.

The Hamstring Procedure

What ultrasound-guided fascial hydrodissection actually looks like.

A hamstring hydrodissection visit at our Los Angeles clinic takes roughly an hour. You arrive, change into a clinical gown, and lie face-down on a treatment table. Using high-resolution ultrasound, Dr. Courseault identifies the precise fascial planes where restriction is causing your symptoms — not based on a generic anatomic map, but on what your imaging shows in real time. Then, under live ultrasound guidance, fluid is delivered into the restricted plane to release it. Most patients report an immediate change in how the hamstring feels before they leave the table.

After the procedure, you walk. There is no general anesthesia, no OR, no extended recovery. Most patients return to light activity within 24 to 48 hours and to sport-specific training within one to two weeks, guided by a structured return-to-play protocol that we coordinate with your trainer or physical therapist.

Who The Hamstring Protocol Is For

Athletes with chronic or recurrent hamstring injury that has plateaued in rehab
Patients whose hamstring tightness has persisted for months to years despite PT and stretching
Sprinters, footballers, soccer players, runners, and dancers with sport-specific hamstring limitation
Recreational athletes whose hamstring is the rate-limiting tissue on their training
Post-surgical hamstring patients with persistent fascial scarring or restriction
Patients told their MRI is clean despite ongoing hamstring symptoms

Shaquille O’Neal at The Fascia Institute — one of many elite athletes treated with the same fascial hydrodissection technique.

Trusted At The Highest Level

The same hamstring procedure NFL, NBA, MLB, and Olympic athletes ask for — now in Los Angeles.

The same hamstring and fascia procedures that have changed careers for professional and Olympic athletes — including documented cases in NFL running backs and college football players — are available to every patient at our Beverly Hills clinic. Shaquille O’Neal has spoken publicly about his experience. Same physician. Same protocol. Same standard.

Beyond The Hamstring

Other sports injuries we treat with the same approach.

Hamstring care anchors the sports medicine practice, but the same fascia-first, ultrasound-guided approach applies to most of the soft-tissue injuries that resist standard treatment.

Lower Body

Hamstrings, quads, calves, glutes, hip flexors.

Chronic hamstring injury and persistent post-injury pain. High and proximal hamstring tendinopathy. Quad and rectus femoris strains that won’t resolve. Calf injuries in runners. Glute and piriformis pain. Hip flexor and adductor tightness. Iliotibial band restriction. Patellar tendinopathy and chronic anterior knee pain.

Upper Body & Spine

Shoulder, neck, back, elbow, wrist.

Rotator cuff and posterior shoulder pain. Scapular dyskinesis and medial scapular border myofascial pain. Chronic neck tightness and cervical fascial restriction. Lumbar paraspinal restriction. Lateral and medial elbow tendinopathy (tennis and golfer’s elbow). Wrist and forearm overuse injuries in racquet, throwing, and lifting athletes.

Acute Injuries

You do not need to be a chronic case.

Recent strains, sprains, and overuse injuries. Acute hamstring tears evaluated and triaged within days of injury. Weekend-warrior setbacks. Post-surgical recoveries that benefit from earlier fascial care. The sooner a soft-tissue injury is correctly imaged and addressed, the smaller the version of itself it tends to stay.

Recovery & Performance

For the athlete who is not injured. Yet.

Pre-season Fascial Mapping® for athletes wanting a baseline. Return-to-sport guidance. Recovery technology — Human TECAR, radial shockwave, PEMF, red light, OxeFit, AlterG — integrated under physician supervision. The same model used by professional and Olympic athletes, available to recreational and serious recreational athletes alike.

The Diagnostic

Fascial Mapping® for the athlete: the most complete look at sport-related fascia.

For athletes whose injury has resisted standard workup, or who want a baseline assessment of the tissue most likely to limit their sport, we offer Fascial Mapping® — a 488-point head-to-toe ultrasound assessment of the fascial network. The protocol identifies restriction, scarring, and compensation patterns at a level conventional MRI and standard ultrasound do not resolve.

For the hamstring specifically, Fascial Mapping® often reveals the upstream contributors that explain a recurrent injury — the contralateral fascial pattern, the lumbar paraspinal restriction, the hip flexor tightness, the scar tissue at the ischial tuberosity, or the calf-and-Achilles compensation that has been quietly stressing the hamstring for months. Treatment becomes targeted instead of generic.

Every Fascial Mapping® session produces a written, illustrated report. The report is yours — designed to be shared with your physical therapist, trainer, sports medicine physician, or surgeon. A skilled PT working from the map has a substantially easier and more targeted job than the same PT working without it.

The Process

What to expect, from first call to return to play.

Step 01 · Evaluation

Physician-led history, exam, and ultrasound.

A complete musculoskeletal evaluation, a careful history of how and when the injury started, and a focused ultrasound look at the involved tissue. We review any prior imaging you bring. Roughly 45 to 60 minutes.

Step 02 · Diagnostic Workup

Fascial Mapping® if indicated.

For chronic, recurrent, or unexplained cases, a full Fascial Mapping® session gives us the upstream picture. For acute injuries, often the focused exam and targeted ultrasound is enough to plan treatment.

Step 03 · Procedure

Ultrasound-guided fascial hydrodissection.

In-office, under live ultrasound, no OR. Delivered as Hydrofascia Release™ (HFR-A single anti-inflammatory session, or HFR-P four-session prolotherapy protocol), depending on the case.

Step 04 · Return To Play

Structured rehab and sport-specific progression.

A graded return-to-sport plan, coordinated with your trainer, physical therapist, and team staff as appropriate. Recovery technology — TECAR, shockwave, PEMF, red light, OxeFit, AlterG — integrated where it adds value. Telehealth check-ins for ongoing patients.

Serving Los Angeles & the West Coast

The West Coast home for hamstring and sports injury care.

In any given week we see athletes from across LA — the Westside, Hollywood, the Valley, Pasadena, the South Bay, Long Beach, Orange County — and from across California, including San Diego, the Central Coast, Sacramento, and the Bay Area. We also see athletes from Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and elsewhere on the West Coast and beyond. Hamstring and fascial hydrodissection cases have, historically, been the cases most likely to involve travel, because the published technique has had so few practitioners outside our network.

Patients in California complete care in person at our Beverly Hills clinic. Patients further out can complete the in-person procedural and imaging milestones with us and complete the rehab and longitudinal coordination via telehealth where state licensure allows.

Frequently Asked

Quick answers from the clinic.

My hamstring still hurts months after my injury. Am I a candidate?

Most likely, yes. The patient population the original research was built around is exactly the one you describe — an athlete or active adult whose hamstring is, on paper, healed, but functionally still limited. The fascial restriction left behind by the original injury is what the procedure targets.

How is fascial hydrodissection different from a cortisone injection or PRP?

Cortisone reduces inflammation but does not change fascial restriction. PRP is a regenerative injection that can be useful for certain tendon and ligament problems but is not designed for fascial release. Fascial hydrodissection mechanically separates restricted fascial layers under ultrasound guidance — the published mechanism for resolving the symptoms that lingered after the original injury.

Is this only for elite athletes?

No. The original research described professional and competitive athletes because they were the most clinically apparent population, but the same procedure works for recreational athletes, weekend warriors, and active adults who simply want their bodies back to baseline. You do not need to be elite to qualify.

What is the recovery like after the procedure?

Walking immediately. Light activity within 24 to 48 hours. Sport-specific training typically resumes within one to two weeks under a structured progression. The exact timeline depends on your sport, the chronicity of the injury, and how aggressive the protocol can safely be.

Do I need a referral?

No. We accept self-referred athletes and patients. Prior imaging and trainer/PT notes are welcome but not required to schedule.

Where is the clinic?

415 North Crescent Drive, Suite 130, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 — geographically central to most of the LA neighborhoods our patients live in. Phone: (424) 378-3488.

Ready For The Procedure That Started In The Literature

Hamstring injuries. Sports injuries. Care designed around the research.

Now accepting new patients across hamstring injury care, sports medicine, acute injury evaluation, and second-opinion consultations. Call the LA clinic or request a consultation online.