. From what I can tell from my reading, it's mostly athletes who pull a hamstring with some kind of sudden start or acceleration, such as when someone might start sprinting.
I'm no athlete, but I'm 99% sure I've pulled my hamstring, simply by walking up the stairs.
I've been walking up 5 stories (that's 10 sets of 12 steps each set) for the past month or so, ever since I got stuck in the garage elevator at work and the doors wouldn't open to let me out. But I also thought I'd walk the stairs to squeeze some more exercise into my workday.
Here's what I think happened: as I placed my right foot on the step above, I only put the ball (front) of my foot on the step; my heel was hanging off the step. So when I lifted up and put all my weight on that foot, it pushed down on my unsupported heel and stretched my hamstring, the group of muscles that run from the butt down to ankle, in the back of the leg.
This painful sensation, in a much more mild variety, happened to me twice before after walking up those stairs. Each time i said to myself boy, I'm out of shape, and thought nothing more of it. Didn't really even know much about hamstrings, but I put 2 and 2 together only because a friend of mine at work severed her hamstring when she was knocked over by a wave in the ocean while she was on her vacation. She had to have surgery to reattach it and is now home convalescing.
When it happened before, I didn't start feeling sore until the next day, but it cleared up after a day or two.
This time, I think I did more damage as I must've pulled it on Friday but didn't really start feeling it til Monday, and it hasn't improved. In fact, my little toe on that foot and the side of my foot are numb. I read that's a common occurrence in pulled hamstrings.
I'll be seeing a doctor on Friday morning but also working at home tomorrow and Friday, as I'm not quit sure if I should be "resting" the leg as much as possible or doing "gentle exercise" to avoid muscle atrophy and loss of range of motion. I did try icing it once, and I know I'm also supposed to elevate it, to the extent possible.
I don't think it's a major, major thing, but if I see the orthopedist, i imagine he'll want to do an MRI to assess where the pull is and how inflamed it its. He's also a surgeon, which worries me as I don't want a hard sell on surgery or anything. It just may take a while to heal, and I don't really have a while. For instance, I need to mow tomorrow night.
Walking in smaller baby steps and keeping my leg bent are best, but i can feel the muscle in the back of the knee pulling if i take longer strides or even just stand or straighten my leg out. Then I feel it cramping up and contracting, which is very painful.
At least I'll be home tomorrow. 
And it sure is nice to know I have a good health insurance plan and even a "Benny" card, an easy way to pay for the co-pay which is automatically deducted from my flex savings acct payroll deductions.
Pulled my hamstring
September 11th, 2014 at 12:29 am
September 11th, 2014 at 02:37 am 1410399474
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September 12th, 2014 at 06:25 pm 1410542703
Regardless I hope you are taking care of yourself and on the mend quickly.