Hamstring Tension
Overcoming hamstring tightness
Many of us complain about having tight hamstrings and no matter how much we stretch they seem to stay tight. It can be very frustrating especially when you feel you are putting in the work to no avail. Sometimes all it takes is a further understanding of how these muscles work, why they are tight and how slight changes to how you are stretching, if you suffer from hamstring tension then this blog is for you.
Why are your hamstrings so tight?
Hamstrings may be in a contracted/shortened state which causes tightness, or they can have the sense of being tight because they are constantly in a lengthened state. Both states can be a result of sitting for long periods of time and other postural deviations.
These factors can also be a result of weak glute muscles, when our glutes are underactive our hamstrings will work harder, and harder working muscles are tight muscles.
How to overcome hamstring tightness
If you are someone who spends a lot of time sitting down, try get up and move around as often as you can, go for a walk or stretch out your hamstrings (see recommendations for stretching below).
For posture stand sideways in the mirror and line up your ears with your shoulder, hip, knee and ankle, you may feel off balance, however this is the ideal posture you want to aim for, see if you can line yourself up and practice walking around a room while maintaining that posture.
If you are someone who spends a lot of time sitting down, try get up and move around as often as you can, go for a walk or stretch out your hamstrings (see recommendations for stretching below).
For posture stand sideways in the mirror and line up your ears with your shoulder, hip, knee and ankle, you may feel off balance, however this is the ideal posture you want to aim for, see if you can line yourself up and practice walking around a room while maintaining that posture.
The correct way to stretch your hamstrings
Don’t be afraid to allow a slight bend in your knees when stretching your hamstrings.
If you stretch your hamstrings and feel a pain at the back of your knee you are not targeting your hamstring, the pain you feel at the back of your knee is a result of stretching the Tibial nerve witch branches off from your sciatic nerve and not the muscle stretch you want.
If you are sitting on the floor with your legs out in front of you while reaching forward to your toes, try placing a rolled up towel underneath your knees and focus on feeling the stretch through your hamstrings, you don’t want to feel pain at the back of the knees.
A great hamstrings stretch is done standing as seen in the image below, have one knee bent and the other leg stretched out in front of you, leaning forward towards your outstretched toe, shift you weight backwards to deepen the stretch and again allow for a slight bend in the stretched out leg as well to avoid pain in the back of the knee from the Tibial nerve.
If you are someone who is often sitting down incorporate stretches into your routine for your hip flexors as well, this will help if the feeling of hamstring tension is stemming from over stretched hamstrings due to tight hip flexors.
Hamstrings are complex muscles, when seated your knee flexion contracts you muscle where hip flexion lengthens them. It can be hard to pinpoint why your hamstrings are tight and how to release them. Lucky for you that’s what we do, we can look at your posture and asses your muscles to determine what exercises and stretches are best to combat your hamstring tension.
