Tight Hamstrings? Here’s What They’re trying to TelL You!

Tight hamstrings? It may surprise you, but a tight or locked hamstring doesn’t always mean you need to stretch. In fact, tightness may be a sign that your hips and hamstrings are not strong enough to meet the demands of your daily activities.

 The hamstrings are a multi-joint muscle group, which means they affect movement at more than one joint, in this case your pelvis and your knee. Where a single-joint muscle generates force and propels movement, multi-joint muscles have a more complicated role and impact body positioning, joint stability and eccentric control.  

This means that multi-joint muscles are more susceptible to muscle fatigue, improper body positioning and strain from high velocity activities. For example, your hamstrings can be fatigued by prolonged or improper trunk and pelvic positioning, repetitive lower body movement or sprinting and jumping.

So how can you keep your hamstrings healthy?

Incorporate exercises that work your hamstrings in a variety of ways regularly.

Our Athletic Trainer, Gab, demonstrates a number of exercises on our Youtube channel. Keep reading for a step by step guide.

Lunges

You can work knee flexion on a leg curl machine, but we prefer lunges for the added challenge of maintaining pelvic stability during the motion.

How to do it:

1.      Stand with your feet hip width apart.

2.      Step one foot forward (or back) and drop your back knee straight down to the floor

3.      Drive through your stance leg back to a standing position.

4.      Alternate sides

Single Leg RDLs

A glute-ham raise can work your hamstrings during hip extension, but it can be hard to find this piece of equipment so we prefer single leg RDLs.

How to do it:

1.      Stand with your feet slightly closer than hip width apart

2.      Shift your weight to one leg

3.      Hinge forward with a flat back, keeping your hands or weight skimming the front of the leg until it is at mid-shin height

4.      Drive through the stance leg glute to return to standing

Reverse Plank

There are many pelvic control exercises that are beneficial for the body, but for positional posterior chain activation, we love the reverse plank.

How to do it:

1.      Sit on the floor with your legs long in front of you.

2.      Place your hands palm down, fingers facing forward several inches behind your hips

3.      Push through your heels and lift your hips until your body is a straight line

4.      Hold here or experiment with marches, pushing back through one heel and lifting the opposite knee towards the chest

Eccentric Slider Curls

While deadlift variations do work the hamstrings eccentrically, they lack the dual hip extension and knee flexion mechanics used in running and sprinting. To really hone in on eccentric strength in a hip extended position, we like slider hamstring curls.

How to do it:

1.      Lay on your back with sliders underneath of your heels

2.      Press the tops of your hands into the floor

3.      Dig your heels into the floor and pull them towards your butt as you lift your hips into the air

4.      With control, slowly extend your legs back out long over a count of 5

Need help with your hamstring tension?

While these exercises are a great starting point to strengthen tight hamstrings, there can be other causes of hamstring tension. At FIXXED – physical therapy in Wakefield or Haverhill, you don’t have to guess whether your form is the problem or push through pain during lifts. We help patients improve movement patterns with individualized plans that combine strength training, mobility work, and hands-on bodywork. Schedule a consultation at FIXXED today and start moving with more confidence and less pain.