The Best Way To Stretch & Improve Your Hamstrings

Brief insight into how your hamstrings may impact your lower back

I think that hamstring flexibility is often an area of concern for most people. Most people who come to me for an assessment will usually say that their hamstrings have always been an issue.

The feeling of “tightness” is what a lot of people sense and often times we don’t know how to address it.

One of the perspectives regarding the hamstrings is understanding where you’re feeling the “tightness” and understanding that the Hamstrings connect at two joints, so when you setup, there are two points of potential emphasis.

The hamstrings flex and rotate the knee joint. But we also feel sensation of stretching when we change our pelvic position. Since this is the case, we can think about how and where we are looking for sensation, and then consider how we want to initiate loading.

In this video the focus is on the hamstring at length (femur in hip flexion). The hamstrings play a role in hip extension so we are looking to target the lengthened tissue that would be related to the hip joint.

This should give you a bit of insight into understanding that if you’re told that your weak or tight hamstrings are impacting your lower back, that doing more hamstring curls. It means that you may need to work on your hamstrings as it relates to your hip joint as well. Remember, your hip joint interacts with your spine and you may be placing demands on your low back for things your hamstrings should be able to bear.