How to Help Prevent the Most Common Sporting Injury
When people come to us to start yoga, they often say that they are not flexible enough. Firstly, this is rubbish, not being flexible should not stop you getting the benefits of yoga. But I degrees…
When people say they are not flexible, they often cite not being about to touch their toes. Over time, touching your toes (and doing the splits) have been the pinnacles of ‘being flexible’.
This muscle that most contributes or inhibits your reaching your toes are your hamstrings and a lot of us have tight ones!
The hamstring is a group of three muscles in the back of your thighs and are responsible for moving the hip and knee movements when we walk, squat, bending at the knees and tilt our pelvis. If you reach toward your toes, you’ll feel this muscle (unless you are one of those hyper-flexible people who pop their nose on their knees).
Tight hamstrings are more prone to treating or strains, so loosening them is important.
www.healthline.com/health/tight-hamstrings
What causes tight hamstrings?
These muscles get tight during running, dancing and sports that require a lot of start-top movements.
They can also get tight because when we have tight hip-flexors.
When our hip flexors become weak and short, our body inhibits or turns off the opposing muscle group (our butt muscles, our gluteus maximus).
As we learned earlier, our gluteus maximus is the largely muscle in the human body. If our body did not inhibit these, when these strong muscles contracted, they would tear the weak and short hip flexors on the other side. Our body protects us from tearing our hip flexors by inhibiting our butt muscles!
Since our butt muscles are inhibited, the hamstrings have to do the heaving lifting for the glutes.
https://www.handsonhealthcare.com.au/blog/5-exercises-lower-cross-syndrome/
https://www.cooperinstitute.org/2016/07/15/are-tight-hip-flexors-contributing-to-your-low-back-pain
www.healthline.com/health/tight-hamstrings
www.physio-pedia.com/Lower_crossed_syndrome
What happens when we have tight hamstrings?
Tight hamstrings are more likely to get strained or tear causing injuries. Hamstring injuries are the most common sporting injury and take a long time to heal and often recur. One study found that nearly a third of hamstring injurites recur within the first year after returning to sport. Additionally, these subsequent injures a usually worse than the original.
Ernlund., de Almedia Vierira, L. (2017). Hamstring injuries: update article. Revista Vrasileira de Ortopedia (English Edition), 52(4), 373-382.
Heiderscheit, B.C., Sherry, M.A., Slider, A., Chumanov, E.S., & Thelen, D.G. (2010). Hamstring strain injuries: recommendations for diagnosis, rehabilitation, and injury prevention. Journal of Orthopeaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 40(2), 67-81.
www.healthline.com/health/hamstring-muscles-anatomy-injury-and-training
Do I have tight hamstrings?
While your ability to reach your toes is a good indicator, here is how you can test your hamstring length.
Lie on your back and have someone push your bent leg toward a vertical position. You should be able to get to at least 90 degrees (vertical) with your leg bent and 80 degrees (10 degrees shy of vertical) with your leg straight.
https://us.humankinetics.com/blog/exerpt/learn-to-assess-muscle-length
So, I have tight hamstrings…what can I do about it?
Firstly, if you are suffering hamstring pain, there are several medical causes, so please consult your health professional for advice.
Additionally, here are some things you can do to help with tight hamstrings.
Mobility
Leg swing
Swing your leg back and forth increasing the range of motion (hold on to something if you need your balance).
Straight Leg Raise
Lie on the ground.
Slowly raise your straight leg up. Keep your lower back flat on the ground.
Dynamic Walk (aka toy soldiers)
Walk along accentuating the upward leg movement. You can try touching your opposite foot with your opposite hand (toy soldiers)
Self Myofascial Release / Self-Massage
Hamstring Roll
Sit on the floor with your roller under the thigh
Roll your hamstring from butt to knee
Yoga
Downward facing dog
Start on the floor on your hands and knees. Knees below your hips and hands slightly forward from your shoulders.
Lift knees away from the floor keeping the knees slightly bent.
Push your butt toward the where the back wall and the ceiling join (behind you).
Lower your heels toward the ground (as far as your body will let you). https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/downward-facing-dog
Extended Triangle
Place your feet wider than hip width.
Reach your arms out so they are parallel to the ground.
Turn one foot out at 90 degrees.
Bend your torso over the leg with the foot turned out/.
Reach the corresponding hand to the ground and other up toward the ceiling.
Look down or up depending on your neck.
Repeat on the other side.
https://www.healthline.com/health/tight-hamstring#yoga
Conclusion
Hamstrings are the most common sports injury and they take a long time to heal and often recur. Help prevent this by loosening your hamstrings by using some these exercises.
You can also get your FREE 2 week Recharge trial and we’ll go through these techniques with you.The