Hamstrings Mobility Workouts

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Why are hamstrings the cause of so much of our angst when it comes to chronic muscle tightness? Some combination of tight hamstrings, hamstring pulls, and weak hamstrings show up in almost every client who walks through my door.

My new toolbox for healthy hamstring mobility is here!

I’ve become so obsessed with developing tools for hamstring health after finding how hamstring work has alleviated my chronic lower back pain, relaxed my hip flexors, and improved my overall strength and running technique.

I have a new set of programs focused entirely on hamstring health and mobility. Complete the poll below and I’ll send you a pre-sale offer for a program tailored to your hamstring needs!

Why are hamstrings so vulnerable to being tight, weak, or injured?

While there are as many potential reasons for unhappy hamstrings as there are hamstrings, much hamstring dysfunction can be attributed to a few primary causes:

1. Sitting. We all know sitting is bad for us and this is just another confirmation. When we sit we put our hamstrings in a shortened position by bending the knees and slumping into bad posture with our lower backs. We also squash our hamstrings between our bodyweight and the chair seat, squeezing out blood flow and even numbing out the nerves. Then when we stand up again the hamstring muscles may struggle with coming fully back on line.

2. Hamstrings are a multi-joint set of muscles. They cross both the hip joint and the knee joint. All multi-joint muscles require more concerted work to keep them functioning well and inactivity has stronger impact on their strength and health.

3. Hamstrings attach to the base of our pelvis (see illustration below). If our pelvis is rotated, twisted, or unstable it will be difficult to use our hamstrings correctly

4. Hamstrings are in the back of our body. It may sound silly but humans struggle more with engaging and feeling the muscles in the back of our body rather than the muscles in the front. We can’t see them and our daily activities tend to include more forward-reach activities than backward-reach activities. Most people have a harder time with back-body exercises.

5. Hamstrings are neglected. Perhaps because of the above reason or just because we don’t have the right tools, we don’t do as many hamstring-specific exercises as we do for butts, quads, abs, or shoulders. Look at your workout routine… how much time to you spend doing hamstring training?

6. Poor posture affects our hamstrings, and our hamstrings affect our posture. This becomes a bit of a self-licking ice cream cone where one problem feeds another and specific intervention is required to break the cycle.

When good hamstrings go bad

Because the hamstrings are vital postural and movement muscles, when they are unhappy they can create a host of other problems from lower back pain to plantar fasciitis.

Because the hamstrings attach to the base of the pelvis they are essential stabilizers for the hips, and therefor for the spine and entire upper body.

When hamstrings are both strong and flexible they can hold the pelvis in a neutral position when standing, lengthen with control to allow you to bend forward, and engage strongly to bring your leg back behind you.

When hamstrings are weak or overstretched, as I often see in dancers, contortionists, and gymnasts, they allow the sit bones to drift up and the pelvis goes into an anterior pelvic tilt leading to low back compression and tight hip flexors. It would be easy to bend forward but very difficult to stretch the front of the hips.

When hamstrings are tight and over-activated then they pull the sit bones down and the pelvic rotates into a posterior pelvic tilt. This reduces lower back mobility and contributes to slouchy posture. This makes it very difficult to lean forward, sit on the floor, or lift your leg out in front of you.

Hamstrings also facilitate healthy knee function during standing, walking, and especially running. Knee pain and injuries are very common and hamstrings are a potential contributing factor.

Important reminder: your hamstrings are not identical to each other!

That means that you could have one hamstring that is pulling more than another, contributing to pelvic rotation. You can even have imbalances within the hamstring group itself.

What about the most common tools to improve hamstring health?

In my daily adventures at the gym I see a few common tools to address the hamstrings.

Deadlifts are one of the most common hamstring strengthening exercises and I think they are great for some bodies. However the standard deadlift does not work through the entire range of motion, especially for very flexible people.

The hamstring curl machine targets the hamstrings where they cross the knee. If you have the correct body proportions to use the machine (I am too short) then it can be a decent way of strengthening the lower fibers of the muscle but it will not target the hips.

The ubiquitous single leg hamstring stretch that we did in gym class is still a favorite for those looking to stretch their hamstrings. I’m not saying it’s a terrible stretch but it’s a bit like using dial-up in 2024. We have much better tools now.

So what do I do instead to have healthier hamstrings?

There are a few principals that I use to guide the hamstring care routines I build for clients:

1. Train mobility and strength together to teach hamstrings to be both engaged and able to move

2. Work at the level you are at. Doing exercises or stretches that feel like a miserable strain aren’t as effective as exercises that feel solid and accessible.

3. Make sure you work your full range of motion. Not every exercises must use the full range, but at least a few exercises must enable you to feel work when the muscle is at its longest and shortest.

4. Separate the hamstrings from the lower back. So often I see people stretching or working their back muscles instead of the hamstrings. Learn how to separate spine and hamstrings in order to get them working together more effectively.

5. Include hip and ankle rotation to target the different aspects of the hamstring muscles

6. Include both the hip and knee joints since the hamstrings cross both

7. Do not train both legs as if they are the same! They are not. You can do different numbers of reps on each side in order to balance them out. Learn your body and what it needs

While this may seem like it would require a zillion exercises, really you just need a few good ones!

Happy Bendings,

Kristina

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