Do you find yourself constantly stretching, unable to figure out how to get rid of your hamstring tightness?
It’s said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…are you insanely stretching to relieve feelings of hamstring tightness?
Maybe it’s time to stop stretching and look elsewhere to make those hamstrings feel better. Read on to find out:
- Why hamstring tightness occurs
- How to address your hamstring tightness today, WITHOUT stretching
Why are my hamstrings always tight??
Our bodies are made up of lots of different muscles. Some of them are right next to the bones and joints, and others are further away. They have different roles based on their locations. For example, muscles closer to the joints are best equipped to stabilize those joints. This stability allows the superficial muscles to move the arms and legs with greater efficiency and precision.
Does this sound familiar? If you’ve been struggling with hamstring tightness for longer than you can remember, our experts can help. Click below to find out about how one of our experts can help you fix this issue for good.
If some of your muscles aren’t doing their job to provide your body with stability, other muscles come in and do it for them. So the hamstrings start providing stability (do someone else’s job), while also trying to move the hip and knee (do their actual job). They are not equipped to do both of these things well, and start to feel stiff or tight. Consequently, our brain perceives muscles as being ‘tight’, when they are actually overworked and doing other muscles’ job.
Therefore, if hamstring tightness is serving a purpose to your body – to help stabilize what’s currently unstable – then stretching is not likely to leave you feeling any better in the long-term. This is because the underlying cause – the instability – is still not being addressed. So in order to ease the workload on the larger mover muscles, we must train the stabilizing muscles to do their job well. This more evenly distributed workload will allow you to move smoothly and efficiently.
How to address hamstring tightness
Rather than stretching and stretching more to ease your hamstring tightness, try strengthening! Improving the strength of your hips will help reduce tension in your hamstrings in addition to reducing low back and knee pain. For more exercise ideas, check out our article on how to strengthen your hips.
Give these 2 exercises a try and let us know what you notice over the next few weeks!
Side-lying Donkey Kick
Single Leg Bridge Leg Raise + Lat Pulldown
Still not convinced? Check out why stretching your hamstrings will never fix your low back pain.
If you’re still experiencing a lot of hamstring tightness, come in to see us for a free discovery session to find out how we can help!
