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Release Tight Hamstrings with these 6 tips

There are a lot of things you could do to begin stretching out your hamstrings for greater flexibility, but here are 6 tips to improve your movement and flexibility

There are a lot of things you could do to begin stretching out your hamstrings for greater flexibility, but here are 6 tips to improve your movement and flexibility now, and get rid of that “ropes in the back of the legs” feeling:

Don’t force any stretch, ever

You’ve heard this advice before (we’re sure) and probably ignored it.

You may have thought, “If I just work on it harder and push through, my flexibility will improve.” But the trouble with this philosophy is that when you’re working on flexibility, your muscles (and nerves) aren’t passive structures.

So, stretching too forcefully or too quickly will activate a “stretch reflex,” which increases muscle tension and resists the stretch.

Don’t fight yourself on this one! Here’s what you can try instead:

  1. Pick a stretch, and rock slowly back and forth into the stretch several times.
  2. Focus on having an even, steady breath.
  3. Every few repetitions, hold the stretch for a bit and see where you’re at.

After a 30 seconds or so, you’ll likely find yourself further into the stretch with much less strain than before. Easy, right?

Bend your knees when you begin stretching

Yup, go ahead, it’s fine.

Bending forward with straight legs is great if you can do it, but otherwise it’s not the best choice if you’re having trouble moving even a few inches forward in the straight leg stretch position. So, bend your knees and take the slack off the calves and hamstring attachments at your knees.

Focus instead on maintaining a flat or slightly arched back, and keep your chest up and hinge forward at your hips.

Work other areas first to relax the hamstrings

As we mentioned earlier, the source of your flexibility issues could be the result of the other areas of your body, rather than just your hamstrings.

Before you do your usual hamstring work, loosen up your body with back flexibility exercises, hip mobility stretches, and calf stretches–you’ll probably notice that you have freer motion right away!

Don’t hold static stretches for so long

The results of many flexibility research studies have consistently shown minimal increased benefits for holding a position longer than 15 – 30 seconds. This is why we recommend doing shorter holds with more repetitions (especially if you’re just starting out with flexibility work).

Longer holds may be helpful if you’re working on a specific issue (and after you’ve already spending some time working on shorter holds), but don’t spend minutes in a position in an attempt to improve especially when you are just starting out.

Holding for a longer period of time can be useful in certain situations, but that takes experience and practice to figure out if that’s best for you.

Follow up with active, dynamic movements

Have you ever noticed that your flexibility gains from an earlier training session seem to disappear once you try to work on the position again? This can be frustrating, and this phenomenon is often caused by a lack of increased movement in this new range of motion.

What does that mean? Use it or lose it, of course!

The retention of range of motion requires active use in the new range, otherwise your body reverts back to your old range of motion in that position. Essentially, you need to re-educate your body to move in this new range. Dynamic exercises such as deep squatting, leg swings, full range jumping, and kicking drills work very well.

With that in mind though, keep the intensity low and well within your limits, and don’t do prolonged stretching before any heavy exercise.

Try just one flexibility technique at a time

The five tips listed above are the best general tips we have to improve your flexibility right now. There are quite a few other methods you can try as well:

  • Foam rollers
  • Balls
  • Contract-relax stretching
  • Tack and stretch

There’s nothing wrong with trying any of these methods, but beware of trying everything at once. If you try out too many methods at once, you won’t know which method in particular works best for you, or worse, you won’t know which thing could possibly set you back.

After reading this you probably have a good idea of what you think will work best for you. Give that a shot! Try it for a couple weeks, then check your progress and re-evaluate.

Still having issues or want further guidance? Give us a call to schedule an evaluation now – 301.798.4838.

Original Post HERE 

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