Release your hamstrings, improve your performance and save your knees
A surprising number of problems arise from tight hamstrings, and given the frequency of knee injuries among athletes and dancers, it’s obvious that the methods used to keep them free could be better. This article presents a more effective way to release the hamstrings, improve performance, and prevent injury.
A look at your hamstrings
The hamstrings are the muscles that run from behind and below the knees to the back of the thighs to the “sit bones.” Soft tissue injuries, knee pain, torn menisci (the cartilage pads in the knees that cushion the bones), chondromalacia patellae (painful wear and tear of the cartilage behind the kneecaps), and poor posture often stem from tight hamstrings. Tight hamstrings can prevent you from reaching full leg extension or fully leaning over. If you can’t touch your toes or if you feel more comfortable slouching than sitting up straight, your hamstrings are probably tight.
There are actually three hamstring muscles on the back of each thigh, two on the inside and one on the outside. They do various things. In addition to bending the knees, they help control reciprocating forward and backward gait movements and stability against twisting forces on the knee when turning a corner or skidding. They also position the menisci in the knees via fibers (from the biceps femoris) that pass into the knee joint.
Tight hamstrings contribute to the backward lean by pulling the knees behind the vertical center line of the body (ie, locking the knees). The whole body sways forward, accentuating the curves of the spine. If the outer hamstrings are tighter than the inner ones, the lower leg rotates out. This twist in the knee joint contributes to knee pain, knee injuries, and awkward movement. Finally, when standing, bent knees put tension on the muscles in the front of the thigh, the quadriceps muscles, to prevent the knees from bending. If you keep your knees bent all the time, the kneecap, or patella, which is embedded in the tendon of the quadriceps muscles, continually rubs against the front surface of the knee joint and can become irritated.
As you can see, hamstring tightness has far-reaching effects on movement, balance, and joint health.
Why Stretching Doesn’t Protect 100% Against Hamstring Pulls and Soft Tissue Injuries
Knowing all this, athletes and dancers try to stretch the hamstrings. “Attempt” is the right word because stretching produces only limited and temporary effects, which is one reason so many athletes (and dancers) sustain hamstring and knee injuries.
As anyone who has had someone stretch their hamstring knows, force stretching is also often a painful ordeal. Also, stretching the hamstrings disrupts their natural coordination with the quadriceps muscles, which is why the legs feel shaky after stretching the hamstrings.
Fortunately, there is a more effective way to manage hamstring tension than stretching. To understand how it works, it must first be recognized that the hamstrings that need to be stretched generally hold tension, that is, they actively contract. In that case, the person is keeping them tense out of habit, unconsciously. Oddly enough, if you try to relax them, he’s likely to find that he can’t do it; then it can be assumed that the muscles are completely relaxed and need stretching. You may not realize that those muscles are contracting “on automatic” due to postural habits stored in your central nervous system. Any attempt to stretch them simply reactivates the urge to retract them to restore a sense of what is “familiar.” That’s why the hamstrings (and other muscles) tighten up again so soon after stretching or massage. Better results are achieved by changing a person’s “set point”—their sense of what is “relaxed.”
what works best
Changing the set point requires more than stretching or massaging; it requires a learning process that affects the brain, which controls the muscular system. This learning process is known in some circles as “somatic education.” Somatic education systematically uses special patterns of coordination to improve awareness and control tension in the muscular system. Significant results come relatively quickly, and when they do, the benefits are second nature and require no special attention in daily life.
The following coordination pattern, developed by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of somatic education, will show you. You may want to save this page so you can try it out for yourself. Have someone read the instructions to you and follow the instructions.
To learn the coordination pattern:
Get the illustrated version: click here
- Sit on the floor with one leg bent and dropped to the side. Its sole rests against the inside of your other leg, which is straight.
- Raise your straight leg high enough to allow you to grasp your foot with both hands; the tips of your fingers meet on your sole. Hold it firmly and you are ready to go.
- Holding your foot firmly, push gently with your leg, so that your arm and shoulder are straightened. Tilt your head forward. Gently work to the edge of your flexibility.
- Now gradually relax your push, let your knee bend and take up the slack by lifting your leg up with your hands. It’s a kind of “isometric movement” exercise.
- Now, with your leg, push off again, keeping a little bit of pull with your hands. Come and go within her comfort zone.
You will notice that with each repetition, you advance a little more. You are gaining sensation and control of muscle tension in the hamstrings. The thing to remember is to move slow enough and hard enough to clearly feel the action of the muscle.
After about ten slow-motion reps, stand up and feel the difference between your two legs. Walk. You will notice that you feel looser and yet secure.
Now do the other leg.
You can do this coordinating pattern in numerous positions:
- session
- on your back
- From your side
- on your other side
Each position contributes to increased awareness and control.
Regardless of how long you’ve had your hamstrings tight or how tight they are, you’ll feel an improvement each time you do it, until you’re naturally relaxed.
Releasing the hamstrings in this manner can prevent soft tissue injury and preserve joint integrity. Your hamstrings will be stronger because, being relaxed, they won’t be partially fatigued all the time. You will be able to run or walk faster and your knees will be more stable. Runners may find this benefit of particular interest.
how to get more
What you are doing is a special type of movement maneuver that is taught in a training method called Hanna Somatic Education® (Google the term). This kind of DIY functional exercise is one part of the method. Other, more powerful techniques reduce chronic pain and loss of flexibility caused by aging, injury (including overuse injuries and surgery), and stress.
You’ll find illustrated instructions for some of the somatic exercises Dr. Hanna devised in his DIY book, Somatics: Reawakening the Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health (published by Perseus Books, sold on Amazon.com).