Stretching the hamstrings can gradually lengthen them and reduce the stress felt in the lower back.
It’s very common to keep stretching and foam rolling your hamstrings without improvement because the tightness may not be your problem. The issue may not be about the actual “length” of the muscle and more about your mobility, motor control and nervous system.
For example, say you have damage to your spine or an injury to a disc. In this case, when you try to touch your toes or put your spine in a risky position, the hamstrings respond with what we call protective tightness. This is the body’s way of keeping the disc from getting damaged or further damaged. This is sort of like your brain causing your body to hit the brakes. All the surrounding muscles sacrifice their normal functions to unload the lumbar disc, which leads to a feeling of chronic “tightness” in the hamstrings.
It’s all about finding a balance and use all your body better.
Another reason your hamstrings may feel tight is if they are doing too much work/overcompensating during functional movements.
Think about it this way – your bum is supposed to be doing most of the work when you extend your hip, which is often. Like every single time you take a step. When the gluteus maximus muscles are inhibited or shut off for any number of reasons, the hamstrings will kick in and begin to also perform the action of hip extension. And if your hamstring is doing all of that extra work, of course it will begin to feel tight.
Now, why does your nervous system hit the brakes? There could be a number of reasons for this. Maybe it’s poor core control of the lumbar spine, inability to flex the hips in a weight bearing position, core muscles that are too rigid, or poor lumbar flexion… the list goes on and on. Doing hamstring stretches does nothing to fix the problem, because remember the hamstrings are not really tight, they are simply compensating for something else. So, if you have been stretching your hamstrings, or IT band, or plantar fascia for years with no improvement and want to lay blame on those muscles for being so tight remember, they are not necessarily at fault, they’re simply at the mercy of your brain.
One way to gently stretch hamstring muscles is to use the Reformers Loops on your feet to move your legs in circles:
- Extend the raised leg toward the ceiling and point your toes to begin. Flex the foot of the bottom leg. Go only as far as you can to keep your pelvis from rocking side to side.
- Circle the leg across the body and down toward the opposite leg. Make sure that the hip of the leg on the carriage is rooted and not lifting off while you are doing the leg circle.
- Finish the circle and get back to the starting position with your extended leg pointed toward the ceiling.
- Switch directions by circling the same pointed leg away from the body and back to the starting position.
Breath pattern: Inhale to start the circle, exhale to finish the circle.
You always win when you look for a treatment.
