Understanding Hamstring Muscles & Their Role With Stability

Of all the muscles to get a bad name for the wrong reason the hamstrings are right up the top of the list. The hamstring muscles really are very misunderstood, and when you appreciate how they actually function you will become much smarter with how you approach your training.
Far too many people stretch their hamstrings in the belief they are tight when in fact they are just reacting to a weakness somewhere else and actually protecting you.
The hamstrings play a crucial role in many daily activities such as walking, running, jumping, and controlling some movement in the trunk. In walking and running, they are most important as act as the brakes against the quadriceps in the deceleration of knee extension.
These muscles can be easily torn in sports like football or basketball when sprinting at high speeds is required. But this does not mean that they were short and tight. Injuries occur when there is a muscular imbalance, when the hamstrings are not adequately warmed up, poor running technique such as over striding or if they are fatigued.
During sprinting, the hamstrings fire eccentrically -- they contract when they are in a lengthened position -- to slow the lower leg and prepare the foot for ground contact. They must act as a stabilizer, to prevent the quads from blowing out over your knee!
And they are also playing a role in your how you move your hip and bend over. As you can see they are responsible for many key movements we use in daily life. This is where many people will tell me they have tight hamstrings for they cannot touch their toes. They instantly assume that it is a problem with their hamstrings. But what you will find is rarely is it the case. This tightness is there for a reason and you must find the answer to WHY they are tight to truly improve your ability to touch your toes. Stretching your hamstrings will only make matters much worse. More on touching toes later!
The thing to truly understand is this, THE HAMSTRINGS ACT LIKE A SLAVE MUSCLE!
This means when other muscles are not doing their job effectively the hamstrings pick up their workload.

1. UNDERSTANDING THE HAMSTRING MUSCLES

2. Why Are Hamstrings Public Enemy #1

3. What Do The HAMSTRINGS Do? The hamstrings cross and act upon two joints being the hip and the knee . The hamstrings play a crucial role in many daily activities such as walking, running, jumping, and controlling some movement in the trunk. They are act as the brakes against the quadriceps in the deceleration of knee extension.

4. What Do The HAMSTRINGS Do? During sprinting, twisting and turning the hamstrings fire eccentrically (they contract when they are in a lengthened position) To slow the lower leg and prepare the foot for ground contact. They must act as a stabilizer , to prevent the quads from blowing out over your knee ! They are vital in preventing ACL tears

5. What Do The HAMSTRINGS Do? And they are also playing a role in your how you move your hip and bend over. This is where many people experience limited movement and back pain This is also where it appears the tight hamstrings are the reason they cannot touch their toes. Many will use stretching to correct this But …………

6. WHY Are The Tight? This tightness is there for a reason and you must find the answer to WHY they are tight to truly improve your hamstring function. THE HAMSTRINGS ACT LIKE A SLAVE MUSCLE! This means when other muscles are not doing their job effectively the hamstrings pick up their workload!

7. Example 1: Taut Vs Tight! Where what appears to be tight hamstrings, is often not the case When someone is extremely anteriorly tilted , the hamstrings are constantly working to prevent the extension-based back pain They are trying to pull the pelvis back The hamstrings are in fact stretche d well beyond their optimal flexibility “Taut” They will now send pain signals to prevent you from stretching further They will also fatigue quickly and limit lower back movement

8. Example 2: Neural Tension This again has nothing to do with the hamstrings but more to do with nerves being trapped , usually around the lumbar spine . Easy to spot the difference as the person will really struggle with a straight leg raise, possibly only able to lift the leg to 45 degrees and feel pins and needles or tingling in the calf or even pain the back Once your sciatic nerve is being compromised and being trapped, it will cause your hamstring to engage in what is called protective tension

9. The anterior tilted pelvis needs correcting and actually to strengthen and shorten the hamstring not weaken and lengthen The neural tension needs to find a solution for the nerve entrapment which can be caused from many factors. See our back pain program for more on this The WORST thing You Could Do Is Stretch

10. How To Assess If You Do Have Tight Hamstrings True short and tight hamstrings", need to be in posterior pelvic tilt when in a relaxed posture. You can see this if they lay flat on the floor, or stand against a wall and there is little to no gap between the floor and their lower back. You can also observe this in a waiters bow But even still sometimes this can be a hip problem and not a hamstring problem.

11. How To Assess If You Do Have Tight Hamstrings These people usually can't tell the difference between moving their hip & their lower back. This is known as poor hip/pelvis disassociation . This is obvious when you ask them to lift one knee when standing and instead of holding a good spinal position they will instantly tuck their butt under and round out at the lower back.

12. DO NOT Stretch If You Can Do This If you can achieve 90 degrees on the straight leg raise and you are able to keep your other leg flat on the ground you DO NOT need to improve hamstring flexibility Stretching beyond this will expose you to potential injury at the knee or the hip

13. DANGER Of Too Much Excessive hamstring flexibility is a great predictor of ACL injuries in sports and one reason why females suffer this injury at a rate 5-8 times more than males due to their hamstring laxity. When you understand that 60-80% of ACL injuries occur when the knee is forced into position of flexion and the rotation. Hamstrings work in combination with the ACL to resist the forward movement of the tibia that the quads produce.

14. Assessing Weakness If you present as an anterior tilted pelvis but still appear to have tight hamstrings you need to assess glute weakness Prone leg lift. Hold for 60 seconds If fatigue or cramping fail Single Leg Hip Extension Hold for 10 seconds If fatigue or cramping fail

15. What About Touching Your Toes? This is an unreliable test for there are many reasons why this may be difficult Poor posterior weight shift backward If you’re unable to shift your posterior weight backward as the upper body half of your body leans down and forward, your hamstrings will contract to prevent you from losing balance and falling forward. In this case, the hamstrings are merely acting as parking brakes to stop you from hurting yourself. Stiff lower back . Stiffness in the neck and thoracic spine Tight plantar flexors

16. What About STRENGTHENING? When it comes to strengthening the hamstrings it will have more to do with the glutes and controlling hip mobility than applying an isolated hamstring exercise.

17. Sure there are some great benefits in terms of eccentric strength and allowing the hamstring to strengthen in a lengthened position But a hamstring tear is not a problem with the hamstring, but a problem somewhere else. Remember it is a slave muscle that will work harder when something else is not doing it’s job Isolated exercises like the nordic curl do not address this but ignore it A single leg deadlift does the same thing but uses stability and glute strength to do so What Are The Best Exercises For Kids?

18. There is 4 things to do that will address the source of the problem and correct the “stiffness”. They are: Pelvic stability Hip/ankle mobility Weak glutes Dysfunctional movement patterns . Failure to address these factors will only lead to continuation of the problem There Is FOUR THINGS You Need To Do

19. Deadlifts & single leg exercises are the best What Are The Best Exercises?

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