![]() ![]() While it’s important not to rely exclusively on stretches to help with tight hamstrings, they certainly play their part in easing stiffness. 6 of the best stretches for tight hamstrings ![]() If you typically struggle with exercise related stiffness, making sure you properly warm up and cool down, including stretches and foam rolling, can help to alleviate any tightness. Combining strengthening and stretching exercises for tight hamstrings and calves, glutes, and hip flexors, and reducing the time you spend sitting down, will help to combat the muscle imbalances and postural problems that lead to tight hamstrings. Unfortunately, fixing tight hamstrings involves more than an occasional stretch now and then. Stretching, foam rolling and myofascial release can be great tools if your hamstring tightness is a result of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) but if the tight feeling is a result of an exercise induced injury, you’ll need to rest up and consider speaking to a physiotherapist. Your hamstring muscles are fundamental for many different types of exercise, such as running, cycling, lifting, and many other sports, so it’s easily done if you don’t properly plan in recovery time and rest days too. Improving your posture, stretching your hip flexors, and strengthening your hamstrings and glutes can help to combat APT and the accompanying hamstring tightness.Įxercising too much, or increasing how much exercise you do too quickly, can lead to muscle delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), muscle tightness and in some cases injury. One of the main causes of excessive anterior pelvic tilt is – you guessed it – excessive sitting throughout the day, causing tight hip flexors which pull your pelvis forward. Having an excessive anterior pelvic tilt (APT), a common posture where the pelvis is rotated forward, causes the hip flexors to shorten and the hamstrings to lengthen, resulting in overstretched and weak hamstrings. Poor posture can also lead to an imbalance between the hamstrings and other muscles. Stretching the hamstrings will help to relieve stiffness caused by muscle imbalances but you will also need to strengthen both the hamstrings (to increase endurance) and the surrounding muscles (to combat the imbalance) to fix this issue permanently. Weak hip flexors and calves can also lead to the hamstring needing to work harder when moving to compensate for these imbalances. So, if you spend a lot of your day sat down your hamstring muscles will have to overcompensate. This means that when you do exercises that usually engage your glutes they won’t activate as much as they should, leaving your surrounding muscles to pick up the slack. If you’re sat down for hours every day, your hamstrings are constantly held in that shortened state which can cause tightness, stiffness and even a posterior pelvic tilt, which can lead to lower back and knee pain.Ĭhanging positions throughout the day, including switching from sitting to standing, adding in dynamic stretches, and strengthening your hamstrings and glutes, will help combat tightness.ĭid you know that the term ‘use it or lose it’ is true when it comes to your muscles? If you find yourself sitting for extended periods, your glute muscles can become weaker and lazy. When we are sat down with our knees bent, our hamstring muscles are held in a shortened position. Sitting down for extended periods can cause the hamstrings to feel tight. There are multiple factors that can lead to tight hamstrings, but typically these fall under: long periods of sitting, and overexercising. ![]() Tight muscles can be caused by several things, including: When someone complains of having tight muscles, they are referring to a feeling of stiffness or pain which may prevent them from making certain movements. What does having a “tight” muscle actually mean? They also help to assist the glutes in any hip hinge movements, and they play a role in your posture too. These three muscles sit at the back of your leg and are largely responsible for knee movements such as walking, running, and jumping. Tight hamstrings are a really common issue as both activity and inactivity can lead to stiff, sore hamstrings – which means no one is safe! Whether you are highly active, completely sedentary, or somewhere in between, if you’re dealing with tight hamstrings, this article will help.Īlthough it sounds like one muscle, the hamstring is made up of three muscles, the Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus, and the Biceps Femoris which has both a short and long head. Struggling with tight hamstrings? You’re not alone.
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