The Top Reasons Why Your Hamstrings are Tight
Physical Therapy for Hamstring Health
If tight hamstrings or muscle imbalances are making it hard to walk and difficult to compete, our physical therapists can share techniques and treatments for flexibility, balance and restoration.
This can also include podiatry and foot analysis, posture analysis and therapeutic massage.
The Top Reasons Your Hamstrings are Tight
It hurts to walk. Your low back aches. You can barely bend forward. Tight hamstrings are a common issue that can lead to a variety of aches and pains and restrictions in movement. Fortunately, Edge Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine can help with tight hamstrings.
What exactly are my hamstrings and why are they so tight?
The hamstrings are a powerful, large group of muscles that run from the bottom of the pelvis and attach across the back of the knee, helping to extend the hip and flex the knee joint.
Decreased flexibility in the hamstrings often happens from lack of stretching or muscle imbalances. If you sit or drive a lot, your hips and knees are often in positions which shorten the hamstrings. Over time, this can lead to a chronic decrease in the muscle length.
For others, hamstring “tightness” may actually be tension of one or more of the many nerve chains which run down the legs, the largest being the sciatic bundle. This can mask as tightness which won’t improve just by stretching.
Taking care of your hamstrings
First, I recommend connecting with a skilled healthcare professional to properly evaluate the reason for your restrictions. Improper stretching/exercise can lead to further injury and more problems.
For truly tight hamstrings, a good stretching program combined with changes to daily patterns such as more frequent position changes can lead to improvements in flexibility. Likewise, good core and gluteal strengthening can restore proper lower chain balance, leading to less stress to the hamstrings themselves.
For tension, we can glide the nerves involved to relieve stress to the system. To stretch the sciatic nerve, lie on your back with your hips and knees bent to 90 degrees. Place your hands behind your knee and slowly straighten towards the ceiling. Then pull your toes/foot up towards you and hold for a few seconds. Finally, return to the starting position and repeat 15-20 times. You can also do this exercise in a sitting position. This is a great exercise to complete at work since many of us can’t find a place to lie down at our jobs.
Like anything with the human body, the answer to hamstring tightness is multi-factorial. Come see the difference Edge PT can make with your flexibility, strength and performance to keep you ahead of the competition!
Dr. Lawrence Kim PT DPT OCS
Edge Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine
