Tight Hamstrings

The hamstring is a group of three muscles that run up the back of your thigh. It’s considered a 2 joint muscle, meaning it crosses both the hip and knee joints. Maintaining good hamstring flexibility is important, especially for active individuals. And there’s no doubt about it, chronically tight hamstrings can be annoying and debilitating. Before you jump on the foam roll let’s determine if your hamstrings are REALLY the cause of your problem. (Spoiler alert: your tight hamstrings might be a symptom of a different condition.)

What problems can tight hamstrings cause?

• Opens you up to further injury, i.e., tearing. If you force a muscle to go further than it can normally go at a speed, it is likely to tear.
• Tight hamstrings may cause the hips and pelvis to rotate posteriorly (towards the back), flattening the normal curvature of the lower back and causing unnatural forces through the joints and muscles of the pelvis and lower spine. This can cause postural problems, back problems, sacroiliac joint pain, muscle imbalances, and mobility limitations.

Why do I have tight hamstrings?

Muscles respond to what they are asked to do. If they are asked to remain still for long periods of time, they will eventually shorten, causing a tight muscle. A great illustration of this is high heels. When a person wears high heels every day, for the majority of the day, it places the gastroc (calf muscle) in a shortened position. After enough time in this position, the calf muscle adapts and tightens up it’s muscle fibers, causing a loss of ankle range of motion and loss of calf muscle flexibility.

It’s possible that if the majority of your day is spent sitting at a desk or in a car, which places your hamstrings in a shortened position, in addition to a generally sedentary lifestyle (less than 30 minutes of exercise/activity a day) that your hamstrings may have become shortened. This can cause chronic discomfort and loss of comfortable movement patterns.

However, your hamstrings may be tight because OTHER muscles are not doing their job. When it comes to basic movement of the hip joint, there are 2 categories of muscles: “movers” and “stabilizers”.  The hamstrings are “movers”. A big muscle meant to create big movements. The stabilizer muscles are smaller muscles, seated deeper in the hip joint, meant to keep the ball of your hip seated firmly in the socket. The problem is straightforward. We really don’t spend much of our day moving sideways or rotating. This lack of movement creates weakness of these important muscles and as a result, instability in the hip joint. To compensate, your brain will tell your hamstrings to work harder and provide movement AND stability at the hip. This leads to the hamstrings being overused and feeling tight.

How do I know if my hamstrings are actually tight?

Great question! Besides the sensation of tightness, soreness and stiffness, tight hamstrings can make it difficult to reach down to your toes and complete basic daily movements. The sensation might be causing you to feel like you constantly need to foam roll, massage and stretch. To really understand if your hamstrings are tight, you can perform a simple assessment at home with the help of a partner and your smartphone.

If your self-assessment shows your hamstrings are truly tight, and your measurements fall outside of the normal range, you will likely benefit from a hamstring stretching program. You can try some of these simple hamstring stretches and find the one that works the best for you.

Hamstring Quick stretch hack

If you need a quick way to warm up your hamstrings, try this…

What if my hamstrings have normal flexibility, but they still feel tight?

If you performed the assessment and your hamstrings fall in or near the normal flexibility range, you might need something other than stretching to fix your feelings of tightness. We recommend trying a strengthening program to work on the hip stabilizers. Use this basic program as a starting point to create stronger and more stable hips. Over time, the hamstrings will be able to reduce their workload, and your feelings of tightness should ease.

Keep in mind it takes a lot of time to correct hamstring tightness, no matter the reason for it. Be patient and give your body 3-4 weeks of consistently performing your program before deciding if it’s working or not.

If you just aren’t sure which program is right for you, or you’ve tried your program and still feel chronic hamstring tightness, we can help. Call your local HealthQuest for a free consultation or visit our website to request an appointment.