Hamstrings: A complete Guide to Stretching

Ah, the world of leg stretches. Some are simple and some are complicated, as in they like to perform differently than other muscles. Hamstrings happen to be in the complicated category, unfortunately. They are some f the most powerful muscles in your entire body, yet when it comes to stretching, they love to give bad feedback. So, today we're going to go over exactly how to stretch them, how to not overstretch them, injuries, and how to resolve all of this to prevent future problems. Let's get started.

First off let's start with how the hamstring stretch. You see, hamstring's stretch kind of differently that other muscles. Yes they elongate, but the way you feel that elongation is different. Making it difficult to know what you're doing. A good example of how to explain this is the deadlift. When you tilt forward from your hips, the hamstrings pull upwards, a for of stretching. And when you come back up to return to set stance, you shorten the hamstrings, or "flex" them. Deadlifts are basically backwards. When you lower down you are STRETCHING, and when you come up you are FLEXING. But hat's not how you feel when you do them right? It feels like a pull in the back of your legs on the way down. As if your hamstrings are rubber bands and you are pulling them in opposite directions. So, you think that must be a good thing, right? A little pull is good, but the classic "more is not better" rule applies here, especially here. If they burn too much while performing the deadlift, you risk the fact of overstretching. Which leads us to our next point.

The difference between working the hamstrings and overstretching the hamstrings is so minute you need to be very careful. Overstretching is hard to explain, like through this blog, but let's say you did a hard leg day at the gym. Or you went to a yoga class and stretched your brains out, and it felt amazing. Well the next day, if you're hamstrings BURN, you overstretched. If they feel TIRED, then you worked them out. Make sense? Hamstrings should NEVER burn!! This is a biggie, and one thing I try and get all of clients and members to understand, for their own safety and longevity. "Pulling a hammy" is a very long recovery.

If you happen to pull your hamstrings, or overstretch them, the recovery is longer because they are such a huge and powerful muscle group. It takes quite a while for those ligaments to shorten back p to their original resting length. That shortening is the "burning" and "tight" feeling you get after a long workout or a hard yoga class. If performed right, your hamstrings actually shouldn't feel anything at all the next day, except a little weak, but that will go away. As far as helping to shorten recovery time from an injury, ice will be your best friend here. For the first like three days, you should only be putting ice on your hamstrings. Once they feel tired and not burn anymore, you can introduce some heat. But please do not go running to the bath to take a bath after pulling your hammy. That only stretches out your recovery time to take far longer. Ice ice baby!

So you see, stretching the hamstrings is all about the feel of them. Not necessarily the "release" of them. If you start doing a move or a stretch for your hamstrings and they burn, shorten that back up. If you feel something only slightly back there, then proceed ahead. Learn to read the feedback your body is giving you. It will respond quicker and love you more for treating it properly and listening to what it needs!