When Do We Stretch the Hamstrings

When Do We Stretch the Hamstrings is an informational guide to stretching the hamstring muscles. This guide will provide readers with an understanding of what the hamstrings are and how to effectively stretch them. It will discuss the benefits of stretching, methods of stretching, and the importance of proper form. Additionally, it will provide detailed instructions and guidance to help users safely and effectively perform hamstring stretches. Whether you are a beginner, advanced level athlete, or just looking to gain greater flexibility and mobility, this guide

Transcript

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...you can think of it as this,
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for now, you know you get more
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complicated, we can talk about how it effects a whole routine, but here's
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what I want you to think about for now: your assessment effects your warmup.
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We're going to warm up before every workout, doesn't matter what phase we're in.
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We might use different forms of stretching, because we go from static to active
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to dynamic as we go through the phases, but we're always going to go after short and
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tight muscles. What we talked about yesterday, do we stretch muscles that are
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long? No, never. If a muscle is normal length, do we stretch it? No. If we just worked a
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muscle out that's at normal length, do we stretch it? No. If a muscle's not short
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and tight, don't stretch it. [You did say something yesterday so I want to get
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clarification about the hamstring not stretching it because it in extension is
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a long muscle, but if someone's feet turn out then you would stretch the hamstrings?]
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The short head of the biceps femoris so now you have to be very specific.
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You have your ischial tuberosity and your femur. This is a great
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diagram. I want you to know that my mother was an artist and it skipped a
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generation, there's no doubt on that one. If we look at the back of the leg, you have semimembranosus and
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-tendinosis on the medial side that cross the hip joint. Hip joint's
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up here, so this crosses the hip joint, moves the hip joint. You have the long
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head of the biceps femoris that crosses the hip joint.
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In anterior pelvic tilt, I'm going this way, which is going to do what to
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my hamstrings? Lengthen them. Now, we talked about the hamstrings, they're one of the
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weird muscles in the body that are long and overactive, which almost never
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happens. We usually think long and underactive and short and overactive,
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which is where the confusion comes in. People say, "My hamstrings feel tight,"
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and you'll do goniometric assessment, you'll do some sort of flexibility
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assessment and they'll test tight because they're geared up, but they're not. They're
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long. We know this about the long hamstrings. There is one hamstring though,
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your biceps femoris, the short head that connects into the middle of the femur
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and goes down into the lateral aspect of the knee. If my tibia externally
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rotates, does that shorten or lengthen that muscle? It shortens it, even though
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these guys are being pulled long... he doesn't cross that joint. You with me there?
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And we talked about that, usually how we treat this is we'll
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release and I talked to you, you can try this. I actually brought the
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softball with me. We talked about how a foam roll isn't particularly
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effective, but if you get a softball and find something where your leg dangles.
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My biceps femoris is the most lateral of my hamstring
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muscles, from mid femur down, I do this, I feel that. You can do this on
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breaks, just so you get the feeling. I'm not saying you have to all release your biceps
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femoris but at least you can feel this technique. We're going to release
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and generally we do active stretching with the hamstrings so that we don't run the
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risk, remember I talked about how there's different adaptations to different
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types of stretching, active stretching will improve reciprocal inhibition and end range
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strength without actually creating adaptive lengthening in fascial tissue.