hey what's up everyone! Morey Croson here and today we're going to be going over some of the
best hamstring stretches for athletes i'm going to start the video right now
all right so the reason it is hamstring stretches for athletes just because a lot of us know
that doing static stretches for athletes is really not a very productive way to be able to actually
lengthen the muscles just because it ends up reducing the amount of force and power that you're
able to create within the muscle so really a lot of these while there are some that are going to be
a little bit in the static stretch kind of realm it's not a 100 a static stretch we're going to be
doing more dynamic type stretches to be able to really lengthen out the hamstring muscle which is
going to be really important for any type of athlete so the first thing that i like to do
is anything you know just to see my height right so it's a little bit like halfway up onto my uh
my femur right it doesn't have to be this high i've had to build myself up to be able to get to
this height but what ends up being the key thing here is you know we have our hamstring muscle and
the opposite is the hip flexor muscle right and those muscles have a synergistic relationship
so how well you could use one it directly correlates with how well you can you know
use utilize the other one or shorten one and then lengthen the other so what i do is i come up here
and first off i'll just really try to drive my toe and you can do this on a bed or a desk or anything
like that i'll really try to drive my toe back towards me right and then from here i really want
to try to keep myself as upright as i can and i'm just going to lift right and just by lifting that
up i really makes it so i have to kind of stretch out the hamstring and also works that hip flexor
kind of simultaneously another good way to do this it's not the you know same exact exercise
but still a good way to be able to build up lane um is and you can use like a wall for this as well
is to go more from like a bent knee position and what really like push your leg into it right so
i'm here i'm bent here and then i'm really pushing my foot away right and again this is a great way
and i'm dragging my heel in towards that box here great way to lengthen the hamstring and it's a
more of a dynamic way to be able to do it as well it's not something that's going to be static it's
going to be something that will help you with like actively lengthening the muscle the next thing
is i like to go and like walk through and as i'm locking i'll go and kind of grab onto my toe and
you know this is something that's a bit of a dynamic of the static at the same time you
don't need to necessarily pick up a ton of ground here i'm just taking one step and i'm driving my
toe all the way up and really making sure that i can create as much active length as i can as i'm
going through so i'm really trying to drive my toe up push my heel down absolutely do that i can do
the same thing going here where i'm just driving my leg up and pulling through and this is again
something that is more like a dynamic way of being able to lengthen through the hamstrings instead of
doing something that is more of its dynamic type of stretch this is a lot better when it comes to
warming up and getting yourself ready for any type of you know physical event any type of
activity that's going to create a high demand of power utilization it's not as good to be able to
do static stretching it's much better to do some type of dynamic stretching at the end you know you
can always do some type of static stretches when we do do static stretching what i recommend here
i'll go through a couple of them here it's going to be something where you're just going to touch
your toes right so instead of like standing up and touching your toes i like getting in this position
just because it locks that pelvis a little bit more creates a little bit more of a focus exercise
to help you in lengthening through that back line okay and when you're doing that just don't hold it
for too long right just instead of doing a long you know elongated stretch do hold it for a few
seconds relax and go back into it so just kind of rip it out a little bit more and that will
give that that hamstring the opportunity to be able to lengthen and then relax and lengthen and
relax and you do want to be able to control this very well in order to actually see improvements
another one that i like is i'll cross over my leg here and i'll drive my knee to the chest right
and really this is going to end up stretching the opposite leg so i feel it much more in my left leg
as i'm doing this and then if i want to feel more of my right leg what i'll do is i'll straighten
this leg out i'll grab onto my ankle and i can go here and create length like this as well
sides
we're going to quickly interrupt this video just to save your life information go ahead and click
that thumbs up subscribe to the channel and we'll hop right back in the video another good one is
going to be having one leg down right so i'm going to just have my right leg and from here
i'm just going to think about keeping my legs as fit as i can and push all the way back and then
actually touch my left hand to the ground and then i'm just going to come right up and through you
don't necessarily have to drive your leg through like that i like doing it just because there's
another way of really trying to make it so i have to control my balance but i'm really shifting all
my weight back touching coming back through trying to keep my leg as straight as possible
again getting balance and also lengthening through that hamstring here and then if you
have the opportunity to use any type of weight i would highly recommend you guys doing that
whether it's a dumbbell kettlebell i'm going to use a barbell for this one but you can do the same
thing here so in terms of being able to lengthen through the hamstring you can go now stand up
go all the way down right and be able to lengthen the hamstring like this have a little bit more
of a resistance to kind of pull you back and then come back up here when you're doing this
you got to be careful right this is going to be something that you have to be a little bit of an
older athlete to be able to do you don't want to be doing this if you're like 9 or 10 years
old okay you want to be at least probably 13 14 years old to be able to kind of use the bar for
this but great way to be able to like really that full back line lower back is a big part as well
and then i'll also go with the bar back behind me and this is going to be more of a good morning
so i'm here and i'm just shifting my weight back as far as i can and coming back and again
another great active way to do this you can do this with dumbbells you do this with kettlebells
you just hold a weight right when you do the round weight plate weights and just kind of work
on being able to shift your weight back lifting up those toes and just actively strengthening
and lengthening through those hamstrings right that ends up being the big thing here is you want
to do exercises that will create length as well so it's not only about being able to do stretches but
it's also about doing the exercise that will help you and improving the length and hamstring and
those are a couple great ones uh as well as you've been doing like a nordic hamstring curl could do