Hi, welcome to MelioGuide.
I'm Margaret Martin.
Today we're talking about the importance of flexible hamstrings.
It's nice to have flexible hamstrings.
But when it comes to osteoporosis, it's critical to have flexible hamstrings.
And why is it critical?
If I try to bend to pick something up and my hamstrings are tight, so here I am, going
to go through the range of motion of my hamstrings.
At this point, my hamstrings are saying to me that's it.
If I want to pick something up there I have to bend from somewhere else.
So I might increase the distance between my knees, go down into a deeper squat, and then
I can pick something up and just barely because I have fairly moderately tight hamstrings.
So I can get there.
Pick something up safely using knees, hips, and keeping that little arch in my back.
If your hamstrings are tight, and so my range of motion, if I'm lying on my back, I can
pretty much get my foot almost to the ceiling.
If you have less than that, then you'll be able to bend.
And at about somewhere between here and 90 degrees, your hamstrings back here are going
to be yelling at you and saying, "That's it.
I can't give you any more range."
Their job being attached to the pelvis is to try to allow you to have that range of
motion.
But if they're tight, then your option is to bend from your knees.
At some point, if you still have to pick something up from the ground and you're going, "That's
it.
That's as deep as I can get," the rest of the bend ends up coming from your spine.
And with osteoporosis, that's a really dangerous thing basically because you're just putting
much more load on the front of the vertebrae.
So, the rest of today's blog is going to be about how to stretch.
Some of us have to stretch our calves before our hamstrings, how to stretch the lower part
of the hamstrings, the upper part of the hamstrings, how to stretch if you're a little bit tight,
moderately tight, and if you just are happy with where you're at and you want to maintain
your hamstrings.
So here's a little test you can do at home in order to test your hamstrings.
You're going to lie flat on the mat.
You're going to bend one knee.
This is not critical for stretching your hamstrings but it is important in regards to keeping
your back safe.
If you've had any back pain or you've had a herniated disc, I'm going to suggest you
also put a little rolled towel in the small of your back.
In order to test your hamstrings, lift the flexibility of your hamstrings.
You're going to lift this leg.
You're going to feel muscle tightness here because these are the muscles that are lifting
your leg along with your hip flexors.
And you're going to see how far you can lift your leg before your back starts to flatten.
If your back is flattening, either pushing it into the roll that's beneath you or you
feel that little arch that you started with is gone, that is the limit of your hamstring
flexibility.
So if I was going to measure this angle for myself, I would...and if I was in the clinic,
I would have to measure it with a straight leg behind me.
But roughly I have about 80 degrees of hamstring flexibility.
Ideally, for everyone, I would love all my clients to have 90 degrees because then you
could bend and move much more easily without worrying about your back.
So, say you do the stretch and say you start to get tight anywhere in this range.
If you're not feeling it here but rather you're feeling it lower down as in the calf area,
that's where you need to stretch first.
The hamstring and the calf muscle cross one another behind the knee.
Tightness in the calf muscle is going to limit your ability to get a full stretch of your
hamstring.
So how do we stretch our calf?
For some people, just simply pulling their toes up towards their nose and releasing and
pulling and releasing is efficient.
It's a lovely thing to do first thing in the morning.
If it's at all uncomfortable for your knee, some of us hyperextend the knee, you can place
a pillow and just have your heel just over the pillow and point and flex and point and
flex.
The pointing is not important for the flexibility of the calf, but it's a lovely way of keeping
the front of the ankle flexible as well.
Once you do not feel a stretch with your toes pulling inwards like this anymore, then I
suggest that you loop a bathrobe belt or any type of soft belt around your foot.
And it's going to be much more comfortable if you have a shoe on.
It's going to keep the rope in place and you'll feel less pressure on your foot.
But for purposes of today's video, I'm just going to have it at about the ball of the
foot, because if you have it in the arch, you're not going to feel that pulling, that
extra stretch.
So elbows stay by your side.
Shoulder blades stay tucked.
You stay long through the back of your neck.
You point and you flex.
Inhale and exhale, continuing your breath, you make the muscles so the muscles of your
feet are doing 90% of it.
So my foot's pulling my toes towards my nose.
And that last little pound or two of pressure is the rope that's doing it.
So don't make the rope do all the work.
Make your foot do the work.
This is what we refer to as active isolated stretching.
By actively contracting the muscles in the front, you're then getting an act of relaxation
of the muscles behind.
So that's a lovely way to get more flexibility in the calf.
Part two is once you've loosened up the calf, and that might just take 30 or 40 repetitions
or might take two days of 30 or 40 repetitions, then you're going to stretch what we call
the distal hamstrings, the lower hamstrings.
Now, there's a couple of options here.
Those people that are very flexible and want to maintain their range of motion, they can
simply use the rope all the way up and all the way down, because once you have your foot
pointing towards the ceiling, there's much less effort to hold your leg there than holding
your leg here.
So I'll give you options for those of you that are tighter.
But anywhere between 90 and above, using the rope is very comfortable.
So that's to work your distal hamstring.
In order to get the part of the hamstring closer to the sit bone or the ischial tuberosity,
then what you'll do is keep the knee straight for the entire stretch.
You'll go all the way down.
Take your breath in and exhale coming all the way up, keeping the elbows to your side,
keeping the shoulders tucked, inhale down and exhale up, inhale down.
And you can play with which hand feels best, one hand frees up.
You can keep in contact with it as it frees up.
You make sure you keep your knee nice and straight.
See if you like that one or the other or alternate.
It doesn't matter.
And again, when doing active isolated stretching, each stretch is held for one to two seconds.
So it's not a long stretch.
My leg muscles are doing 90% of it.
And then at the end, I'm giving it a little extra stretch.
I'm going to demonstrate this for individuals who are moderately tight and then very tight.
So here's a strategy you can use if you are very tight, having...if you have access to
a ball, this is very nice.
As you roll the ball out, you straighten your knee and you feel a nice stretch or should
feel a stretch in the hamstring.
Inhale knee towards chest and exhale as you straighten.
If you find that your flexibility is improving, you can hang on to the ball a little bit closer
so that as you should straighten, you're a little bit higher.
So you'll play with what type of pant works best or not, no pant...just so that you can
catch the ball and just get a little bit more flexible.
So I find the ball...
Then if you moved your foot down the ball and rolled out, then you would be going an
inch or two less high.
You're wanting to make sure that your knee gets straight.
That's the critical part in order to ensure that you've stretched the hamstring.
If you're moderately tight and the ball isn't challenging you anymore, then using a doorway
works really well.
So if you're no longer challenged by the ball then moving in close to a doorframe works
very well.
The distance that you are from the doorway will allow you to adjust to the flexibility
that your hamstring evolves to.
So I'm going to start roughly six to eight inches from the wall.
So I'm sideways to the wall, my butt is sideways.
My knees are pointing perpendicular to the wall I'm going to use.
And I'm going to use the doorframe because it's going to allow me as I get more flexible
to straighten the opposite leg.
Some of you might like to wear socks to slide up the doorframe.
So once again, a little support in the small of your back or being aware just to keep that
arch neutral so that when you slide up, that's your cue that that's the limit of your hamstring.
Wrap it in and exhale you slide up the wall.
Feel that stretch behind and back down.
So inhale and exhale and inhale as you slide down and exhale.
As you tighten these quad muscles, the brain is told to relax the hamstring.
You can keep those shoulders tucked back.
You can stay long through the back of your neck and just gentle stretch.
If you need head support, by all means, use the head support that you need.
But as in the posture guide of exercise for better bones, aim to keep the least amount
of head support to support your posture that you're looking to have.
So sliding up and down.
You might do 20 or 30 of these.
And then as you feel that you're getting more flexible, you have two options.
One would be to get closer to the wall.
The other would be to straighten this leg.
As you straighten the opposite leg, it puts more tension through the pelvis.
And the same lengthening here will feel more intense.
So that's especially nice.
And although I mentioned that the rope was really nice for people that are ready flexible,
if you're reaching 90 degrees, you can get in right close with your buttock and then
roll onto your back from here.
And as you get really in close, then this is just a really nice place to be.
After you've done your active isolated stretching which was the on and off for one to two seconds,
in any of the positions, whether it's using the ball or extending your leg up against
the wall at 90 degrees, or 40 degrees, wherever you feel your limitation, you can then just
relax.
And if you choose to relax, you are looking for an intensity of about 4 or 5 out of 10
because this...our muscles and our fascia just want to release and relax.
But if you're stretching and you're like, "Whoa, I really feel that stretch, it's so
intense," your body is just going to fight it.
So position yourself in a position...or an angle that allows you to be just really comfortable
with it.
You'll often see this in a yin yoga class.
And as the minutes pass, you can then slide the opposite leg down.
You can scooch yourself a little closer to the wall.
For individuals that are very flexible, they might even place a bolster behind the leg
just to allow a little bit more lengthening through the hamstring.
You can add your chest opening, lengthening through the back of your head and neck, so
any of these things that just are going to allow you to reach your goals of moving safely,of
keeping your spine safe and your hamstrings flexible.
Bring your knees together remembering to roll onto your side as you come up.
I'm Margaret from MelioGuide.
Thanks so much for tuning in.