In this video, I'm going to show you the worst hamstring
pain relief exercises and the best ones to do instead. Stay
tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I want to go over some
common, but bad, ways to get hamstring pain relief and I'm
going to show much better, safer alternatives that will
help lengthen and strengthen that hamstring muscle. That
way, we can get quick pain relief but also long-lasting
pain relief. All of the exercises work just a little
bit differently. So, make sure to go through them all and use
what gives you the most amount of relief and you may find that
these exercises give you quick relief, even in as little as 30
seconds. So, let's get started and fix that hamstring pain
right now. Everybody likes a good massage but when it comes
to hamstring muscle tightness, spasms, and trigger points, a
big mistake that I see is taking fingers and just
passively massaging, digging in there very deeply to try to get
that tightness away. I've even seen people make a fist and try
to pound it away. At that point, you're just causing more
irritation to an already inflamed muscle. The better, more
effective way to get rid of that tightness is to actively
lengthen and release the muscle and then do a self massage. So,
here's an easy way to do it. We just need a tennis ball. You
can also use a racquetball, handball, even a baseball and
you can do this at the edge of a chair or a bed. So, take your
ball and then place it right over the spot on the hamstring
that you're focusing on and then take your leg weight and
drive down as much as you can until you feel a deep but
comfortable self massage. To make this more intense, just
your hands over and press down on the top of your leg but
again, only to your comfort level. How we're going to
activate that muscle is then extending the knee. So, what
I'm going to do is just take my toes up towards the ceiling
like this. This makes the hamstring extremely tender so
go very lightly with it. What we're focusing on doing with
this one is trying to contract and activate the quadricep, the
quad muscle right here, on the top part of the leg. When we do
this, it allows the hamstring to then relax so we can dig
deeper into those muscle fibers. So, really focus on
feeling it right over the quad right through here. I try to
hold this one comfortably for 5 seconds. From there, I'm just
going to relax and take a breather. On the next
repetition, you can press down even more and just focus on
really trying to build into this movement. I try to do this
one for 10 complete repetitions. From there, you
can just switch over different spots as needed. To take this
one to the next level, we can put a rolling motion in there
to hit the muscle fibers just a little bit differently so again
take your ball place it over the spot where you need it and
then from there this time around I'm going to put my
hands off to my side for a little bit more stabilization
so I'm going to press down with my leg I'm going to extend that
knee again but this time around I'm going to roll forward with
my body weight just a nice fluid motion of pressing down
and then rolling forward and then backward it feels really
good but you're going to notice that it hits the muscles just a
bit differently. Again, I try to do that for about 10
repetitions and then just switch over different spots as
needed. One of the worst ways to get rid of hamstring
tightness and pain is through static stretches and exercises.
That is building through a movement in one direction and
holding it for a long period of time. Think grabbing a rubber
band right here. If I was to pull on it and hold it and then
release it, if I kept doing this over time, you'll notice
that it loses elasticity. The same thing happens with the
muscle fibers and tendons. They lose elasticity leading to less
stability and more pain and tightness in that muscle in the
future. So, what we need to do instead is focus on dynamic
movements that is putting the muscle through different
positions and movements to help release it without holding it
in one spot for too long. I'm going to demonstrate a static
movement versus a dynamic movement with one of the worst
hamstring exercises that I see. That's the classic straight leg
bending down trying to touch your toes. Not only does it
really cause an over into the hamstring right here but you
also round your back while doing it. So, let's start with
a very good upright posture at the edge of a chair or a couch.
What I'm going to do is straighten one leg just like
this. I'm going to put my heel into the floor, toes up towards
the ceiling. What we want good upright posture, take your
hands, put them right on your hips. I'm going to activate the
hamstring right here by tilting my pelvis and hips forward into
an anterior pelvic tilt. So, just kind of rocking them when
you do this you're going to notice at a ton starts to fire
into that hamstring this allows you to engage it without having
to round your back into it to get that deeper stretch so what
I'm going to do is go through four different movements and
each position I'm going to hold for roughly about five seconds
it's a nice fluid motion that should take you between 25 and
30 seconds to complete so once we have that anterior pelvic
tilt we feel that hamstring engage I'm going to raise my
arms and then I'm going to slowly lean away from that leg
again this one right here once we feel a very deep stretch
we're going to hold it for five seconds I really feel it on the
outside of my hamstring once we count to five we're just going
to relax and then go towards the other side. You'll notice
that it hits the hamstrings just a little bit differently.
From there, what I'm going to do is put my arms out in front of
me and then I'm just going to tilt very slightly from my
waist keeping my back straight and then I'm going to slowly
turn my body and rotate away from that leg. This right here
really opens up the hips, you'll really feel it in the hamstring.
Once you can't go any further, you're just going to hold this
for about five seconds. You're going to relax and then you're
going to do it on the other side, but try to do that whole
complete cycle nice and slow and controlled for about three
to five repetitions, and then when you're done on one side
switch to the other leg to keep them both in balance. One of the
worst ways to get hamstring pain relief is actually just
focusing on the hamstrings themselves. Hamstring pain tends
to come about from compensating for tightness and weakness in other
muscles it works, with primarily the glutes or the buttocks. So
if we can strengthen and lengthen the glutes, it will
help take tension and stress off the hamstrings and
hopefully give us long lasting pain relief. I'm going to go
over one of my favorite exercises for the glute. It's
known as the bridge and I'm going to do three different
variations that are really going to help isolate it,
lengthen and strengthen those muscles. The first one, what
we're going to do is lie flat in bed or on a floor. Knees are
going to be bent, feet flat. I'm going to take my hands, put
them right on my hips. The movement very easy. We're going
to take our hips and drive upward towards the ceiling
until we have a straight line from our knees to our hips to
our shoulders. If you're unable to get into this position, go
up as far as you can. Hopefully, over time, you'll
gain strength and flexibility to get into this position but
with this one, I really want to focus on isolating the glute
just a little bit more. So, what I'm going to do is
activate my core by tightening it. Take my heels, press down
into the bed or the floor and then take my feet and move
them forward at the same time. So, again, pressing down,
moving my feet forward. When you do this, you're really
going to start to feel those glutes activate. That's what
you want to focus on. You don't want to feel in the back of
legs as much. You want to feel it right over the buttocks. I
try to hold this one comfortably for about 5
seconds. I'm just going to relax, take a breather, and
then repeat this one up to 10 times. We can also do a
different variation that's going to hit the glutes a
little bit differently. This is known as a clamshell. So, what
I'm going to do is put my feet together and then, try to drive
my knees outward as much as I can. What you'll start to feel
is a very good activation around the hips and also
towards the groin inner part of the leg. From there, the
movement is the same. Hands go on the hips. I'm just lifting
up like this. You'll notice it hits the muscles just a little
bit differently. I really feel it in my glutes right here.
Again, I hold this one for 5 seconds, relax. On the next
repetition, I try to take my knees out even further and do
this one up to 10 times. Since we are really focusing on the
glute, let's do a little bit more for the hamstrings because
we want to show them some love too. So, this is called a glute
walkout, or should say hamstring walkout. So, I'm going to do
basically the same position as the first one just like this
but this time around, I'm going to put my toes upward towards
the ceiling, drive my heels into the floor or the bed,
whatever you're using and then just slowly walk my heels out
just like this as much as I can. When you do this, you're
going to notice a ton gets put on the hamstrings. So, just do
this right here nice and slowly and control for about five
complete repetitions and afterwards, if you feel like
you have a little bit more energy, you can throw in
another set or two. Hamstring stretches and exercises to
avoid are any movements that involve a lot of bending forward
like this that put the back into a rounded posture. That
puts a lot of strain and pain on the back. Something we
definitely don't want. So, here are two exercises that will
help keep the back straight. They're known as PNF exercises.
They're going to give us hamstring pain relief by
relaxing and contracting the muscles which ultimately will
help lengthen and strengthen those hamstrings. So, with this
one, you can do it either standing or lying down. The
first one I'm going to demonstrate is the version. We
just need a sturdy chair, one without wheels. You can also do
this on a staircase. I would recommend that if you have
balance issues to do this next to a wall for extra support.
So, whatever side that we're focusing on, we're going to
straighten that leg, put our heel right up on the chair. The
movement from here is very easy. I'm going to have very
good upright posture, you can take your hands, put them right
on your hips just like this. We want to drive our heel down
into the chair or the stair and then kind of bring our heel
back at the same time. This will cause kind of like a knee
flexion. Kinda like taking our heel right here towards our the
back of our leg or our butt but when you do this, press down
until you feel a very deep activation into that hamstring.
I try to hold this one comfortably for about 5
seconds. From there, I'm just going to relax. We're going to
take this one to the next level by then focusing a little bit
more on the quadricep right here. Again, if we can contract
the quadricep, it will help allow the hamstring to release
and relax in the back. So, I'm going to again, have very good
upright posture. I'm going to straighten this leg right here
and then take my toes up towards the ceiling. I really
want to focus on moving through my hip. Go up as far as you
can. Hold this one for 5 seconds. From there, you're
just going to relax. Again, take a breather. On the next
repetition, try to build into it even more. I try to do this
one for three to five repetitions on both sides. So,
the second version of this PNF exercise, we are just going to
go next to a door frame. What you're going to do, lie flat on
your back just like this. Try to get your bottom as close to
the door frame as possible while keeping your legs
straight. Your heel is going to press into the door frame.
Again, we're trying to mimic the movement of flexing the
knee just like this. So, we're going to drive our heel in and
then kind of scoop it backwards at the same time. When you do
this, you're really going to feel the hamstrings start to
activate. You want to deep activation of that muscle, hold
this for about 5 seconds. From there, we're just going to
relax and now focus a little bit more contracting the
quadricep and the hip flexors in the front which will help
the hamstring relax and release so we're going to keep our leg
straight and then just lift our leg back moving through our hip
as much as we can. Hold this for 5 seconds. From there, take
a breather. On the next repetition, you'll have a
little bit more movement. So, scoot your butt a little bit
closer towards the door. The more that you scoot closer to
the door, the harder this exercise is. So, again, I'm
just going to repeat this process and build into the
motion and I try to do this for about three to five repetitions
on both sides. If the exercises help, please support
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