Hamstrings: What you need to know

Imagine standing up tall with your hamstrings as they attach to your sitting bones, starting at an early age. Then you wouldn’t have to use your low back muscles (or a walker) to hold yourself up against gravity.

As you can see from the video, the hamstrings lower the pelvis forward and pull it (and the entire trunk) back up through the connection into the sitting bones. If your quads or back muscles are too tight, your pelvis gets tipped forward (anterior pelvic tilt) which puts the hams in an over-lengthened, stretched position. This makes your hams FEEL tight but stretching them will only perpetuate the problem. Seeing an expert who identifies your specific muscle balance and recruitment patterns is important because it’s human nature to stretch that which feels tight. Treating symptoms will only gain short-term relief and can actually make the problem worse.

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