At first glance, this questions seems like a no-brainer. Most would say “yes” and years ago, early in my career, I would have willingly said “yes”.
Now this question isn’t so simple.
I’ll give a couple of examples from previous patients.
Take “Joe”. Can’t touch his toes when he’s standing, and can only raise his leg up 55 degrees when asked to raise his leg straight up while laying on his back. Tight hamstrings right? Not so fast. Joe can touch his toes when he’s sitting with his legs straight out in front of him AND his leg can be brought up to 70degrees when his leg is lifted up with help.
Here is a guy who will make very minimal or no improvements to touch his toes if you just “stretch” his hamstrings. Joe has what’s called a “Stability” deficit. His core can’t engage enough for his body to allow him to reach down to touch his toes. His body senses a lack of control of his pelvis when he bends over, won’t allow Joe to get hurt, so his hamstrings and back “tighten” up to protect him. When you sit him down, his pelvis is secured by the floor, so his hamstrings and low back don’t have to hold him back when he reaches for his toes.
Joe needs more CORE CONTROL to fix his “tight hamstrings”.
Then there’s “Jane” who comes into the clinic complaining of back pain and the first thing most people do when they have back pain is to stretch their hamstrings. She’s says her hamstrings “…ALWAYS feel tight. I NEED to stretch them and when I do it feels so good.”
Jane can put her palms on the floor when standing. Jane can raise her leg up well past vertical when she’s on her back. Jane can almost touch her nose to her knee when she’s sitting with her legs straight out in front of her.
Does she have tight hamstrings? HECK NO! Her hamstrings are TOO LOOSE! They actually “shut off” to allow her to bend that far and her hips are likely popping out of their sockets to get that much range.
Jane’s pelvis is rotated forward (think of a bowl tipping forward) on one or both sides which increases the distance of the attachment points of her hamstrings; this puts them in a “stretched” position so they feel tight.
Jane needs to re-position her pelvis by STRENGTHENING, not stretching, her hamstrings so that they are not in a lengthened, stretched position all the time.
“Tom” can’t reach his toes when he bends forward in a standing or seated position. Lying on his back, his right leg raises up to about 50 degrees, while his left leg only raises up to 40 degrees.
After fixing his pelvic alignment, working on breathing mechanics, addressing hip joint stiffness issues, loosening up soft tissue restrictions in his glutes, hamstrings and calves, his forward bending is improved to where he is about 2 inches from touching his toes and he can raise both his legs to about 65 degrees.
Now Tom can stretch his hamstrings so he can touch his toes.
In these 3 different presentations, only Tom is appropriate for a program of stretching his hamstrings, and that was only after establishing better pelvic postural symmetry, normalizing breathing patterns, normalizing joint motion and getting rid of trigger points and knots in his legs.
It’s very common to see hamstring length/flexibility issues change quickly without ever stretching them. If you are a “Jane”, I’ve taken away some excessive hamstring flexibility. Tight hamstrings are usually the RESULT of something else not working properly, not the CAUSE. You need to find the cause to stop your hamstrings from “tightening” up.
Stretching hamstrings is NOT always the right solution to address “tight hamstrings”, low back pain, knee pain or whatever else stretching hamstrings is recommended for.
Get evaluated by someone trained in Postural Restoration or the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) to be directed to the right prescription of exercises to fix your…back pain, knee pain, hip pain or “tight” hamstring problem.
