hamstring stretches knees

HI everyone,

 

The problem I have with stretching my hamstrings is that with straight leg stretches, I always feel it in the back of my knees, not in my hamstring. With bend leg stretches I can always feel it in my hamstrings.

 

Now I know that you should never feel the stretch in the back of the knee, but in the hamstrings themselves.

 

Do you guys have any tips regarding this problem ? Btw  I am rather inflexible.

Hi Twan,

 

I have the same issue. What I have found, having read about it in Kit Laughlin's excellent book "Stretching and Flexibility, is that it is actually my calves that are tight (specifically my gastrocnemii), not my hamstrings: my flexibility in bent leg hamstring stretches is quite good, while in pike stretches it is poor. This is not surprising since Gastrocnemius crosses the knee joint.

 

I suggest you try the following to see if tight calves are indeed the issue:

 

1. Test your pike flexibility and note your range of motion;

2. Perform some specific calf stretches, both for soleus and gastrocnemius (Kit has a great calf sequence on his forum);

3. Re-test your pike and see if your range of motion has improved and feels easier.

 

Hope this helps,

Neil

Time and stretching is all that will ease this.  I think it's easier to work this while you are doing floor leg stretches.  In a hurdler stretch go to your max stretch range and then actively try to press the back of the leg towards the floor.  Of course you should feel it in the back of the knee but manage the press down.  Over time your range of motion will increase.  I also like to do this while in half-split while pulling the leg forward hip back and heel dug into floor; that really stretches out the back of the leg tremendously.  You can also use your hands to self massage that area intensely to help ease it open.

There is a lot that's going on behind the knee anatomically, and the connections are fairly strong there.

 

From practical experience, I think feeling it behind the knee, with in reason, is not a problem. I've never seen a student blow out there knee from hamstring stretching. However it's common for the origin of the hamstrings, at the sitting bone to tear, you want to be cautious there for sure.

 

One cheat to help take some of it away from the back of the knee is to point your toes. This takes the calf stretch out of the equation. However you don't want to do this forever, ultimately you want to think of 'hamstring' stretching as back of the leg stretching all the way to the heel, or even bottom of the foot.

if the straight legs exercises is too hard for you knee i suggest to you to consider the bent leg hamstring stretch. don't think that bend means not stretch. probably for some areas bent stretch is better, with no pain and you can manage the SNC protection system to preserve your joints.

Do some calf stretches before the hamstring stretches. Worked very well for me, used to have the same problem as OP. For calves I used the stretch where you grab the toes of one leg, straighten the leg while pulling with the hand(s). See the picture below. Try to find the angle where the pressure is on your calves but not that much on hamstrings. 

 

This video shows some good bent leg hamstring stretches.