Yoga & Hamstrings

No, it's not a new cop show. It's how having tight hamstrings can make it a challenge to reach correct alignment in many yoga poses like like seated or standing forward bends. It also impacts standing poses like Triangle pose, Reverse Triangle, and the Downward Dog.

People with tight hamstrings also struggle to sit with proper alignment in simple seated poses on the floor like Staff pose because the hamstrings pull the pelvis into a backward tilt, rounding and putting strain on the lower back.

Without correct alignment, not only is your practice less rewarding, the risk of injury is greater. When your hamstrings are tight, it tends to lock your pelvis, so you don't move as freely. As a result, many people end up overworking their low back.

While tight hamstrings are common among beginning yoga students, many advanced yoga students who are very flexible in their hamstrings, often stretch in ways that can cause injury, especially where the hamstrings attach to the sitting bones. Flexible yoga students tend to particularly overstretch the hamstrings on the inner leg. This can eventually cause tears at the hamstring tendons at the inner knee or at the sitting bones, resulting in mild or sometimes more severe injury, an increasingly common problem. Injuries to tendons and ligaments can last a long time if they are not treated properly.

Here's a quick test to determine how flexable your hamstrings are:

Lie on you back with your legs stretched out, arms by your side. Raise your right leg towards the ceiling keeping your foot gently flexed.

If your leg easily reaches straight up towards the ceiling (with the sole of your foot facing the ceiling), your hamstrings are normal. If your leg reaches further than that, towards your face and upper torso, your hamstrings are very flexible. Good for you!

However, if your raised leg forms less than a 90-degree angle to the floor, e.g. at an angle more like 60 degrees, 45 degrees or even 30 degrees in relation to the floor, you have tight hamstrings. Ok, don't panic...try bending your left knee and put the left foot on the floor, and then again reach the right leg towards the ceiling. You will see that the right leg now is able to reach further up towards the ceiling.

The reason is that your pelvic bowl now is tilted slightly back, shortening the distance between the hamstring attachments, and giving you a bit more slack. Try the other side also, as many people are more flexible on one side than the other.

A recent study in the American Journal of Physiology suggests that lack of flexibility might even be linked to cardiovascular disease. Improving flexibility with stretching, yoga, or Pilates should be integrated as part of a complete exercise routine.

SmartToes Toe Stretchers and Straightener unique design are beneficial to stretching your hamstrings, as well as, hammer toe and hammer toe treatment and bunion treatment.

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