The Easiest Way to Stretch Tight Hamstring Muscles

The Easiest Way to Stretch Tight Hamstring Muscles
If tight hamstring muscles have been bothering you and the usual stretches don’t seem to be helping, there’s an easy way for you to find relief. All you need is a corner of a wall and your body – that’s it! No equipment required. If you need help with stretching or corrective exercise, please email me at catherine@unlimitedenergynow.com or call 678-612-8816 to set up an appointment. I work both in person in Atlanta and over Skype and can perform a postural assessment to teach you how to heal your body naturally. I can do a postural analysis of your body. I teach you which muscles are short and tight, which muscles are long and weak, and how to bring balance so that you relieve pain, experience more energy, look thinner, stand taller and heal on all levels. Here’s how you do this easy stretch, a one-legged variation of the yoga pose viparita karani: Lie on your back near a corner. Get as close to the wall as you can and swing the leg closest to the wall vertical. Allow the other leg to relax on the other side of the corner. Be sure to flex both feet so that your toes are pointing straight up. Remember, your feet control your hips. If your feet are turned out, your hips will be rotated in the sockets, adversely affecting the alignment of your hamstrings. You want to restore balance by stretching in perfect alignment. Relax 5 minutes and allow gravity to do the work. Be aware that if your hamstrings are in fact super tight you will have to hold the stretch for a long time to allow the muscles, tendons and connective tissue to lengthen. Repeat the stretch on the opposite leg. What’s so great about this stretch: You don’t have to hold yoga straps, which may be a strain on your hands. You can hold the stretch for long enough to allow your hamstring muscles to lengthen. If you want to change your hamstrings for good, you may need to hold the stretch 5 minutes every day until your problem is resolved for good. Once you have relaxed for 5 minutes on each side in this viparita karani variation, you may be able to proceed to using a yoga strap. Your hamstrings include three muscles that originate at your sitting bones and run down the back of your thigh just behind your knee: Semimembranosis Semitendinosis Biceps femoris, which is the most commonly injured Be aware that if your hamstrings are in fact super tight, you may injure yourself if you stretch incorrectly. If this is the case, I recommend you: DON’T do a seated forward fold on your own. DON’T do standing forward fold without professional guidance. You would need props and instruction in modifications from a highly trained yoga teacher such as myself to practice seated forward fold or standing forward fold without further straining your hamstrings or injuring the vertebrae in your back. Once you have done one leg up the wall on each side, you may want to finish with traditional legs against the wall pose. Here’s one of my clients with very tight hamstrings and an injured back doing a variation of viparita karani. By practicing one leg up the wall for five minutes each side, followed by stretching with a yoga strap and finishing up with double legs up the wall, over time you can conquer your tight hamstrings safely and easily. Benefits of stretching your hamstrings include: Back pain relief Knee pain relief Better body mechanics when walking, running or jumping Improved posture If you need help with stretching or corrective exercise, please email me at catherine@unlimitedenergynow.com or call 678-612-8816 to set up an appointment. I work both in person in Atlanta and over Skype and can perform a postural assessment to teach you how to heal your body naturally. Original article and pictures take http://unlimitedenergynow.com/the-easiest-way-to-stretch-tight-hamstring-muscles-3/ site