How to Get Those Cranky Hamstrings to Let Go!

The single biggest flexibility challenge I hear students complain about is their hamstrings.

If you sit at work long hours, drive in the car and most of your physical activity involves some form of walking or running, and you’re of legal age, you have the perfect recipe for tight hamstrings!  Add a little stress and you have a trifecta.

Stress makes muscles tense—preparing them for fight or flight—whether the stress is a deadline or a difficult yoga pose.

If you practice a stressful yoga pose without consciously calming yourself, your muscles—including your hamstrings—will tense up!

Tip #1:

Back off and breathe. Make sure the intensity of the stretch on a scale of 1-10 is a level 6 or 7, no more. When you push too far or too fast into a stretch, special nerve sensors in the muscles send signals to the brain telling it to contract the muscle to prevent it from tearing. Put simply, if you push too hard too fast, you’re just making the job harder.

Tip #2:

Direct the stretch into the belly of the hamstring. If you feel pulling or stretching directly behind the knee or near the sitz bones, you’ll want to redirect it. Start by bending the knee(s) a little and then dog-tilt the pelvis. You may not go any further, but I guarantee you’ll feel the stretch in a whole new healthy way!

Enjoying learning these tips?

If so, it may be time to consider enrolling in my Yoga Teacher Training Program. In it, you’ll learn mat skill secrets to advance your practice and much more. The next one starts July 11th and there are still some seats open.

Then let me know here how your practice is going!

Love and brilliance,

Laurel

 

 

 

 

“You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”
―Steve Maraboli, Live, the Truth and Being Free