Better Posture for Better Hamstrings?
I’m always looking for tips on helping my hamstrings. Recently, I found the following interesting comment on Metafilter by a person who found improving day-to-day posture helped with flexibility. I hope it helps someone. Better posture can’t hurt regardless!
I had the same problem. I was never able to touch my toes, no matter how much stretching I did. After I developed some serious back problems this year, I started doing physical therapy and Pilates. A few months later, I can touch my toes and my hands go down about 6 inches lower than they ever could.
The one thing that made the difference wasn’t more stretching, it was paying constant attention to my posture throughout the entire day. Here’s what I learned that worked for me:
Your hamstrings are built for strength, but they’re not designed to stay clenched all day. If you spend too much time with your hamstrings contracted, then you’ll never be able to stretch them past a certain length. There are two telltale signs of postures that force you to clench your hamstrings: slouching with your hips forward, and sticking your head out forward of your shoulders. Also check that your seat isn’t too high when sitting. Your chair should let you put your feet flat on the floor.
The solution lies in strengthening your pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles, and using them to maintain your posture. Those muscles are designed to be able to stay slightly contracted all day. When standing, slightly contract your urethra and anus muscles, and you should feel your pelvic floor rise and your lower abdominals move inwards. Make sure your gluteus and your outer abdominals (the “six-pack” muscles) are relaxed. At that point you should be able to relax your hamstrings. It’s hard to stay focused on that all day, but after a couple of weeks of practice it will become more automatic, and you’ll start to notice the difference when you do stretching.
