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Debunked
The hamstrings are three long muscles
(semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris) at the back of
the thighs. Their job is to flex (bend) the knee and extend the hip, though
it might feel at times as if their primary responsibility is to stymie our
attempts to forward fold!
Sitting in chairs, an activity in which these muscles are both inactive and
at their shortest length, is a primary culprit for tight-feeling hamstrings. A
lack of flexibility in and around the hamstrings can cause postural
problems, and can set the stage for spinal disc injury by pulling the ischial
tuberosities (sitting bones) down and forcing a posterior (backward) tilt of
the pelvis. That posterior tilt flattens the curve of the lumbar spine (lower
back), and makes it hard to hinge safely into forward
folds like uttanasana (standing forward fold), prasarita
padottanasana (wide-legged fold), and dandasana (staff pose).
Many practitioners come to yoga hoping to release their hamstrings. After
years of only slight improvement, we may tell ourselves that more
patience and more forward folding is what is required. But classes that
promise to lengthen tight hamstrings through a program of diligent
forward folding may not necessarily lead to the release we are hoping for.
In addition, many of the safeguards often recommended for those with
hamstring limitations or injurieslike bending the knees, sitting on
blankets, or avoiding forward bends altogetherare only part of the whole
picture, and they do not address the imbalances that keep the hamstrings
locked year after year.
a forward fold throughout the whole leg and its connective tissue. Doing
that will often get you out of the repetitive strain cycle.
For self-treatment of hamstring tendonitis, come into a standing forward
fold until you are just above any sensation of pain. For two minutes, hold
your forward fold at that pain-free depth; continue to lengthen the spine,
track your knees toward your middle toes, and relax your weight into each
foot with great sensitivity. Then come back up with a long spine. The twominute hold facilitates tissue remodeling and neuromuscular re-patterning
(leading to enhanced coordination and strength), which will likely allow
you to fold deeper without pain in your next forward fold.
6. As long as I activate my quadriceps when stretching my
hamstrings, the stretch will be safe.
While the inclination to stretch actively instead of passively is a good one,
activating the quadriceps (the muscles at the front of the thighs that work
in opposition to the hamstrings to extend the knee and flex the hip)
guarantees very little. The bones can be misaligned, even with the
contraction of the quadriceps. In this case, the tracking issues will remain
unaddressed, potentially causing limitations and injuries. Rather than
focusing on activating any particular muscle, if you focus first on skeletal
alignment, youll get the muscle engagement for free! By tracking the
bones of the legs and feet during a forward fold, for instance, you will get
the oft-coveted contraction of the vastus medialis (the medial or innermost
quadricep, just above the knee toward the inner thigh)which tends to be
harder for many of us to engage than the other quadricep muscles, but
whose activation can aid in healthy knee alignment.
7. If in a pose like dandasana (staff pose) I cannot lengthen my spine
because of tightness at the back of my thighs, my only recourse is
to sit on a pile of blankets.
Blankets can certainly help you to elongate your spine. But you might
meet with more success by keeping your legs in the traditional pose, while
modifying by walking your hands back and leaning your trunk back. In this
alternative, you retain the advantage of the floor underneath your legs,
which may make it easier for you to align your knees. You will get more
feedback about your knee alignment with your knees on the ground
instead of lifted (as they would be if you were sitting on a stack of
blankets).
From dandasana, try leaning back, walking your hands back as far as you
need to in order to gently curve your lower back in. Bear weight through
all your limbspressing not only your hands, but also your heels and
thighbones into the floorto help you untuck your pelvis, curve your lower
back in gently, and broaden across your collarbones. As in the more
traditional upright version of the pose, aim to move your head and
tailbone to the same imaginary yardstick behind you, and to elongate
them away from each other. Since you are leaning back, the yardstick
has to tip back with you, bringing your head and your tail to a backslanting diagonal line. Here you can practice maintaining your lumbar
curve, and reinforce healthy actions in your feet and legs: Arrange your
feet as though they are pressing against a wall (or better yet, actually do
press them against a wall!), and point your toes and knees straight up.
Gradually, breath by breath, put more weight into your legs and less in
your arms, bringing your spine closer to perpendicular with the earth.
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leg bones. If, as you go down deeper into a fold, you lose the alignment
that anchors you, come back up to re-root and re-lengthen.
10. If I can forward fold easily and deeply, I should always go to the
end of my range, moving as far as possible into every stretch.
Yogis often benefit from less focus on mobility and an increased focus on
stability and formbacking off from end-range stretches, and doing the
humbling work of stabilizing and breathing. Hyperflexible yogis can gird
core strength and benefit their connective tissue by refining the weightbearing in their feet, tracking their knees toward the centerlines of their
feet, and lengthening their spines, in what will feel like midranges of
flexibility to them (at a depth in the pose where they might feel only a hint
of a stretch).
If they are hungry for more sensation there, they can attune themselves to
the feeling of the breath moving in and out of the body, and work to retain
the groundedness of the feet, the tracking of their knees, and the length in
their spineall while allowing the expansion of each inhale and the gentle
contraction of each exhale.