SITTING A LOT? LOW BACK PAIN? Let’s look at your hamstrings!

(Slide 1) Your hamstrings consist of 3 muscles that attach from your sit bone (ischial tuberosity) and insert into your tibia.

SO, tightness in this muscle can cause a disturbance in your lumbopelvic rhythm by rotating the pelvis into posterior pelvic tilt, resulting in a flat back lumbar spine → low back pain. [1]

Your muscles consist of sarcomeres, the contractile units, so as you contract your muscles, the actin and myosin filaments within the sarcomere overlap. In contrast, stretching a muscle will then elongate the sarcomere pulling the actin and myosin further from one another. As the sarcomeres lengthen, so do the muscle spindles, which send a signal to your brain to familiarize itself with the stretch signals. (2)

Research has proven that 10 minutes of stretching display improvements in hamstring muscle length with significance in pain reduction during work and rest compared to those who solely performed strengthening exercises. (1)

Here’s an exercise to try at home! Find a doorway and lie on the floor. Have one leg through the door to place your opposite leg on the wall. Keep that knee STRAIGHT but start slowly; it’s okay to begin your butt further away from the wall. Find a tolerable distance away from the wall but still feel that stretch. The great thing about this stretch is that you can do some work on your phone or watch TV while you stretch each leg. Don’t be afraid to break the stretch into shorter intervals, just aim for 10 minutes each leg per day!