Last week’s episode on stretching hamstrings was only the tip of the iceberg. From now on let’s just call them hammies. If you have overly stiff and tight hamstrings it could be for any number of reasons.

Inactivity is one. You sit around all day. At your computer, in your car, in front of the TV. On the other side of the coin it could be too much of one thing. Exercise for example. Runners (as I was ) have some of the tightest hammies on Earth. Why? Because running is a one sided exercise that repeats the same movement over and over again.  Which of course is a convincing reason to include supplemental exercises in your routine if you are a runner wouldn’t you say? Overly tight hammies will slow you down you know.

Age is another. As you and I age muscles and tendons slowly lose that “elasticity.” So now you have en excuse. Something to blame your stiffness on as you hit 50 right? I say ha! Not so I say.  You don’t have to end up creaking around like the rusted old Tin Man. You really, truly don’t.  If you know what to do. Next…………

Weakness. If I had to list the top 5 aspects of life that people today are missing then strength would be near the top. Weakness is rampant in our world. I mean adults with the strength of a child.  Trust me here. I have had many adults in my classes who are so weak that it is amazing that they don’t hurt more than they already do. One way weakness makes for overly tight hammies is “core” weakness. That word gets thrown around all over the place these days. It is much easier to call it your abs, back and hips. These are like the mast of your ship, and if it is weak then it puts strain on the other parts of your ship. Sometimes it could be weakness in certain “core” muscles. It would be like the mast of your ship flopping around in the wind. You could never get your boat to go where you wanted it to go. No stability in the mast.  Your hammies would then either have to try and take up the slack all day or stay in a shortened position all day. Either way they get tight.  Many people (like Jen in Episode 6) think they have very flexible hammies and never feel a stretch back there until they are shown how. Then they feel it in a whole different way. The reason is the same. Weakness.

One more. For whatever reason your hammies are “switched on” all day. Even when they shouldn’t be. Some of you out there may bend over to pick a box up off the floor and your hammies are still “on” as you bend over. This is the time when they should be relaxing though! How do you fix this one? Stay tuned for more episodes to find out.

Overly tight hammies will get in the way of efficient exercise, make your back sore, give your knees problems and may even eventually be pulled or torn. If that has ever happened to you then I am pretty sure you don’t want to go through that again. I know I wouldn’t. Just bending over to pick something up off the floor can make you feel like a rusted, old Tin Man or Tin Woman, once you have tight hammies.  Stiff hips, low back, ankles, thighs…..it’s no fun AND it doesn’t have to be that way. If overly tight hammies are a bugaboo of yours then start with the basics. Practice the stretches in Epiosde 6. See what happens. Let us know. Leave a comment and tell us if you discovered just how tight your hammies really are. You may be surprised.

Best,

Robert