Probably a good idea to stretch ALL of your muscles… But for someone who has been limber most of her life, a two-year-minimal-yoga running stint, did some damage to my hamstrings and I am forever paying for it. So if you are tight in your hamstrings or just tight period, I feel your pain.
The reason why I’m writing a post specifically about hamstrings, is because your hamstrings affect two major joints in the body: the hips and the knees, but the repercussions hit the body from head to toe… So they are a really good muscle to focus on if you are short on time.
Your hamstrings originate from your ischial tuberosities (in yoga we call them sitting bones), they traverse the entire back length of your thighs, and insert on the bones part of your lower legs (where the calf muscles sit). There’s a lot of tendons involved which come from the bellies of the 3 part muscles that make up your hamstring allowing for this insertion into the lower leg bones… which I won’t go into because I’m not a doctor and don’t want sound like one, and also because we probably just want to focus on the cause (tight hamstrings) and effect (coming right up next).
Here’s the effect of tight hamstrings: a downward pull on your pelvis will occur which then basically gets your hips out of balance, and can cause major issues right at the joints in the lumbar spine and sacroiliac. Furthermore, tight hamstrings can pull on the tendon below your knee cap and cause tendonitis there (i.e. majorly affect your knees- which as we know when we grow older, they become a precious commodity).
Not to scare you… but tight hamstrings can cause injuries all the way down to your ankles up through your upper cervical spine (think about it- if every thing is out of alignment how are your bones going to stack as they were meant to- keeping resistance minimal? lack of alignment causes stress on the tendons within the joints and the bones themselves).
There are tons of stretches out there, but if you want to focus on your hamstrings in your yoga practice- that’s where I can help!
As always, you can contact me if want help on getting into those poses.
Light and love to you!
Your Coach-
Alexis
Comentarios