"Why are my hamstrings always tight?" - 3 tips to help with tightness

If your hamstrings (or any muscle for that matter) always feel tight, no matter what you seem to do, then you need to better understand what tightness really is.

If you struggle with touching your toes or feel stiff every time you reach down to tie your shoes or pick up a box, listen up.

1. Understand that tightness isn't what you think.

It doesn’t mean your muscle is short and you need to lengthen it, or longer, so you need to train it and tighten it, or that it's a knot, and you need to release it. These are all incorrect according to the research. It's not a sign of what's structurally happening inside a muscle.

Tightness is a nervous system problem, a signal from your brain trying to protect you from overextending. So don't interpret it as something being wrong with your muscles...

2. Instead, interpret tightness as a sign of sensitivity

Think to yourself, why do my hamstrings feel tight in this position? It's a sign to do something different. For example, we can get that sensitivity when we're still for too long. You can easily change that up by moving. That's why stretching and strength training can help and feel good.

The way you do this doesn't matter as much as you think. I'm not a big fan of traditional stretching, so I get more of my movement through strength work, running, and carrying my daughter around.

How you move matters less than simply getting the movement in.

This sensitivity can happen for a variety of reasons, the most common being an intolerance to a certain position. If your hamstrings feel tight when reaching down to tie your shoes, it could be that your hamstrings are not used to being in that position often enough and are tightening up in an effort of your nervous system to protect you.

The answer is similar to the previous example: get your hamstring moving and more familiar with that particular position, and that will relieve that tightness.

What can happen in these situations is that we do too much for a tight area.

3. Sometimes, your answer is to leave it alone

We don’t always need to poke and prod at a tight area, and sometimes it can make it worse. Oftentimes, we go overboard with stretching, rolling, and attacking a tight area in hopes of getting release, causing even more sensitivity.

Remember that this tightness is a protective response from your nervous system. It's there for a reason and isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Sometimes we just need to step back and let the sensitivity go away on its own. This is particularly hard for me sometimes because I always want to "solve" my body's problems with some action on my part, and want it done asap.

But the sensitivity can be a short-term thing that goes away on its own. Like a soreness that you feel after a tough workout, it can resolve itself with time.

Regardless of where or why you feel tight, these three tips are universally true and will help guide you to relief.

To your good health,

Coach Stephen

---

 P.S.

Whenever you’re ready, here are a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free:

Instagram: @CoachStrumos

*I share tons of bite-sized lessons and tips here

Paid:

1-on-1 Pain Management and Strength Coaching: Apply here