If you’ve ever struggled to touch your toes and just blamed ‘short’ or ‘tight’ hamstrings, it’s likely you’ve tried stretching them out to solve the problem – and usually, without much success.

The poor old hamstrings are a very misunderstood group of muscles, and while the solution to tightness or shortness may seem straightforward, you’re probably way off base – and ignoring some underlying problems.

Where are my hamstrings?

The hamstrings are at the back of your legs. They originate at your pelvis, run down the back of your thigh bone (femur) and attach to the back of your knee.

You have three hamstring muscles grouped together – the semitendinosus, the semimembranosus and the biceps femoris. Their main responsibility is to bend the knee (knee joint flexion) and move the upper leg backwards (hip extension).

They also play a part in rotation of the knee, standing and bending forward at the hips and they assist in straightening out the lower curve of the spine when sitting.

The non-stretching solutions

Don’t get us wrong, stretching absolutely has its place in keeping the body supple, agile and working like a well-oiled machine, but quite often tight hamstrings can’t just be stretched out, because the problem stems from somewhere else. Here are four ways to reduce tightness in your hamstrings:

1. BUILD YOUR GLUTES

When the glutes (your butt muscles) are weak, the hamstrings end up doing their job and in return can end up overworked and overloaded, tight and at risk of injury.

What to do: Strengthening the glutes to ease the burden on the hamstrings. You could start with a weightlifting exercise.

2. RELEASE TIGHTNESS IN YOUR HIP FLEXORS

Hip flexors contract and release every time we sit down and stand up. If the hip flexors are in a constant tight state, the opposing muscle groups that are also responsible for hip extension take the burden of their work – in this case, overworking the hamstrings.

What to do: Open up through the front of the hips to release hip flexor tightness and give the hamstrings a break. Try a Yoga Flow class to build strength and release tension.

3. STRENGTHEN YOUR CORE

When the core is weak, the spine and the pelvis can struggle to maintain stable, neutral positions. This is when all other surrounding muscle groups kick into action to help, including the hip flexors, the lower back and the hamstrings, resulting in tightening up of all areas.

What to do: Increase core strength to support the spine and the pelvis and avoid overwork of the lower back muscles, hip flexors and hamstrings. Give a boxing workout a try. They’re not just great cardio, but also great for strengthening the core.

4. CORRECT ANTERIOR PELVIC TILT

When all of the above – weak glutes, tight hip flexors and a weak core – come into play together, it can cause an anterior pelvic tilt, having further effect on the hamstrings.

A major culprit for this? Prolonged sitting – an aspect of modern life we just can’t avoid these days.

Prolonged sitting can cause:

  • weakness in the glutes because they are inactive while you sit
  • tightness in the hip flexors because a seated position contracts them for long periods of time
  • the core to weaken, as it doesn’t need to put much effort in to sit down

These together cause anterior pelvic tilt, and the hamstrings become the victim.

What to do: Follow all the exercise solutions for each of those individual issues – and move more! When you need an all-in-one body-strength starting point, try a foundation training workout.