54. Do You Really Have Tight Hamstrings?

“A lot of times we find people start to strengthen rather than just stretch, and wouldn’t you know it, their symptoms start to change. Their symptoms start to go away, because strengthening through the range of motion can actually help you provide more mobility and more length through the tissue,” explains host Dr. Andrew Fix.Today, Dr. Andrew talks about common issues like low back pain and sciatica and getting to the root cause rather than only focusing on the symptoms. 

 

People frequently seek out physical therapy when stretching fails to relieve symptoms for what they refer to as tightness in their hamstring. In reality, ‘tight’ is a slang term and the root of the symptoms is unlikely to be tense or shortened muscles that need to be lengthened through stretching. In some cases stretching can actually cause more pain and problems long term due to irritating the nerves. And oftentimes, the root cause is actually coming from the pelvis or the lower lumbar region of the spine rather than the hamstrings themselves. 

 

If you feel like you have a ‘tight’ hamstring, it may indicate an underlying issue that would benefit from physical therapy to strengthen and stabilize the deep muscles of your core. By finding and working on the root of the pain, you can begin to see improvements in the symptoms. 

 

Quotes

• “We hear the story that someone is stretching and stretching and stretching their hamstrings over and over and over again. And unfortunately, they are not always getting the results that they're expecting or hoping for, because the hamstring is not the root of the issue, it is the symptom.” (8:19-9:07 | Dr. Andrew) 

• “A lot of times we find people start to strengthen rather than just stretch, and wouldn’t you know it, their symptoms start to change. Their symptoms start to go away, because strengthening through the range of motion can actually help you provide more mobility, more length through the tissue.” (15:07-15:24 | Dr. Andrew)

• “If you've been stretching it over and over and over again, do you really have short hamstrings? Do you really have tight hamstrings that need to be stretched out? Or is it possible that the issue that you're actually dealing with could be something else?” (19:15-19:30 | Dr. Andrew) 

 

Links

 

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