Okay, so you’ve got tight Hamstring Exercises. Don’t worry, I’m not going to judge you. I used to have really tight hamstrings as well. I’m going to help guide you through some different progressions for stretching the hamstrings that are perfect for beginners. You know, people who are like, “Forget about touching my toes, I can’t even touch my knees.” Wow, what does this even feel like?
If you enjoy being guided through workouts, then check out our follow-along program called Guided, where you get access to all of our exclusive follow-along stretching, strengthening, and movement routines. Let’s loosen these guys up. Guys, two things I want you to keep in mind while we’re doing these hamstring stretches.
Key Principles
Number one is that it really is so much about the relationship and the coordination of you to be able to keep your pelvis and your spine in the right position to be able to actually access a stretch in these hamstrings, and then going forward,
you can actually use those hamstring gains that you make in just movement, right? Number two is that unless you’re a young kid, chances are your hamstrings are pretty stiff, and we’re going to need to find ways to put more weight into these guys to give them a reason to open up.
Stretch 1: Seated Hamstring Stretch
So this first stretch that we’re going to do, we’re going to be in a seated position. So you can use a chair, you can use a bench at the gym, whatever you have handy. And we’re going to just slightly spread the knees out, kind of like straddling the legs a bit. The knees can stay at about 90 or you could go even a little bit longer there.
But what we’re focusing on is getting this arch through the lower back, really tilting my pelvis forward, and then we’re gonna hinge forward here at the hips, right? And this is gonna teach us how we can actually hinge and get into these hamstrings better, right? So yes, I have my shirt off to show my muscles, of course, but I also have my shirt off to really emphasize what this spine is doing, okay?
So let’s start here. We’re gonna get the chest nice and open and proud, and we’re gonna arch that lower back, and then I want you to hinge forward, only until you can keep that lower back arched. If it starts to round, you’ve gone too far. Right here, I like to even put a hand back there in my lower back to make sure that’s staying arched, right? Breathe. [Music] Good.
And as you’re doing this, just pay attention to what sensations are coming up. You’re probably starting to feel stuff under the under the butt here in this high hamstring area. You’re probably feeling your lower back work to stay arched here, and it resists any rounding here. This is all about this good arch through the lower back to access the hammies, okay? And now, as you go, as you loosen up a bit, you’re gonna be able to get a little bit deeper on each rep.
You know, maybe in the beginning stages, it’s not super deep, maybe you’re only getting right here. That’s totally fine, right? We just want to work to your range of motion and see if we can get the blood flowing there and improve it a little bit each time we do this.
Let’s do one more rep, and we’re going to hold on this one as deep as we can, really arch that lower back, let yourself sink in a little bit more with the breath. [Music] And come on up. Okay, shake that out a little bit.
Now, this is going to be quite demanding, especially the stiffer that your hamstrings are. So the more this puts on your body, you know, the more stress. So this next one, we’re essentially going to follow all the same cues, but we’re going to do it from a standing position. And now, with this lower knee locked out straight, that’s going to put a huge stretch on the hamstrings, right?
But we need to be able to find this good position to actually stretch the hamstrings, right? So what you see more often is that we do this, and if the back rounds, then we’re actually skipping some of this hamstring stretching that we could be getting, okay?
So let’s do it. So we’re gonna go here, you’re gonna kind of stick the butt out like you’re posing for an Instagram picture here. Chest is up, and then we’re going to hinge forward here. Let that chest come really far forward, only go as deep as you can keep that arch in
Stretch 2: Standing Hamstring Stretch
…only go as deep as you can keep that arch in the lower back, then we come up, and I want you to pause for a second before you come up, right? Here, pausing for a quick moment. [Music] Three. Very good. Keep that chest up. Think about that chest going diagonally down, it’s going forward and down, keeping proud posture here. I like to kind of try to tuck my head back.
That really helps keep that whole spine in extension. If we get here, you’re gonna have more tendency to round, right? So keep that head pulled back a little bit, keep those eyes up, and keep those knees locked, right? You’re gonna have the tendency to want to do this, slightly unbend the knee, unlock.
That’s just going to be missing some of the flexibility gains that we could be getting, right? So let’s keep going here. We’re going to do a few more reps, but I want to show you maybe your reps just look like this. Maybe you’re right here, and that’s completely fine.
But as we go, see if you can get a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper. Breathe. Pause. Okay, let’s go this last one. Let’s pause for 10 seconds. [Music] Get to your deepest position. Breathe. Feel the hamstrings. Put your mind in the back of the legs, right here, and just be there. Excellent. Excellent. Yes.
Stretch 3: Squat to Forward Fold
Guys, you can make so many gains with just that stretch right there. You really don’t need anything super super fancy. If you really work with keeping that back arched, you’ll have all the hamstring flexibility that you need, right? Okay. We got one more to go here. So we put a huge emphasis on stretching with the back arched, right? Who is west coast in general hospital?
And that really helps you access a lengthened hamstring position. Now we’re going to actually round the spine purposefully to just really try to get as deep into a forward fold as possible. So this is one of my favorite stretches here. I use this so much. It feels great, and you’re able to access the hamstrings and also the squat position, which is going to be stretching ankles, hips, you know, spine, all this good stuff.
So what we do is we’re going to start by folding forward here, right? Put your hands wherever you can get them on your legs, maybe it’s like right above the knee, maybe it’s the ankle, whatever works. From here, what I want you to do is pull yourself down into a squat like so. Maybe your squat is not super deep, maybe it’s like this.
That’s fine. We’re gonna straighten the knees and I want you to just kind of pull yourself upside down a little bit more, okay? So then we’re gonna go back to the squat, and we pull ourselves into this forward fold a bit more, right? And don’t get discouraged if you look at me and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, no way I can get that.” That’s fine. You can be right here, just pulling yourself down, right?
Straightening the knees all the way and pulling. This is what I talked about in the beginning. We need a little extra force, right? We need to put more load into the hamstrings to get them to respond, right? And maybe as you go, your squat position gets deeper as well, and that’s quite lovely.
And maybe you can start to find a really really deep position for your hamstrings, right? Really pull here. And because we’re standing up, the hamstrings are really really active, and they’re loaded. Now I get nice and deep in that squat, feel it out, pull. Let’s do two more.
Squat, pull yourself down, wherever it is, wherever you’re at. Last one, it’s pausing the squat here for a second, just feel nice deep squat position, feel how good it feels to be down here. And now let’s raise the hips, and straighten the knees, and let’s pull and hold. Breathe. [Music] And relax.
Conclusion
…from where you started and where you finished this routine, then I want to know. Comment below, let me know if you were able to open those up at all. My best advice when working on flexibility is to stay persistent and stay determined. See, when you start a strength training routine, a lot of the time we get these newbie gains where your body just loves it, You contact us here
and you get a lot stronger in the first few months of training. When you’re training for flexibility, it can actually be the opposite. It can take quite a long time to get your body to calm down and to relax into position. But if you keep at it, if you put the months in, then you’ll get there. No doubt. Nobody who stretches consistently stays stiff forever. We all see progress.
It just takes longer than you might want it to. I also want to hear from you guys: what are you having trouble stretching? What is another area of the body that you would like to see a stretching follow-along routine on? If you enjoyed this one, thumbs up, like, like, like, subscribe. I know some of you guys watch Strength Side videos, but you’ve never hit that subscribe button.
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