Hamstring exercise may cause more problems than it is supposed to resolve! Why? Whilst strength is important, coordination is vital. If your hamstring muscles contract when they should be releasing they will lose the tug of war with your stronger quadriceps - result is alot of pain and discomfort for some time to come. Many sports people take many months or even years to fully recover, although many will never trust them again.

You have probably entered hamstring exercise into a search engine and may have been to numerous sites before this one. When I searched I found hundreds of exercises that will show you how to strengthen them. But if yours is injured now it probably wasn't because it was weak in the first place. It is most likely poor coordination that caused it to fire at the wrong time and pulled.

Training your hamstrings to let go

If you are not injured but are looking to prevent an injury by using a hamstring exercise, ask yourself is it weak? How would I know? Do I really need to develop strength in my hamstring? Depending on your sport or main activity you will use these muscles differently. A runner has different requirements from them compared to a rower or a swimmer.

I would argue that few people really need any great strength in this muscle group because in most cases the function they perform is just to lift the lower leg - it doesn't weight that much. Yet if you look at a hamstring exercise using gym equipment, how often would you lift weights lying on your front with you lower leg? Not that often.

So what are you training that muscle to do? It will be conditioned to work too hard and more likely to kick in when you don't need it and cause itself an injury. It doesn't matter how strong it is because it will never win a tug of war with your quads. So rather than working on its strength I work on training it to let go. This reduces resistance to the leg swing and makes life easier for your quads also. So here is a hamstring exercise with a difference. You are going to learn to let it go!

---

Exercise

1. Sit on the edge of a table and let your legs hang over the side.

2. Bring one leg back and then let go to allow it to swing forward.

3. Repeat on the other side

4. Now let both legs alternate with minimal effort and appreciate the movement at the knee.

Fairly simple! Its something you probably did as a child when the chairs we too big. But its incredibly useful to maintain this thought when you walk or run. When your foot comes off the floor let it swing through like a pendulum. The more you can learn to let go and be aware of the location of the hip, knee and ankle joints you will be able to release unnecessary effort and allow the muscles to let go when the opposite quads are firing.

Experimenting with running technique to reduce injury

---

Is Your Neck Causing Your Hamstring Problems?

This may sound like an odd question but the most sensitive muscles you have in your body are at the back of your neck. This sub-occipital group of muscles help to coordinate all muscle actions and if you are tightening your neck when you move this can cause muscles to fire at the wrong time.

A study found that by stretching these neck muscles the range of movement (ROM) in the hip joints increased and the hamstring muscles gained length*.

* A Study of Two Stretching Techniques for Improving Hip Flexion Range of Motion Henry Pollard and Graham Ward (Abstract from: Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapies, September 1997;20:443-447.)

If you watch someone doing a hamstring exercise in the gym they are usually stiffening their neck to do it. This sets up a bad habit that will cause problems later on.

I don't ask you to stretch your neck muscles, my programs will help you to stop tightening them inappropriately. So hamsting problems may be due to a pain in the neck!

Try another alternative hamstring exercise
Hip pain is another symptom of poor coorindation. Here is another procedure for you to try.

Want to ask a question? My view of what fitness means and how it can be attained is different to the conventional approach. If there is anything on this page that you would like to follow up please feel free to contact me

Copyright www.fitness-programs-for-life.com hamstring exercise