Wherever you are right now – stand up.
Feel your feet on the floor, and notice if you are favoring
your heels more than your toes, or vice versa.
If you’re favoring your toes, what do you notice about the
front of your thighs (the quadriceps muscle group). Do they feel tight like they are working all
the time?
If you’re favoring your heels, what do you notice about the
back of your thighs (the hamstring muscle group)? Do they feel tight like they
are working all the time?
There are many reasons that muscle groups become tight – and
they can get locked long (overstretched), or short (overuse). If you favor your toes, then your hamstrings
are probably locked long, and your quads are probably locked short. If you favor your heels, the opposite is
likely the case.
When your muscles get locked tight and short, the fascia
supporting these muscles continues to add more fascia to support the overuse
pattern. With stretching, that fascia
can loosen up and allow the muscles to carry less tone (and less tension for
you).
There are many types of hamstring stretches (in yoga,
pilates, etc); most of these exercises stretch what I call the action fibers of the
muscles. These are the fibers that are
ready to go at a moment’s notice.
But muscles have another type of fiber, too, which I like to
call postural fibers. These muscle fibers are working all the time
to keep you from falling down – sort of like the background music that sets
your mood (overall tone in your body).
Even if you do hamstring stretches as part of your daily
routine, you may find that your hamstrings still feel tight. In this case, it’s
possible that you need to lengthen the postural fibers. Postural fibers respond to slow, willful
movements so that your nervous system has a chance to respond to the new
conversation you are introducing. This
can lead to lasting change.
While some of you may have tried to loosen your hamstrings
and quadriceps by stretching your ITB (Ilio-tibial Band)—myself included—this
is counter-productive as this article nicely describes (http://thebodymechanic.ca/2012/03/17/stop-foam-rolling-your-it-band-it-can-not-lengthen-and-it-is-not-tight). The ITB is a band of thickened connective tissue that is meant to provide balance between the quads and the hamstrings. Trying to change the ITB affects the equal sign (=, or rather the < or > sign), but doesn't affect either side of the equation (ie, the quads
or hamstrings). Thus, if there is an imbalance before foam rolling, that imbalance will likely remain after foam rolling.
The rest of this article describes one of my favorite
exercises for lengthening the postural fibers of the hamstrings. In addition, a colleague, Lu Mueller-Kaul,
writes about one type of hamstring postural fiber stretch on her blog (http://lumuellerkaul.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/tight-hamstrings/ ; she has made this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPWekWTFXKM&feature=youtu.be).
This is a great passive exercise.
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Mobilizing the Origin
of the Hamstrings
(courtesy of Lael Katherine Keen)
You need a surface/floor upon which it is possible to slide.
Start seated on the floor, with knees bent, feet on the
wall (works best on a wood or tile floor). Place a folded blanket (or towel) under your sitbones:
With your feet still on the wall, have a friend slowly and
lightly pull on the blanket, allowing your pelvis to slide backwards—using the
hamstrings insertion as the fixed point of the stretch and mobilizing the
origin. Continue sliding back until the shortness in the hamstrings begins to
show up. If the hamstrings are quite short, they will prevent the knee from
fully straightening. If they are a little longer, the client’s legs will
straighten but his back will get pulled short from below.
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After you’ve tried this exercise, stand up. What do you notice about how you stand on
your feet, and how the front and back of your thighs feel? Hopefully, you’ll feel more balance in your feet
and your thighs. Another test, if you’re
having trouble noticing any different sensation is to bend forward to touch
your toes: does the tension in the back
of your thighs/calves feel different?
Posture is an ongoing and dynamic activity in our life that
fees on our activities, relationships, and work. The postural fibers in our muscles, as the
background music/tone of our body are a major key to maintaining our overall
posture, especially as we get older.
