Video and Transcript: Hamstring Stretches for Hypermobile Patients

Hi, everyone! Dr. Orit Hickman here. And, today’s video is going to address how to stretch your hamstrings if you are hypermobile. 

So, the hamstring muscles are infrequently tight. So, a lot of people will feel like the hamstrings are really tight. They’re not always tight. And, in a population of patients that have hypermobility or hyperflexibility, a lot of times, they’ll feel these muscles are tight and really want to stretch them. 

So, if you suspect your muscles are tight, this video is for you. If you’re not sure, check out my video in which I actually explain that you could have tightness, nerve irritability, or muscle weakness, and look at some of those exercises as options first if you’re not sure. But, if you’ve been to a PT and you’ve had your hamstrings looked at and it turns out you do actually have hamstring muscle tightness, then I want to talk about how you isolate that muscle specifically to get flexibility or stretch in it. 

So, the hamstrings come from the back of the hip or the lower part of the pelvis and then they come down behind the knees. Because of their attachment points, it’s very important that your pelvis be in the correct position to get hamstring stretching. So, a lot of times, what patients will do is they will sit with their legs like this. And, you can see I’m rounded in my low back. My pelvis is actually tilted back. And then, they lean forward, and they go, “Well, I don’t feel really a lot of stretch.” So, in order to isolate the hamstrings, it’s actually very, very important that the pelvis is in the right position. 

Now, I do not have hypermobility, so watching me do this, you’re probably going to say, “I have a lot more mobility than that.” And, I’m like, “Yes. You do. I’m not hypermobile. I am actually pretty tight in my muscles and in my joints.” And so, the-what you see here is I’m-you’re going to want to-you’re going to want to listen to my words a little bit more than watch my body. 

But, ideally, what you would do is you would actually do this on a mat table, so a table where you can have one leg off. And then, you can bring your pelvis as tall and as forward as possible. And, I don’t know if you can see this, but, as soon as I bring my pelvis way, way up here, my knee actually bends because that’s how tight it is behind my leg right now. So, I don’t have to go very far to get a stretch. For those of you who have hypermobility, you might find that you can-you can get into this position very easily with your legs straight. 

So, what you want to do, again, is you want to tilt your pelvis forward because, as soon as you tilt your pelvis forward, your hamstrings, which attach on the underside of your pelvis, on the lower part of your pelvis, are actually going to get into a stretched position. So, tilt that pelvis forward. Sit up really, really nice and tall. So, you almost want to think about pushing your belly button forward. And, as soon as you do this, you might start to feel a stretch behind your hamstring. 

If you don’t, then what you want to do is you want to make sure that your knee is totally straight and pushed down into the surface. Again, pelvis is up. Pelvis is forward. Knee is straight. And then, what you would do is you would lean forward, keeping your belly button pushing forward, keeping yourself nice and tall and stretched out. So, if you do that, you should start to feel a stretch behind your hamstrings. 

I’m going to do this on the other side. My right leg is getting a workout today. So, again, I’m trying to keep my pelvis-and, just so you know, even though my leg is on the ground, I’m trying to keep my pelvis forward so that there is a 90° angle between my pelvis and my leg right now. So, I’m not rotated away because if I do that I’m going to feel more of a stretch in my inner thigh, my adductors. My goal is to isolate the hamstrings, so I’ve got to turn my pelvis forward, so there’s a 90° angle right now between my leg and my pelvis. And then, I bring my pelvis up, so I rotated forward a little bit. Tailbone is back. Trunk is tall, and my leg is straight. Well, my leg is not straight, but your leg is straight. And, you keep yourself nice and tall. And then, you try to lean forward from that position. Again, staying really, really nice and tall in the trunk. And, that should get you a stretch in your hamstrings. 

Here’s the thing: if you do this and you don’t get a stretch in your hamstrings, your hamstring muscles potentially are not actually tight. And, they could be-it could be that you have some sciatic nerve irritation (it doesn’t like being stretched) or that your hamstrings are weak, and they need strength rather than flexibility.

So, that is one way. There are other ways, of course, to try and isolate and target those hamstrings. If you find that doing one leg at a time [is] not getting it done, you can go to two legs. But, again, I’m not a good example of this. Right? Because I can only do this in this position. I cannot be straight in my trunk because it’s just my hamstrings and my legs are too tight. So, you really have to work very, very hard to get your trunk up. I do at least. I have to work really hard to get my trunk really, really tall and my pelvis forward. As soon as I do that, I feel a lot of pulling behind my hamstrings. 

But, the key to getting a good hamstring length-or a good hamstring stretch is your pelvis position. If your pelvis is rocked back and you try to lean forward, you’re really not going to be isolating those hamstring muscles. So, pelvis needs to be tilted forward. You need to be sitting up really, really, really nice and tall. And then, try to lean forward from that position.

Let me know how it goes. If you find this video was helpful, I’d love a thumbs-up. Any comments below I’ll make sure to answer. And, if you want, please go ahead and subscribe, and then you can get more videos like this one. Have a great day!