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Hi, I have a pain in my hamstring around this reigion where it says hamstring tendon: The pain is most easily activated doing the "elephant walk" stretch from one of the stretch series. The pain is on my left side, and when I do the stretch shifting my hips to the right to stretch the left, it is easily felt. Also when doing a stretch like this: And front splits as well, mostly near the bottom ROM. This is not the first time I have had this pain, I have recovered and had it re-injured a few times now. What frustrates me the most about it is it always takes several weeks to months to heal and at the time of injury, I feel nothing. There is not sign of injury like a pull or snap. I always stretch to what I feel is within my boundaries, and there is no excruciating pain/discomfort during the session prior. I guess what I would like to know is what exactly have I injured, what can be done to rehab it faster, and what can then be done to prehab it in the future.

Hey everyone, I've been stalking these forums for a while but this is my first post - wish it was a little better in nature, lol. I was stretching about 3 weeks ago, warming up in the pancake position, where i generally have very good mobility and can usually get chest to deck with my legs at about 90 degrees. Anyway, i was moving side to side, getting in the corners, messing with pelvic tilts, and i heard/felt a pop. I got up, did a squat, no pain. Now 3 weeks later it's still tight. I squatted a week after the "injury" - if you want to call it that, it's just moderate tension. On a pain scale of 1-10 its about a 2 or a 3 (1 being an itch, 10 being i'm going to black out). I probably shouldn't have squatted, but from my googling, it said that if it was a grade 2 or 3 tear, i would have had a loss of strength, but i squatted pretty much near my lifetime max, which i know now i probably shouldn't have. I only "feel it" when i get into a deep Cossack squat, or a pancake - which now I avoid because I don't want to aggravate it. I've been icing and using a heat rub intermittently. I think it's either my right semitendinosis or maybe right semimembranosis - my guess is a minor strain, maybe a small tear. Its under my glute, in towards my groan, and localized ot Does it sound like that to you guys? I've since not stretched really, i do pike hangs and calf stretches, but avoid the area i "injured" but still train my upper body and levers and planches. What are your thoughts? Should I stretch, avoid stretching, ice it? Heat it? Take it easy or take time off completely? Its more tension and a bother than pain, and I do have a "loss in precieved mobility" but thats probably because I dont want to do a pancake fully and completely tear something. I have virtually no tension once I'm warmed up, but I've avoiding training lower body, jumping, and pistols - I do however, still practice judo and Krav Maga. Any input, help, or anecdotes are appreciated. thanks!

Hello everyone I've suffered a hamstring injury about 1 year ago doing a front split. After that, it was about 9 months of pain and restricted movement.. About three/four months ago, the injury started to get better as I started to strengthen the muscle group (mostly with hamstring curls and hip thrusts). It got better to a point where I would not feel acute pain sitting for long periods (what used to happen on the first 9 months) or doing any kind of leg extension.. But even though it got better, in some movements i still feel like there is a lock on my hamstring, a feeling of tightness that stops me from doing some exercises.. On the pictures, as you can see, I perform two different hamstring stretches: The single leg pike and the head to toe. On the single leg pike, I can barely touch the floor, as in the head to toe, I can progress much better (with some pain still).. It's worth to mention that I don't feel pain anymore doing the splits, but I do feel a little bit of a lock stopping me from touching the floor on it. Appreciate any help.

This is only afffecting my left leg. During exercise 17, hamstring lunge and variations, I am experienced knee pain. As I push my body away from my left foot and straighten my leg, in order to intensify the stretch in my hamstring, I begin to feel a growing pain on the lateral and medial aspect of my knee. I don't feel a stretch in my hamstring at all prior to feeling the pain or during it. I'm guessing this could be due to calf tightness or just by me over doing the stretch and not taking enough rest? I also feel this sensation when I, from a standing position, flex at the waist and place my palms on the floor. When I begin to extend my knees I feel the same sensation. With no sensation in my gluteus or hamstrings.

Hey everyone- first time posting! I’m a recreational aerialist (silks) and train with apparatus 2x week, stretch 1x week and do some light cardio or additional strength building whenever time allows. Last February I tore my hamstring in pancake, a position that has never felt natural to me- there is something with rotating my pelvis and activating the deep core muscles that my body just does not want to do. Couple that with my flexible back and I have a lifetime of stretching in pike/ pancake with a rounded spine I am trying to undo. My instructor was giving me a small push on my back- I felt like I was at the upper ROM, but didn’t feel pain or above average discomfort. I then I heard a huge pop and my sits bone dropped. Of course I clenched and that’s probably where the damage was done. In hindsight we were maybe too aggressive and I was physically cold (Chicago winters, yuck). I took it easy but never stopped training or stretching. I modified. It feels like the hamstring itself is healed but there is some underlying issue with my glute that seems to be aggravating the sciatic nerve. The nerve on that side is constantly irritated and feels stuck. I floss daily, which helps but it feels like there is a wall I cannot move past. Some days it feels like the nerve is so tight it could snap. Some days I have tingles in my foot. Some days it feels pretty good. Before the tear I was making nice progress with pike and pancake, but I have hit a plateau that I would like to try and work though. There are so many moves in silks that I can't do nicely because I can't get that pike compression to happen, I wanted to get either the pancake or pike programs but wasn't sure which would be best to focus on first. Thanks!!

Nice meeting you all, this is Czon from Hong Kong and this will be my first post! I have this pain at the back of my leg close to my hip for about 5 months now, the sensation is like something tearing apart inside, I can pinpoint the position of the sensation. Now I cannot get to front split, pike and pancake due to the pain. Pain also appears when i bend over and lift my leg up (less when the leg is bent) I have been trying with different stretches, and needle work, but so far without much success, and the condition fluctuates. I dug into some older posts and I will add to my routine: "sit on the floor, and get that lacrosse ball in the right spot, and then do the one-leg bent-leg hamstring stretch (hold the working leg's foot; pull body onto thigh, slowly straighten leg; other leg folded out to the side). As soon as you even begin to stress that area (at the front of the ischial tuberosities, I am guessing) the ball will target exactly the fascia that's needed. As soon as you feel that, stop, and simply stay there. You can add small movements too, if you want (will distract you from the pain AND work the fascia)." , and report back on my progress. This bothers me quite a bit and my judgement on what to do, how much i should do maybe clouded by my eagerness to get better soon. If there is any comment, suggestions or recommendations please feel free to let me know!

https://yogainternational.com/article/view/10-hamstring-myths-debunked (I cant correct the spelling of Hmstring - hope you work it out.)

I was doing the E3 - Relaxed lunge from Master the Squat yesterday for the first time. After I extended the stretched leg, when I went for the C-R (try to drive the straight leg forward), I contracted the hamstring of the same, extended leg, which resulted in an immediate, intense hamstring cramp. It's only on my right hamstring that a 5-10 second cramp would produce soreness and tightness for me, and for multiple days at that. The soreness and tightness feels like it's only at a very specific, targeted area in my hamstrings. This has happened to me before at the gym while doing TRX or valslide hamstring curls, still only on my right leg. Walking, self-myofascial release, and stretching seem to help it recover, but it is a stubborn sonofabitch. Does anyone have any theories as to what is going on under the covers?

I find a good way to stretch muscles like the hamstrings is to get them as tired as possible first. When they feel like jelly, they go into a stretch well and dont pull back as hard. For this, in my classes, we have been doing squats. For the younger age group (20s), in the splits class, we do many repeated squats in sets of 20. If any had knee problems they would hold the squat for the same length of time, though I personally do not like held squats as much (it doesnt feel as if its doing so much good, somehow). In my classes for older people (40-70s), where more have knee or other problems, we do a single 30 sec held squat. Those who don't like this might just do a wall sit. Squats and in particular repeated squats have the problem that a poor pattern of movement might damage the knee - I watch for this, but even so it may happen to some extent anyway. It would be nice to avoid them for this reason, if possible. A couple of days ago a member of the older class said he never got much out of the held squat - it wasnt working his hamstrings much (or at all). It was instead working his quads hard. This is in spite of my instructions to keep as much weight as possible over the heels. In experimenting with variations on myself, it seems the quads always come in hard whatever one does, and the hamstrings are often not contracting particularly hard. Someone who has a certain ingrained pattern of body movement may I guess not use the hamstrings much at all, in spite of trying to. The class member suggested why not do leg curls instead (as taught by his physio). Stand on one leg, and repeatedly bend the other knee, lifting the heel as high as possible towards the calf. Though this indeed works the hamstrings, in me it does not work them particulary hard, because you are not lifting the body weight (just the weight of the ankle and foot), I also find that the muscle starts to feel crampy quite quickly (presumably because it is being worked in a contracted position) and this happens before the muscle gets very tired. I wonder, does anyone have any good suggestion for an exercise to fatigue the hamstrings quickly and effectively, that can be done in a class setting without equipment, and would be suitable for an older age group? Many thanks, Jim.

I’d like to discuss a statement I put in the “Question for Kit” thread. This is the statement: "The evidence for this, as often quoted, is that under surgical anaesthesia, it is possible to put someone in a perfect split. As the anaesthesia wears off, the usual pattern of flexibility returns." I have started a new thread on this topic, because it seems to be diverging from the original query. I have heard the opening statement many times, and on querying it seems the information has come from people who should really know, such as orthopaedic surgeons. Please note that issue here is not whether the brain does or does not have some effect on flexibility; it is clear that it does, because we all know that voluntary relaxation can increase a stretch. Neither is the issue whether our normal pattern of muscular tightness is under the control of the brain: of course it is. If we were fully relaxed, we would not be able to stand up. Anaesthetics clearly abolish this pattern of muscle activation, and if we were anaesthetised while standing we would expect to fall over. In addition, some people carry more muscle tension than the minimum needed to stand up, and it quite reasonable to think that this also is driven by the brain, that it should disappear when we are anaesthetised, and reappear when we come out of the anaesthetic. Rather, is a question of how much flexibility, or lack of it, is driven by the brain – because a perfect split needs a very great deal of flexibility, far beyond the range of most people. If the opening statement was true, it would mean that the properties of muscle (or other associated tissue, such as connective tissue) would have NOTHING to do with flexibility (at least up to the range needed to give a full split). It would ALL be due to (1) neural reflexes, with (2) the ultimate limit set by joint properties. Because this conclusion is rather surprising (as well as going against a great deal of current exercise science), I thought I’d look into it further, to see where the evidence comes from. If indeed it is something reliable known to the medical world, then the information should be found in authoritative sources such as medical textbooks. So I did Google searches using different variants of the terms. However, although I found many references to the issue, they were all in exercise-related webpages, rather than in authoritative basic sources. Usually, it was just a throwaway statement, and never with a justification saying where the evidence had come from. However, there was one helpful comment in an article by Craig (yes, the same Craig who posts here; thank you Craig), in Aware Relaxed Connected1. It quoted an experiment by Robert Schleip2, who tested the effect of anaesthesia on flexibility, in patients who were about to undergo surgery on the knee. (1) Before and during anaesthesia, Schleip2 raised the arms of the supine patients, to see how high they would go. In 1 out of the 3 patients tested, before anaesthesia the arms could be passively taken right overhead and lie against the table – so no increase in range in this patient could be expected. In the other 2 patients, the arms did not lie flat against the table before anaesthesia, but did during anaesthesia. So anaesthesia increased the mobility of the shoulder joint in these two (though he did not quantify by how much). (2) He also dorsiflexed the feet of the patients. None of the 3 patients showed any noticeable increase in range; i.e. there was no sign that the calf muscle had become more extensible. So it seems that one joint (a complex one, where many factors will determine its mobility) could be affected by anaesthesia, but simple muscle length could not. I then searched the medical literature via Pubmed. I found only one paper that had addressed the issue “Neurophysiologic influences on hamstring flexibility: a pilot study”3. In this study, the hamstring flexibility of a healthy leg was assessed before during and after anaesthesia, in patients about to undergo surgery on the other knee. Averaged over all 11 subjects who had general surgical anaesthesia, there was NO change in the flexibility of the hamstring as a result of anaesthesia. Over the 3 patients who had spinal anaesthesia, there was a small increase in flexibility during anaesthesia (average change in popliteal angle 8.1 degrees – enough to allow the foot to move by another 5cm or so). Mean popliteal angles with hip held at 90 degrees were around 130 degrees – i.e. the subjects were not particularly flexible, either before or during anaesthesia – certainly nowhere near to doing a “full split”. The clear conclusion from this paper is that loss of central control has NO effect on hamstring flexibility, contra the opening statement. Spinal anaesthesia (which will also affect motor neurones and local spinal reflexes) has a small effect. In neither case does anaesthesia allow anything remotely near to a full split. My conclusion from this reading is that the opening statement is inaccurate. In people lying conscious on an operating table, the nervous system only has very minor effects on leg flexibility. When neural control is removed, there is only a very minor increase in leg flexibility. 1 Found at: http://awarerelaxedc...-motion-basics/ 2. Found at: http://www.somatics....ging-the-brain. Source: Talking To Fascia – Changing The Brain - Explorations of the Neuro-Myofascial Net by Robert Schleip. Rolf Lines March/April 1991: 3 Abstract found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/11753061 (the full text needs a subscription). Reference: Krabak BJ, Laskowski ER, Smith J, Stuart MJ, Wong GY. (2001). Neurophysiologic influences on hamstring flexibility: a pilot study. Clin J Sport Med. 11(4):241-246. (As far as I can tell, this study has not been followed up or repeated.)

An issue you will all be familar with - tightness of fascia and/or sciatic nerve limiting forward bending. I tried on me, and made a photo to show my students, to inform them of the issues. Then I thought I'd share it here (either in case anyone wanted to use it, or make any - I hope helpful - comments). The lowest part of the lumbar region has very little forward flexibility, so can be used as a reasonably accurate indicator of the forward tilt of the pelvis (I think). Holding the feet flexed up takes 11 degrees off the forward bend (for those who do not know the issue, there are no muscles running between the pelvis and the feet - so the effect must occur through other structures - probably, in my case, due to the chain of fascia that runs from the forehead, down the back of the head, back of spine, legs, to the soles of the feet). Jim.

Apologies for starting a new thread on this old topic, but it relates to a different issue than already discussed. Just been reviewing hamstring stretches, including your "best practice" one at The second part, using the more conventional one (sitting with one leg tucked in) has an aspect that I do not like. As the working leg is straightened, and the torso and pelvis lean forward, a rotation is developed at the hip joint of the non-working leg (i.e. the one that is bent in; this leg is fixed in position because of the bend). If there is restricted rotation at this joint (which is the case for many people), the pelvis does not roll forward, and the stretch can easily turn into a forward bend at the waist rather than a hamstring stretch. I prefer to have the non-working leg stuck out at the side, straight, and at any angle that is found comfortable. Then, as the pelvis rolls forward during the hamstring stretch, the leg can roll too and any lack of rotation at the non-working hip joint is not an issue. This to me gives an easier and more complete stretch of the hamstrings on the working leg. This is how I do it myself, how I teach it, and people seem to like it. Any comments. Do you agree? Cheers, Jim.