Hamstring tighness in certain movements

[Otávio Souza]

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.

[Nathan]

Hi Otávio,

Welcome to the forums. Since you posted in Kit's thread about his hamstring issue, I will assume you've done a bit of searching around the forums. I encourage you to do more. There are lots of lots of threads about hamstring issues. The search function is your friend!

That said, you are the only one with your body. You may find hints here, but no one here will be able to give you The Answer™. You spent 9 months in pain. Your body is not worried about doing the front splits or a beautiful pike. It wants to protect your hamstring. You have to undo those 9 months by very carefully continuing to strengthen it and working to convince your body that using the ROM is safe now. Be mindful and be patient. Spend lots of quality time in the ranges you can comfortably reach, because this will help convince your body that they are safe. Strengthen those ranges. And then, most likely, one day it will just magically be "fixed" 

Good luck and keep us updated!

[Kit_L]

On 6/23/2018 at 9:15 PM, Nathan said:

The Answer™

Brilliant!

@Otávio Souza: a significant fraction of your head to toe capacity comes from your proportion. The first photo tells the real story: see where your sacrum is? Just past 90°—your hamstrings are tight, in other words. Focus on the bent-to-straight leg hamstring stretches. Which of the Stretch Therapy resources do you have? All the exercises you need are in Master the Pike, along with Nathan's and my recommendation of eccentric single-leg Romanian deadlifts, done eccentrically. As @Nathan suggested, all this has been talked about before; use the Search function.