The Hamstring Muscles
The group of muscles that make up the hamstring is one of the most frequently injured muscles in the body. Most of us have ‘‘pulled a hammy’’ or known someone who has and it usually occurs when running.
The hamstring muscles are situated at the back of your thigh and are composed of three muscles; biceps femoris is the most central, with semimembranosus slightly more in the inside of the posterior thigh and lastly semitendinosus on the outside of the group. They all attach to the ischial tuberosity (the sitting bone) at the base of the pelvis and travel down across the knee and insert just behind it.
Most hamstring injuries have one thing in common… they all start with a tight muscle. The majority of us spend up to 9 hours a day sitting down and when we’re sitting down our hamstrings are in a shortened position and it doesn’t take too many average days for those muscles to get short and tight.
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Having short hamstring muscles wouldn’t be terrible if their only action was to pull your lower leg toward your bottom. The trouble is they also do a much harder job. One of the main purposes of the hamstrings is to slow down the lower leg as we are swinging it through while walking or running. This means the muscle has to contract while it’s still lengthening. The human equivalent would be patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. Not easy.
So, why am I telling you this? Because it’s when the hamstring muscles are metaphorically patting their head and rubbing their stomach that the majority of hamstring muscles injuries occur. The risk increases dramatically if the muscles aren’t flexible enough to cope with the lengthening and contracting process.
The moral of the story, especially if you’re a runner, is to have strong hamstring muscles but to also make sure they’re flexible enough to deal with the tension that is placed through them during dynamic activities.
Follow these links for some of my favourite stretches:
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Do your hamstring muscles need some attention? Are you based in West London and would you want to find our more about achieving health? Please feel free to book an appointment with our West London based Bridge To Health Osteopath Marius Januskevicius at 01895 2000 50 or via email at marius@bridgetohealth.co.uk.
