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Hey this is Doctor Gangemi the Sock Doc and in this video I want to talk a
little bit more about the hamstrings. We talked about it somewhat in the
knee video that was put out awhile back. But the hamstrings are a very
commonly injured muscle. A lot of times people pull their hamstring, they end up
with sore hamstrings after working out, even after running or playing a
hard basketball game over the weekend. But actually I see the hamstrings
not need to be treated as much as I do the other parts of the back of the
leg there, in other words the glute max your butt muscle, and your calf
muscles, your gastroc and soleus.
So the whole kinetic chain often is off in the back of the leg. The balance
between your glute max or hamstrings and your calf, to drive you forward and
give you propulsion in pushing yourself forward whether you're running up a
hill, cycling hard or kicking hard or whatever you're doing.
So let's talk just a little bit about what you can do. The hamstring,
obviously your hamstring starts in the back of what you call your ischial
tuberosity which is your sit bone. And if you put your hand right in the back of
your butt there you can feel your bone and that's where all three of your
hamstring muscles start. And then they come down and then they attach to
either side of your knee. Two on the inside and one on the outside.
We're not going to get into those names right now but basically what I want
you to do is, if you notice that with your leg bent like this that you're
feeling some discomfort or tightness there, that's probably going to be
more your hamstring. Now if you start way down here and just bend it a
little bit and you feel it out like this with your leg extended, that might
be more glute max. And in here, with your hamstring like this a slight
little bend, you actually might be influencing your calf a little bit
more.
So hamstring think more neutral and a curl here, but at the bottom when you
start to bend your leg, that's more calf. So this is more calf here at the
very bottom even though you're using both muscles. But as you come up more,
that's more hamstring, and if you extend back and curl a little bit more
you're going to be using both the hamstrings and the glute max because your
glute max is going to push you back like this. Okay.
Now the other thing you're going to get more gastroc action is if your foot
is dorsiflexed like so. So my toes are pointed down. So this is going to be
more hamstring, like this motion here, and then gastroc here like this. So
in other words if you're feeling more pain in this direction here, this
motion, think more gastroc calf, here, think more hamstring. So glute max,
hamstring, gastroc way down here, the start of the flexion that's more
gastroc.
The other muscle of course in your calf, soleus, that's more tippy toe.
More pushing off on your toes, propelling you forward, that's down there.
Hamstring origin insertions, again you might find a tender spot, a trigger
point. The origin of the hamstring is right up in your ischial tuberosity
so if you're feeling pain here you can actually touch that area and move
your leg like I just showed you. If that relieves some of the discomfort,
work that trigger point like we talked about in the trigger point video in
the articles.
You can also assess yourself and work your hand down the belly of the
hamstring and the back of the thigh here. Remember the glute max is going to
come in there too and connect with the illiotibial band to go in the
outside of your knee. But the hamstring in here, look for any tender spots.
One of the hamstrings attaching to the outside of your fibula here, the
bone on the outside of your lower leg and the other two on the inside of
your tibia. The inside bone in there of your lower leg.
So you can look for tender spots in there. Again, hold them like that, you
can do that, sort of grab your lower leg. Flex like this, you're going to
need good balance on that opposite leg or you can even do it seated if it
hurts enough, it's like that. Or as I said earlier, more commonly you're
going to be dealing with more calf issues. Those are much more common in
what I see with athletes than actually hamstring issues. You might have
hamstring sore muscle or even pull your hamstring a little bit, but most often
the calf is the one that needs to be treated.
Those calf muscles come up and actually connect with your femur, your big
thigh bone. And therefore, those trigger points are going to be in here
right above the crease of your knee on the inside, and the outside, the
medial and lateral parts of your knee. So again, that's this motion here.
Foot flex, or the start of the flexion of the lower leg and dorsiflexed
foot. You can feel them right in there. And you may have to rub those
trigger points, you can rub them for a second. "Hey that feels better."
You've got more of a calf issue.
Let's talk quickly about a couple of really good exercises for
rehabilitation or really just strengthening your hamstrings other than just
obviously natural movements of running and walking. One that I like to do a
lot is a straight leg dead lift. Single leg dead lift actually. So, you can
use a kettlebell for this. Or if you're not used to that or you don't
someone to show you proper technique with a kettlebell, you can obviously
learn that from somebody who knows what they're doing or just start doing
by body weight where one leg is planted down, in this case my right leg and
my back leg is nice and straight, I've got a nice straight back. My lumbar
spine is nice and straight and strong. I'm stable and I'm coming forward
like this. Back and forth, just like this. Nice, straight, and solid lower
back.
So when you're looking at me from the front my shoulders are staying square
to you and I pick up the kettle bell right there, I'll show you on the
side. That kettlebell is right between my right foot, starting right next
to my right foot. Coming down like this, nice straight back, lift it up and
you can even put that opposite foot down. And I'm staying nice and strong,
nice and stable. Coming back just like that.
From the opposite side. Now my left leg, it's right next to the kettlebell.
Nice and square. Coming down, nice straight back, nice square
shoulders up like that and back down. Just like that. Notice how my knees
bend, I'm not dropping it like this. It's just a slight bend in my knee.
And this hip stays back, this right leg extended. Strong and solid, right
back up like that. Those are great exercises, good thing to work on your
balance too with those.
And the second exercise is a squat. And I talk about this in the natural
flexibility article on the Sock Doc site. But the squat ideally, you can't
your heels to stay on the ground and go as long as you can without
extending your body too far forward. Because you're trying to stay as
vertical as possible, your shoulders over your hips. Just like that. And
ideally if you can get down and sit in that squatted position, that's where
you want to be. And work on your stability here without swinging in any
direction.
You can also grab a pole or have somebody hold if you're trying to tip back
because you're not used to the balance. Your arms are nice and relaxed,
stay here as long as you can. Again, heels stay down. So if I only can go
to here before my hips start to come up then right now, just start with
that. Come down like this. If you're already good at a squat or if you want
to develop some more strength on your lower legs, on your core, your abs
and your back, grab a kettlebell. Any weight will do. You're holding it
right here and you're driving up with it.
So you're nice and strong like this. I'm not leaning forward, I'm hip
hinging a little bit with my lower back. My knees are bent slightly to
start and I'm coming down straight like that. My elbows are touching the
top of my knees and I'm driving straight up like that. From the front, like
this, my butt's out. Kettlebell stays strong. I'm not resting this here, I'm
just touching, and I drive straight up. So I'm not doing this. See the
difference? Leaning forward, my shoulders. I want to be straight up and
down. Just like that.
Great way to help your glute max, strengthen your glute max, rehab your glute
max do the amount of weight you can do, couple sets, ten reps, you can do
it. If you can't, lower the weight a little bit, don't want to be too sore
the next day or you overdid the action the first time. Take your time doing
it and it's a great way to rehab the lower leg muscles, glute max,
hamstrings, that sort of thing. Good luck.