What kind of exercises can I do to fix my tight hamstrings for grade 1 strain?

[DavidM22]

Hello,

Recently, I've been diagnosed by my Sports Medicine physician of having a Grade 1 hamstring strain, and he told me the reason why it happened was because of my tight hamstrings.

He recommended me to start with stretching my hamstrings to improve their flexibility and told me to look up a couple of stretches online. As someone new to stretching and flexibility, I honestly don't know where to begin.

I thought it would be simply looking up a few exercises and start from there, but the more I read, the more confused I get since right now I thought all that I needed were static stretches, but some say that static stretches don't do anything and that I should focus on dynamic stretches. Others say that none of those two work, and that I should go with PNF. Some say when doing static stretches to hold it for 10-20 secs, others say anything less than 30 has no effect, others say that 60 is the goal, some say that doing static stretches is not actually achieving flexibility and fixing tightness since you only train your neuro system to relax, while others disagree and say that it actually works, etc.

With all this information around the net, I really don't know who's right and who's wrong, so I was hoping someone with more experience will be able to guide me into what exercises I should do, and how my stretching regime should look like to fix my tight hammies.

If anyone is willing to help, I'd gladly appreciate it.

Thanks in forward.

 

[deadlyapp]

If your doctor didn't tell you stretches, and physically demonstrate them or take you through some forced stretches, then you need to find a new doctor.

Static stretches are fine - static stretches however have a tapered off usefulness with time duration, and have some proven studies showing that extended static stretching effects strength development. For you, with an injury, static stretches in combination with dynamic stretching are probably what you want.

Things I would look up and utilize:
- Banded hamstring stretch
- Glute bridge up
- Seated forward lean
- Romanian deadlifts
- Good mornings & seated good mornings
- Death march / dumbbell death march

You need to realize that the hamstrings are rarely the pure cause of issues. A strained hamstring can often be caused by underlying poor strength in the posterior chain (glute, hip, low back) where the hamstring has to over-work. I have extraordinarily tight hamstrings but it's mostly due to poor engagement of my glutes which force my low back and hamstrings to work.

Look up different glute strengthening exercises and add those to your list of stretches. With all exercises and the above stretches - start with lighter weights and progress from there. You shouldn't feel pain - you should feel tightness - but if you feel pain then drop the weight and focus on the movement pattern.