by James - This article may contain affiliate links.
Do you still feel tightness in your hamstrings despite all your stretching? Are you wondering why won’t my hamstrings loosen up? What is the real reason why you can’t loosen up your hamstrings?
The sensation of the tight hamstring originates in the hips. Poor hip stability, lack of proper control in the hip movement, and poor posture in the hip joint are the main reasons your hamstrings won’t loosen up despite stretches. You can do stretches that target these areas to help loosen up your hamstrings.
Read on as we explore three hip issues that lead to hamstring tightness and some exercise to stretch and strengthen your hip muscles.
See the table below if you are in a hurry to see our top products to help with hamstring tightness and other stretches.
Contents
Hamstring Tightness? Fix Your Hips! ?
When you have difficulty touching your toes, most experts agree that you should stretch them.
But no matter how much you stretch these muscles, there’s no significant change.
Hip flexors attach thigh bones to the back and pelvis and help you bend at your hip, run, or kick.
When these muscles shorten, they increase the curvature of the lower spine and upper back, leading to a pelvic tilt.
Three hip malfunctions can cause tight hamstring:
1. Poor Hip Stability
If your hamstrings take over when you start performing exercises like squats, lunges, or other leg workouts, then you have glute amnesia.
In other words, super tight hip flexors lead to lengthened gluteal muscles, so when you try to engage your glutes, they won’t generate much force to activate.
The main contributor to glute amnesia is the tightness caused by a sedentary lifestyle.
Read on to discover exercises to help you with dead butt syndrome. Also, see more in our post stretching before a glute workout?
However, you will need a strong and stable exercise mat to do the exercises on this page.
Check out of top three recommended exercise mats if you don’t have one already.
Here are the four exercises for dead butt syndrome and poor hip stability.
Donkey Kicks
Donkey kicks mainly target your glutes, improve your stability and work on your core.
Here’s how to do it:
Start in a quadruped position while keeping your knees hip-width apart and your hands flat on the ground.
Lift your leg without changing the knee angle. Don’t let your leg go further than your torso.
Hold on there for a few seconds, then come down and repeat with the opposite leg. Do ten reps for each side.
Single-leg Deadlift
This bridge variation is ideal for isolating and strengthening your hip extensors (hips and hamstrings).
Here’s how to do it:
Keeping your core tight, hinge forward, and reach your hand toward the ground.
Maintain the position for five to ten seconds and go back up.
Repeat 10 times, then switch your legs.
If you want to increase the intensity, you can hold a kettlebell in your hand.
See our top three recommended kettlebells below.
The Yes4All Kettlebell Set, available on Amazon, comes with six levels of adjustments for your weight preferences and is ideal if you want to gain more strength, power, and endurance.
Fire Hydrant
The fire hydrant exercise is a great three-dimensional motion that targets your glutes and adds to your hip mobility.
To perform this movement:
Start with the quadruped position with your arms aligned with your shoulders.
Keep your back straight and draw in your belly button.
Move one leg away from your body, maintain a 90-degree angle, and stop when parallel with the hips.
Crab Walk
The crab walk can be a full-body exercise because it works your shoulders, arms, core, and legs and strengthens your hamstrings.
Sit on the mat and stretch your legs in front of your body hip-width apart.
Place your hands behind your body with the fingers facing your back.
While engaging your core and tightening your abs, raise your hip.
Once in this position, you should start to walk.
Raise your left hand and right leg simultaneously to move forward and then your right hand and left foot.
Push as much as you can and go back to the starting position.
2. Poor Control of Hip Movement
Poor control of hip movement means that you don’t feel a burn in your core when doing a leg workout.
Without core activation, the hamstrings are constantly contracted and make up for the inability of the core to stabilize the hips properly.
Here are four core exercises that strengthen your abdominals:
Situps
Situps work all your abdominal muscles and strengthen your internal and external side abs.
Here’s how to do it:
Lie down on the mat with your knees 90 degrees bent. Put your hands on opposite shoulders.
Then lift your torso slowly and squeeze your core while exhaling.
To work more core muscles, extend your arms in front of your body.
When you come to the sitting position, touch your knees with your elbows.
While inhaling, go down to the starting position.
Perform the movement ten times.
V-sits
V-sits enhance balance and coordination and develop strength in your abdominals.
Here’s how to do it:
Lie flat on the mat, fully extending your arms and legs.
Lift your feet and arms until your palms face the ceiling.
Hold for a few seconds, then go down slowly to the starting position.
Do ten reps.
Elbow-to-Knee Sit-ups
This situp variation works your external and internal side-abs and your core.
Here’s how to do it:
Get to the situp position, but place your hands behind your head this time.
Touch your left knee with your right elbow when you go up by twisting your torso.
To add to the intensity, raise the other leg.
Hold in the position for a few seconds, then return to the starting position and repeat with the opposite side.
Reverse Crunch
This move can be as beneficial as situps, strengthening your core while putting less strain on your neck.
Here’s how to do it:
Lie on your back and put your palms on the floor, resting your head on the ground.
Slowly lower them down and repeat the movement.
3. Poor Posture Of Hip Joint
The hip joint rotation can over-lengthen your hamstring muscle if you have poor posture.
With the tilted pelvis, your hamstring muscles’ origin or your “butt bone” is shifted upwards, leading to stretched muscles that always feel tight.
Many exercises can help you strengthen your hamstrings.
Here are four of them that you can safely incorporate into your workout routine:
Single-Leg Hip Bridge
This bridge variation is a great way to isolate and strengthen your hip extensors (hips and hamstrings).
Here’s how to do it:
Start on your back with your knees bent and place your right ankle on your left thigh.
Then lift your hips off the floor until your weight rests between your shoulder blades.
Hold on there for a few seconds, and slowly lower your hips back to the starting position. Do ten reps for each leg.
You can extend your leg toward the sky to make this a little harder.
Kneeling Leg Raise
The movement targets your glutes and strengthens your hamstrings.
Here’s how to do it:
Start on all fours. Keep your hands under shoulders and your knees under hips.
Bend your left leg, lift your knee to level with your hip, and extend your leg.
Then raise your leg for a few seconds and return to the starting position.
Do the movement ten times for each leg.
You can lift your opposite hand extended while raising your leg to add more intensity.
Dumbbell Split Lunges
This move is an excellent lower-body exercise that can help you gain strong hamstrings.
Here’s how to do it:
Stand upright and hold a pair of dumbbells in each hand, palms facing each other.
Take a step forward and drop down to your knee until your leg makes a 90-degree angle.
Keep your knee behind your toes.
You can repeat the move 12 times for each leg.
Banded Side Step
This move targets your glutes and hips while activating your calves and hamstrings.
Stand with slightly bent knees and place your resistance band above your ankles.
Take a shoulder-width stance and put your hands on your hips.
Take one big step aside and repeat the movement with the opposite leg.
Do ten reps for each side.
Here are our top three recommended resistance bands on amazon if you don’t have one already.
Is a Tight Hamstring an Injury? ?
Sometimes tight hamstrings originate from disc-related injuries and nerve irritation.
Here are some red flags that indicate the tightness is due to damage, and you should seek help from a professional:
- Bruising, usually after an injury.
- Numbness.
- Burning or tingling in the lower leg.
- Weakness in the lower leg.
Bottom Line ?
When a stretching routine can’t heal your tight hamstring, poor hips and pelvic tilt is probably the cause of the tightness.
Three hip malfunctions can lead to the tight sensation in hamstrings: poor hip stability, poor hip movement control, and poor hip joint posture.
We’ve outlined some workouts to help with these hip issues in this blog post.
Don’t forget to share this post with others.
Last update on 2023-09-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
