Are you experiencing issues relating to tight hamstrings, or do your hamstrings overwork and when you do a leg workout they are the dominant muscle you feel?

The human body has an amazing way of compensating for weaknesses in order to achieve the tasks we put it under. When you go for a run, get off the bike or finish a leg workout and the first thing you feel is your hamstrings this tells you that there is a problem.

The hamstrings are involved in bending the knee, extending the hip and also partly in pelvic stabilisation, but all too often they are overused due to weak gluteal muscles. This in tern can result in hamstring tightness and injury.

The gluteus maximus is the body’s prime hip extensor and the biggest muscle in the body. When we do things that involve hip extension this is the muscle we should be feeling doing most of the work, if it isn’t other muscles quickly compensate and start causing problems. Typically, with weak glutes either the hamstrings or quadriceps tend to take the load. The problem with this is they get overworked and tighten as a result. Not only that, but hamstrings don’t have anything near the same capacity as the glute maximus does for load (being the biggest muscle in the body).

The interesting thing is that the body devises recruitment patterns in the body, it sends neurological signals from the brain to the muscles for particular movements. When we repeatedly innervate the wrong muscles due to a weakness or injury it becomes the body’s normal firing pattern and it bypasses the muscles that should be working(in this instance the glutes) which give you the best output for power and joint protection.

For example, when the body gets out of balance and the hamstrings become repeatedly innervated every time you run up a hill, get on your bike or do something challenging that involves your lower body the brain will automatically tell the muscles, in this example the hamstrings, to do the work, bypassing the glutes. Have you ever had an injury in the past and done all the right exercises for it and still been unable to overcome it? This can sometimes be why. Even doing what should be the right exercises, with out the right neuromuscular input to fire up the muscles that should be working can worsen the bad habits the body has got itself into.

At FORM we undertake a full body assessment to check not only posture and muscle length but the firing patterns of muscles that commonly get out of balance due to faulty recruitment patterns. If we identify any problems we can then design a program that will re-educate the body to recruit the right muscles, and integrate them back into functional movement. The difference you will feel with your training when things are working properly is incredible!