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www.bendablebody.com [email protected] Bendable Body LLC 2018
If you want to make BIG, LASTING changes to your flexibility and posture, you must understand the role your pelvis and hamstrings are playing in your body.
First, let's get a visual image:
These are your 3 hamstring muscles!
Central Hamstring: in green.
Medial Hamstring: in red.
Lateral Hamstring: in yellow.
This is your pelvis. It sits at thebase of your spine.
Your 3 hamstring musclesattach here, at the base ofyour pelvis.
Hamstrings & Pelvis
www.bendablebody.com [email protected] Bendable Body LLC 2018
By design, the hamstrings are 'tendenous' tissue. Meaning - they are dense and tough and accumulate un-healthy fascia easily. Because they attach to the pelvis, their health and flexibility determines the movement in the pelvis. When the hamstrings are full of dense and even scarred fascia, they stop moving. They can be 'frozen' in a short position, long position, twisted position, or a combination throughout each hamstring. Inflexible hamstrings hold the pelvis in a dysfunctional position. This creates poor alignment in the hip and knee joints, compression in the spine, and poor posture in the shoulders and neck. Creating an increase in hamstring flexility and pelvis movement is foundational to having a body that moves and feels better head to toe.
Sitting is the new cigarette smoking.
Chairs are one of our biggest problems! We sit for many hours a day, starting at a young age, and it only increases as we get older. Every time you sit down, your hamstrings get injured in the form of little micro tears throughout the muscles. It's like they are over stretching repetitively and get mini-tears. Your body's immune system patches up the injury/tears with the only bandaid it has: dense fascia. So when you go to stand up, your hamstrings are less pliable and bendable and they in turn limit the movement in your pelvis. This reeks havoc throughout your body - ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, neck, elbows, and even wrists.
Hamstrings & Pelvis
www.bendablebody.com [email protected] Bendable Body LLC 2018
3 Stretches for all 3 hamstrings. We recommend 3 sets of 6-10 reps of each stretch on both legs. If you do this short routine (it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes) daily, your body and your life will transform!
Medial Hamstring:
Start: target leg bent, knee out to the side, elbow on inside of knee, hand grabbing outside of foot, foot straight and flexed.
Contract: press knee & elbow together, drive foot down. Lengthen: use arm to lift foot upward. Release: and return to start position.
Hamstrings & Pelvis
www.bendablebody.com [email protected] Bendable Body LLC 2018
Central Hamstring:
Lateral Hamstring:
Start: legs bent, feet under hips shoulder width apart, hands raised on a bolster or blocks - or your elbows on a chair.
Contract: contract/flex target leg, shift weight to ball of foot. Lengthen: raise opposite leg keeping hip closed and pelvis square.
Release: and return to start position.
Start: with arms out straight and hands interlaced behind target leg. Contract: driving target leg into your hands and down toward the ground.
Lengthen: using your arms to bring your leg into your body. Release: and return to start position.
Hamstrings & Pelvis
