When a new athlete comes to train with us, our business has chosen to use the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) to give us a basic idea if any flexibility or strength imbalances exist.

I know it isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it gives us an idea where the athlete is with his/her athleticism. At the very least, we get an idea of the individual’s hamstring flexibility.

I don’t know what it is about this current generation, but a lot of these kids have awful hamstring flexibility. If they can touch the top of their shoes, it is pretty amazing.

Now, I’m not saying I was Plastic Man by any means. In fact, my hamstring flexibility stunk until my 8th grade year. I wanted to touch my toes, so I just reached over and stretched. I kept pushing and pushing and over time eventually I could touch my feet, then the ground, then put my whole palm on the ground.

I don’t know if it was the smartest stretching program, but it got the job done for me.  

Compared to most people my hamstring flexibility is still pretty good. I can still get a knuckle or two on the ground keeping my legs straight at my age when flexibility is supposed to get worse as you get older.

Of course, most of you might be saying, “SO WHAT!”

I’ll tell you why SO WHAT. The whole posterior chain is all pretty tightly connected. Meaning your upper back, lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves are locked together. Chances are if one muscle is tight, the other muscles are tight.

If those muscles are tight, they can increase your chances for injury. The big one is lower back. You do not want a lower back injury. I’m not saying you can eliminate all potential back injuries, but you can reduce the chances of them happening if you are still flexible back there.

Another reason is that you can pull your hamstring if it isn’t really flexible. I got my varsity letter in track my freshman year because the guy ahead of me pulled his hamstring in warmups and was out for the rest of the season.

If you want to generate some good speed with proper technique, your hamstrings better be strong and flexible. If they are tight, they could potentially limit your range of motion when you run. Thus, taking you more steps to get from point A to B.

And if they aren’t strong, they might not handle the power you need to run at full speed. Thus, you will injure your hamstrings.

I’m sure some of you are saying, “Hey my hamstring flexibility isn’t that great now and I’m running fast and not having any problems.”

I will say good for you, but you are playing with fire. At some point, those tight hamstrings are going to cause a problem if not in the hamstrings in other areas of that posterior chain. Mark my words.

Once again, the research is out there so don’t press your luck. Start stretching those hamstrings out. Don’t wait until you get an injury around that area, go to the doctor, and listen to him say, “I think this will get better if you stretch your hamstrings.”

Photo courtesy of Jon Candy on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joncandy/