Hamstring lengthening…
Supta hasta padungusthasana
Hamstring work….
When I first started yoga, I couldn’t touch my toes. I used to see other people in class who could do it, and I’d think “I wish I could do that. If could do that, I’d be happy”. 😂🙄. And we know the moral of this tale (happiness does not come from having lengthened hamstrings, in case your brain is one a go slow today).
But over time, with a lot of practice, my hamstrings got longer. My forward folds improved.
I know that to some people my flexibility is possibly a result of a gymnastics or dance background. Nope. Years of the ashtanga primary series with all its forward folding, practised daily, then years of second series with all it's leg behind head poses resulted in longer hamstrings.
But I feel it is only in the last couple of years that my hamstring flexibility has increased again. Accumulation of years of practice for sure, but also I feel the way that I practice them has helped.
My focus is more on engaging with the hamstrings before stretching them. On warming up around the joints. On activating their antagonistic muscles to help me go deeper into forward folds.
In this video I've included some of my favourite ways to do this.
- 1.Romanian dead lift wannabe
- 2.low lunge to ardha hanuamasana - focus on lengthening spine and driving front heel into floor to engage back of leg
- 3.malasana to forward fold. Again driving heel into floor, feeling glutes and hip flexors engage, then stand but keeping torso to thighs for as long as possible
- 4.padungusthasana: I like to tilt pelvis at staring position, then imagine I'm trying to drag feet away from each other to help get outer hips and inner thighs switched on.
- 5.in uttanasana, standing on blocks (or in pashimottanasana having a block at end of feet and holding onto block.
I am also a fan of PNF stretching , and have been doing this for the last couple of years. I think this has really helped in increasing flexibility also. The technique is simple enough and incorporates well into a yoga practice.
How I use this technique is: when about to go into a forward bend, standing or seated, I bend the knees to get the pelvis to tilt forward, front hip bones towards tops of thighs. Then I drive my heels into the ground to engage the back of my legs and try and drag the feet away from each other. This gets glutes, outer hips and inner thighs all switched on. . Inhaling, lengthening the spine, reaffirming the engagement with the back of the legs. Then exhaling folding forward, straightening legs if possible. I keep the lower abdomen and lower ribs drawing in, chest reaching forward and the thighs rolling inwards and pressing down into the floor.
All of these., plus consistent practice, has helped me hugely over the years.
And I have found that no, happiness does not come from longer hamstrings. But I did find happiness. 💞
"Facilitated stretching involves contracting a muscle that you are lengthening. This increases the tension at the muscle-tendon junction and recruits more Golgi tendon organs than does stretching a muscle alone. Facilitated stretching causes the spinal cord to signal the muscle to relax, in essence, creating "slack" in the muscle. You can then take up the slack to move deeper into the pose. For example, in Paschimottanasana, slightly bend the knees and squeeze the trunk against the thighs. Then gently press the heels into the mat as if you are trying to flex the knees further. This engages the hamstrings and stimulates the Golgi tendon organs at the muscle-tendon junction. Hold this steady contraction for five to eight breaths before releasing it. This produces relaxation and increased length in the hamstrings. Then contract the quadriceps to straighten the knees and take up the slack created by the reflex arc. This has the added effect of producing reciprocal inhibition, which further relaxes the hamstrings into the stretch." From Bandha Yoga by Ray Long