What yoga class would be complete without giving your hamstrings some love and attention? While most practices contain hamstring stretches, this week’s classes are specially designed to focus on creating strong, supple hamstrings.
First, a quick anatomy review: Your hamstrings are comprised of three muscles running down the back of your legs from the hip to the knee joint. They are the biceps femoris, the semimembranosus, and the semitendinosus. The biceps femoris is located on the lateral/outer part of your leg and extends your hip joint and helps bend your knee. The semimembranosus is the middle hamstring and flexes your knee joint, extends your hip joint, and medially rotates your hip and lower leg. The semitendinosus is located between the other two muscles with similar duties to the semimembranosus.
Don’t worry too much about the names! Instead, here are 3 important reasons to take care of your hamstrings.
1. Prevent Injury:
One of the most common injuries among active people is a strained or torn hamstring. A regular yoga program acts like an insurance policy for your body. By investing even a few minutes a day working on flexibility and mobility, you can avoid injuries related to stiff muscles. Focusing on strength and endurance is important but without accompanying flexibility, muscles are susceptible to injury.
2. Enhance Athletic Performance:
Whether you’re a runner, a soccer player, a surfer, or a dancer, you can’t afford to take weeks or even months off training to deal with a strained or torn hamstring. A well-crafted yoga practice will help develop balanced strength, mobility, and flexibility to help you achieve peak performance. In addition to creating supple hamstrings, yoga will hone your mental focus and give you that extra competitive edge.
3. Avoid Lower Back Pain:
Keeping your hamstrings supple is a vital component to maintaining excellent posture and keeping your back healthy. Three primary issues contribute to lower back pain––tight hamstrings, tight hip flexors, and weak core muscles. Forward bends in yoga can strain the lower back if the hamstrings are inflexible and can create pressure on the pelvis and pull on the lower back muscles and create strain in the spinal discs.
Check out these four great classes just to keep your hamstrings healthy!