Your hamstrings and hips were really tight - now they are not. How?

August 23, 2024 6:49 AM

I have really tight hips and hamstrings and I believe that it's making my spine issues worse. I've been to PT but haven't found a routine that really helps. You?

My primary exercise has always been bicycling. I also have a desk job. My legs spontaneously curl up like an adorable little hibernating lemur's when I'm not literally standing. I also have spinal stenosis but have started to suspect that a lot of the pain I'm having actually comes from tight hips and hamstrings.

I've been to a couple of PTs but they were focused on the spinal stenosis and honestly I think the hamstrings have gotten worse over the pandemic. I do some elementary stretches, but I feel like I don't have the right mix.

If you have untightened your hips and hamstrings, what exercises did you do? Did you adopt a new sport? Did you need to mix in upper body stuff, etc, in order to balance everything? What kind of repetitions/frequency did you need?

Motivate me! Make recommendations! Save me from becoming a rolled up hedgehog!

posted by Frowner to Health & Fitness (33 answers total)

I know I am being that person but: yoga.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:50 AM on August 23 [14 favorites]

For me, it was Yoga. I lucked out and found a gym that contracted instructors who did Iyengar style yoga which focused on precision of poses. A huge number of them work hips and hamstrings. It took me a couple years, but I went from a front fold where I could barely reach my shins to touching the floor. Big difference in reducing lower back pain.

I don't have access to that anymore so my go to stretch is to lie on the floor in a doorframe with one leg straight and the other up on the door frame. Over time, your goal is get the raised leg to 90 degrees.

(on preview, also that one person)
posted by plinth at 6:54 AM on August 23 [2 favorites]

Thirding yoga.
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:54 AM on August 23 [1 favorite]

If not yoga, then pilates. Between the two, especially as it sounds like you need someone who really understands the mechanics of the body, I'd urge caution or practice more discernment in trying out yogis - I have more than one friend in my life who messed up something due to an overenthusiastic and undertrained yogi. I know pilates is back on trend so idk how the new-fangled ones with the machines are like but I find the practice in general is more (20th century) science-based.
posted by cendawanita at 6:59 AM on August 23 [2 favorites]

I don't know, this answer would have been really annoying to me a couple years ago, but starting a yoga practice about a year and a half ago has changed my body and how I move and feel in it.

Biking was also my primary exercise before that (though I've tried other stuff over the years). I did a 30 day yoga challenge thing on youtube (Yoga With Tim is oddly soothing and he is very slightly sarcastic, but it's subtle!) After 30 days I had the habit part down and I could feel a bit of benefit. I asked here for advice and ended up subscribing to Do Yoga With Me and I practice 3 or 4 times a week and went to a yoga retreat for the first time this summer.

It has taken a while to feel this but my whole body just feels different. Yes my hips and hamstrings are more... soft, open, strong, etc. But also my whole body feels different. I feel like I inhabit my body in a different way. I have less pain, more ease, more mobility. I feel the strength especially in my legs which helps the biking.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm kind of stuck doing yoga forever because honestly it's sometimes boring or annoying and I imagine the effects will wear off if I stop. But it's been very worthwhile emotionally as well as physically.
posted by latkes at 7:02 AM on August 23 [11 favorites]

My hamstrings were really tight too after many years of running and not much stretching, and yoga has eased that a lot. For the first couple years it felt like nearly every yoga pose was a hamstring stretch.

Give yoga a shot once a week for 6 months! Yoga Protip: when you go to yoga if you're not experienced, you want to be in the middle of the second row of people. That way no matter what position you're in there's always someone you can see who's probably doing the thing correctly. And if you're really doing something wrong-wrong the instructor is close enough to help you out.
posted by gregr at 7:04 AM on August 23 [5 favorites]

For me, as someone with pretty much chronic lower back pain, yoga, pilates and a series of PT exercises. The one that super helps with stretching out for me (IMHO) is Captain Morgan (as my PT called it). Basically: if you have stairs, one foot on a lower step and the other foot on the step above, pose like pirate, and if you're feeling strong enough, dip down between your legs to stretch out your lower back and strengthen your hamstrings. I do reps of 5 to 7 each side.
posted by Kitteh at 7:08 AM on August 23

This sounds like me! I have had great success over the last two months relieving my low back pain. Here's what I did -

- I have been doing daily gentle stretches for years due to hip arthritis. I got a hip replacement two years ago which relieved my hip pain, but didn't really relieve my back pain, so I decided I would re-evaluate my stretching routine over the summer.

- I looked up about a gagillion you tube videos using the search term "Open hips" and "loosen hips." I tried some of the stretches, discarded the ones that seemed too gentle, or impossible, and settled on 7 that I would call "moderate" stretches. They are -

- Bretzel - I found several different versions of this and have stuck with the one that gives me the best quad stretch.

- frog pose - to stretch the inner thighs.

- quad hip circles - you do this on all fours.

- deep squat - I do one and have to hold on to something to get down and back up, but HEY! I am killing it!

- piriformis stretch

- pigeon pose - when I first tried this stretch, it went in the impossible pile, but I kept working at it and now can do it. I suspect this is probably the most useful of all the stretches.

- foam roller - I lay with a foam roller under my butt and stretch my quads.

My suggestion is that you try some version of this, maybe with more of a focus on the hamstrings. I do these stretches EVERY morning. My low back pain is basically gone.
posted by eleslie at 7:10 AM on August 23 [2 favorites]

I literally could not touch my toes with straight legs until I took a yoga class.
posted by gnutron at 7:17 AM on August 23 [1 favorite]

I know that all healthy backs are alike, while each painful back is messed up in its own way, but my back pain improves when I shift more from cardio (biking and running) to strength training. If you have not already tried strength training, add that to your yoga or other flexibility work. It can also help with flexibility: When I regularly did barbell squats, my ability to sink into a deep squat improved significantly.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:22 AM on August 23 [2 favorites]

Are you doing any soft tissue work? I have gotten a lot of value out of a lacrosse ball (stick under asscheek on floor, roll around) and a foam roller (for both back and IT bands.) It's not a fun activity, but it helps a ton for me to keep my mobility.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:36 AM on August 23 [1 favorite]

Because of my inflammatory arthritis, hips and lower back are serious problems for me. Because I'm a runner, this has only gotten worse and is definitely connected to hamstring tightness. Because my pain is often worst at night, I stretch every night before bed. Like eleslie above, I've tried a bunch until I found a series that works for me. I do all of this lying on my back in bed, alternating legs.

-One knee to chest (other leg out straight)
-One leg straight up, hands behind hamstring (Other leg bent at the knee, foot on the bed for stability for this and the next couple)
-One leg straight up, pull on toes
-Figure 4
-Reclined cow pose (it took me years of stretching before I could do this one, but it has really helped my IT band and trochanter bursitis)
-Reclined spinal twist (I like it both with the top leg bent and the top leg straight (if there's no one else in the bed to bother))

If my lower back is still tight after all of this, I also do happy babies and just both knees to chest and roll around.
posted by hydropsyche at 7:41 AM on August 23

I've had good luck with YouTube searches for "stretching for flexibility". There's tons, so many, some yoga, some Pilates, some from actual PTs (my personal fave), some from fitness models that should not give health advice, some from trainers that look like fitness models but are on point. I would try a few videos with a lot of views and see what works. There might not be one for everything but maybe you can make your own routine.

Two channels I watch regularly are Tone and Tighten (PhD in physical therapy) and Yoga with Adrienne (v. popular yoga channel).
posted by fiercekitten at 7:50 AM on August 23

I have no idea what to call this stretch, but it is my magic bullet for hip-flexor-induced lower back stuff. This was taught me by a friend who has always had lower back stuff (he has an extra vertebrae in his spine or something weird like that, which makes him taller than average but also prone to hip woes). I'll just try to describe it.

Start by lying on your back, bring your heels up by your butt so your knees are sticking in the air, and then you bring your left leg up and use it to pull your right knee down towards your left side. Leave your shoulders and hips, and your right foot, as flat on the ground as you can while doing so. Hold that stretch a good 30 seconds, then switch and do the other side.

At times my back has cracked so loud when I've done this that other people in the room hear it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:34 AM on August 23 [1 favorite]

I am currently in a severe lower back pain flare, and here is an exercise I am doing for hamstrings to avoid any bending over, which can aggravate back problems. It also feels really good:

Standing Hamstring Stretch

And for hips, I find this Half Kneeling Pelvic Tilt really good. It also does not have any forward bend. You can do this tilt just back, or just forward, depending upon how you feel.

I do both of these exercises a couple times a day.
posted by nanook at 9:52 AM on August 23

Stretches do nothing for me, never have. When I could do them, I was already flexible. And yoga classes, many of whose instructors don't know basics like how to avoid injuring the cervical spine, can be downright dangerous.

For the hip / hamstring stiffness and for increasing "old lady lean," I'm planning a few sessions online with an Alexander Technique instructor this year, God willing. I can't afford more than one session per month at the moment, but she's willing to work with me. We'll see how it goes!
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 10:15 AM on August 23

Not to belabor the yoga point but. I avoided yoga for many reasons and then I started trying to learn to snowboard. Suddenly I was VERY interested in finally improving my hip and hamstring flexibility and my husband and I took several yoga classes until we found one we liked. It's called "essentials" and is not a flow class. The class is wildly diverse with different ages, bodies and fitness levels. I am so much stronger and more flexible than I've ever been and I can't wait to try my new flexibility and strength out on the mountain this winter.
posted by pazazygeek at 10:33 AM on August 23

Another +1 for strength training. Yoga makes me irrationally angry, which I gather is not the optimal experience, and I've never been able to keep it up. I had a lot of lower back pain in the past that was definitely caused by tight calves and hamstrings.

Lifting two to three times a week, mostly standard powerlifting and adjacent stuff (deadlifts, barbell back squats, bench and overhead press), has significantly loosened everything up and I rarely experience this kind of pain any more. I haven't consciously changed anything about my posture or the amount of time I spend sitting for work. Because I've been doing all of those lifts the whole time, I can't be more specific about which precise components of the program have helped the most, but I would guess it's the squats and/or deadlifts.
posted by terretu at 10:45 AM on August 23 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: It may be yoga, folks, because I gotta tell you, one thing you can't do with spinal stenosis is deadlifts (or weighted squats, etc). Some bench is okay but anything that puts weight on your spine is a non-starter, since it compresses the already messed up spine.
posted by Frowner at 11:15 AM on August 23 [3 favorites]

If p/t hasn't suggested it (and I don't see it specified in the answers above): psoas muscle work. Some psoas "release" [a shorter take from same channel] techniques [shortest; a different channel's approach using a simple wall exercise], and massage therapy approaches.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:04 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]

I have very tight hips, and have struggled with doing stretches like the couch stretch or standing quad stretch. I just found this video from Heart & Bones Yoga, which has some really easy and gentle stretches that are also very effective for me. My hips and back are feeling much better!

I also hear the advice to strengthen the hip flexors as well as stretching them, but I haven't got that far myself so don't have specific recommendations.
posted by loop at 12:06 PM on August 23

Here's an article from Shape that has pictures of a lot of the stretches mentioned here, plus some others of interest.
posted by fiercekitten at 12:33 PM on August 23

I did yoga for years, getting my incredibly tight hamstrings and hips from miserable to less miserable. Then I did the GMB elements series, and had fun playing with bear and frog and now feel like my hamstrings actually move somewhat, and my hips are getting closer. It was recommended here.

Something about having to contract the opposing muscles to move your leg just before entering the stretch really works for my body. This is in most yoga poses, and good instructors will teach it, but it's just natural in the GMB series. You could start with their free content and see if it works for you. It felt really silly at first, just crawling around on the floor, and then one day I leaned over and picked something up and realized that it was all just so much better.

Don't be turned off if you can't do certain exercises. There is a bunch of content above my ability, but usually, they include easier stuff as well.
posted by lab.beetle at 12:44 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]

I’m in the same boat and did a double-take when I saw that the newest Minneapolis community ed catalog lists a class called “Yoga for Stiff People”. I’m seriously considering taking it.
posted by Maarika at 12:55 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]

I am also a cyclist and am constantly fighting stiff hips.

Most of the common things I do have been suggested up-thread but no one has suggested meditation.

I found by accident on a multiday silent meditation retreat, that I hold a lot of tension in my hips when I am worried about how other people see me. So, now, in addition to yoga (Deer pose is a favorite of mine for getting into the psoas), particularly yin yoga, I also work on releasing the tension through body scan and other relaxing meditations.
posted by chiefthe at 3:24 PM on August 23

I got started with pilates, rather than yoga, and have stuck with it. I now see a pilates-based movement coach and she has worked freaking miracles for my physical functioning. Back, hips, hamstrings, all of it. She's expensive for individual coaching sessions but she also teaches pay-what-you-can classes at the local rec center. So maybe look for something like that? I dont' have strong feelings about the pilates v yoga thing, although pilates was created for dancers to keep their bodies functioning.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:18 PM on August 23

I have always had stiff hips and tight hamstrings. In lockdown I ran across something called “the 21 day hip opening challenge” that is run by a guy named Lucas Rockwood— his site is yogabody.com. Anyway, not to overstate it, but it changed my life. Look into it — it’s 15 minutes a day— a series of videos that detail a progression of poses, with options for each one for every level of stiffness/flexibility. He’s very straightforward and clear.

The cost seemed fair to me, especially since you can re-access it forever. I just finished going through it again. (And I am saving this thread to investigate all the other suggestions.)
posted by profreader at 1:35 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]

Spend more time on the floor. Get a floor couch and/or cushions. Do squats regularly and stay there poised for at least a minute every day By squat I mean sink all the way the floor and rest on your calves against your thighs. Do a brief squat throughout the day. Practice good posture when sitting, and get up at least once every half an hour, then maybe do a squat or stretch. Check out 'knees over toes guy' and start doing some of the exercises he discusses to strengthen the feet, ankles and legs especially the knees.
posted by diode at 5:38 AM on August 24

A hammock helped a lot .
. A long slack thing made from 4 yards football jersey fabric.
posted by hortense at 11:21 AM on August 24

What worked for me was

1. a 5-15 minute morning warm-up, daily – just get everything moving, consistency is more important than content
2. evening relaxed movement session / stretching / foam rolling, once or twice a week – again, the content is far less important than committing to consistently spend the time chilling and moving in positions that feel like they need love
3. making sure i get plenty of walking in during the day

I don't think I can overstate how little the particulars IMO matter compared to frequency, gentle volume, and consistency. Put in the work (whatever it is) often throughout the week, so that the tightness doesn't get a chance to deepen or re-establish itself.
posted by daveliepmann at 1:17 AM on August 26 [1 favorite]

Also go to a podiatrist who can do a gait evaluation. Mine gave me some little squidgy pieces that straighten out/support a toe on each foot and shift my feet to a parallel position, and my hips have less strain on them.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 2:31 AM on August 26 [1 favorite]

This video was recommended on Mefi years ago when I was having a lot of back pain. It's not easy but it really helped me get over the hump.
posted by jasondigitized at 8:09 PM on August 27

Captain Morgan stretch videos
posted by mecran01 at 11:19 AM on August 28