How to protect your hamstrings in a forward fold

 In yoga class, you may experience joy in a forward fold or suffering. When forward folding you are stretching your hamstring muscles – the muscles in the back of your thigh. Also, depending on the type of forward fold, you may be stretching you low back muscles as well. In class I have experienced yogis with either super tight hamstrings or loose hamstrings putting strain on their joints unnecessarily.

First, let’s break down the anatomy of the hamstrings and their purpose. The hamstrings are actually three muscles located in the back of your thigh. They are the semitendinous, semimembranous, and biceps femoris (which has two heads). The semitendinous, semimebranous, and biceps femoris (long head) originate at your ischial tuberosity – aka your sit bones (the boney part of your butt). The semitendinous and semimembranous attach to top portion of your tibia (shin bone) and the biceps femoris attaches to the fibular head (the bone at the outside of your knee). Since these muscles cross two joints – your hip and your knee – they have two actions. Their major action is bending the knee and they play a minor role in hip extension (moving your leg back).

Generally, this muscle becomes tight from sitting all day. When you have your knees bent and your low back is in a slouched position, the hamstring muscle shortens. Performing forward folds can improve the tightness if this is an issue that you have.

It is so important to perform forward folds correctly as to not strain your hamstrings or put undue stress on your low back. Here are a few tips:

• Bend your knees. By bringing some softness to this joint it allows for the hamstrings to slightly be on slack so you don’t over stretch this muscle. Also, it allows for length in your low back. For those of you with looser hamstrings, this may seem counterintuitive, but my next tip will keep the stretch happening in the backs of your legs.
• Positioning your sit bones. If you are standing your forward fold lift your hips to the ceiling. This allows for you to achieve length through the muscle safely. If you are sitting on the ground, actively reach your bottom to the back of the mat to get the hamstring muscles to length. Again, by actively moving your sit bones, this allows to increase length in your low back.
• Contract your quadriceps. This is the muscle in the front of your thigh. The way to make this happen is to actively move your knee caps up your thigh. This is so, so important. The hamstrings and quadriceps muscles tend to work together, so maintaining this contraction will keep the hamstrings safe and also allow you to go deeper into the pose.