WHY TOUCHING YOUR
TOES IS OVERRATED
Remember the toe-touch test in school, where
your teacher gauged your flexibility based
on how far you could reach your fingers toward
your feet? This “test” has been used as a
measure of musculoskeletal health for decades.
However,hamstring limberness without
strength shouldn’t be anyone’s goal.
Placing too much focus on stretching your
hamstrings can shorten your hip flexors,
creating a muscle imbalance that can contribute
to an anterior (forward) pelvic tilt—
and back pain as a result.WHEN I WAS IN MY EARLY 20S,I had a vigorous Ashtanga Yoga
practice, and I loved that my hypermobile body could easily
contort into even the most advanced postures. Yet my drive
to feel a deep stretch, particularly in all of the forward folds
in the Ashtanga series, caused micro-tears in my hamstrings,
which led to knee and hip pain—plus so much soreness that
when I got out of bed each morning, I wasn’t able to
straighten my legs for at least an hour.
Like me, many yoga practitioners learn lessons about
their hamstrings the hard way. After all, having the ability
to achieve all kinds of complex yoga poses due to hypermobile
hamstrings is a common, if unspoken, goal. On the flip side,
a lack of flexibility is often associated with not being able to
practice yoga at all. How many times have you heard someone
say, “Yoga isn’t for me; I can’t even touch my toes.”?
In fact, optimal hamstring health lies somewhere between
the two ends of this spectrum. If your hamstrings don’t have
a lot of motion, gaining flexibility can help keep your knees,
hips, and legs healthy. If your hamstrings are hyperlax,
controlling their range of motion will also help you stay
injury free. It took me two solid years of avoiding forward
bends in order to heal my hamstrings and learn the
importance of both stretching and strengthening this muscle
group. Here’s how you can create strong, pliable hamstrings,
wherever your starting point.90
january 2018yogajournal.com.auANATOMY
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Your hamstrings
Flexible and strong, hamstrings are key to a healthy, happy yoga practice.
Here’s what you need to know in order to lengthen and strengthen these muscles. By Jill MillerStrengthen to lengthen
It seems paradoxical that if your hamstrings are tight, you
should strengthen them. However,hamstrings are healthiest
when all of their fibres are able to fully lengthen and contract,
which is what prevents muscle tears and promotes optimal
muscle health. The following exercise is like medicine for both
hypermobile and restricted hamstrings. It’s a concentric exercise
(read: it shortens the hamstrings). If you dislike this move as
much as I do, take it as a sign that you’ve got some hamstring-
strengthening work to do.THE MOVE: HAMSTRING SLIDES
STEP ONE Place a yoga blanket on a slippery surface, like a
hardwood or tile floor. Lie down to rest your bottom, torso, and
head on the blanket with your legs outstretched in front of you,
hips parallel to each other.STEP TWO Drive your heels into the floor, and pull your bottom
toward your heels by exclusively using your hamstrings. When
you’re halfway there, stop and make sure your knees are pointing
to the sky and still parallel to one another.STEP THREE Complete the move by pulling your heels all the way
to your bottom, then straighten your legs to return to the starting
position. Repeat until you feel tired.
PHOTOS: JEFF NELSON; ILLUSTRATION: MICHELE GRAHAM MODEL: COLLEEN SAIDMAN YEE; HAIR/MAKEUP: BETH WALKER; CLOTHING: MO