Hamstrings and Building Core Strength
Growing up I was always someone that could palm the floor no problem. I considered myself “flexible” and loved going to yoga multiple times a week. But, no matter how much I stretched my hamstrings, they always felt tight. Do you feel the same? Keep scrolling :)
Meet your proximal hamstrings
When considering the hamstrings I love looking closely at proximal hamstring strength and awareness. Your proximal hamstrings attach onto your ischial tuberosity (sitz bone) at the bottom of our pelvis. Along with the adductor magnus they help pull us into a more posterior orientation. This is VERY important for pregnant and postpartum moms who are often in a more anterior tilt. The hamstrings often feel “tight” because they are at length, and holding on!
Why are they important? Think of your proximal hamstrings like a great anchor for the pelvis, along with the deep abdominals. It's really important to have an awesome anchor, or else someone else is going to jump in to provide support. Find them here.
On the front side our deep abdominals (TVA + external and internal obliques) attach to the front of the pelvis. Think of your deep abdominals as maintaining the position of the pelvis on the front side. Together with the hamstrings these guys are primarily responsible for sagittal (front to back) control of the pelvis.
Sagittal Plane Control (Front to back)
In the sagittal plane (e.g. walking, lunges) we need to master the ability to control our pelvis front to back. In order to do this we need our abs and hamstrings working to help us maintain a more “stacked” position when we aren’t even thinking about it.
Mastering sagittal plane control is important before we add layers and challenge. When we are better able to “stack” ourselves front to back, we can maximize our ability to manage pressure and breathe effectively. Controlling this position of our pelvis allows our thoracic and pelvic diaphragms to ascend and descend like a piston, as described by Julie Wiebe. In this more stacked position you’ll be more easily able to connect with your core and feel more “supported” in your day-to-day movements and strength training.
A few things we can work on:
Ribcage movement: Learning to get a great exhale and get the lower ribs down (without crunching) and maintaining this position again through inhalation so our ribcage expands above the lower ribs (360 expansion).
Finding a stacked position front to back starts with connecting with your deep core + proximal hamstrings. Getting abs and hamstrings on board will help us maintain this position.
When we can breathe and own this position, we can really start to build strength here!
Your Hamstrings and Core + Pelvic Floor
Your hamstrings may be a big piece to healing your core and pelvic floor postpartum. As noted above, your pelvis needs support from above and below. If your hamstrings are strong and doing their thing, they can help pull the pelvis into a better position, which will help you feel your abs working more effectively.
Ultimately we don’t want to feel the need to “tuck” the pelvis underneath us to feel the abdominals working or calm down the lower back. We want to find a more stacked position naturally so our abdominals can fire and do their thing. This stacked body position will better position our pelvic floor to join the party as well :)
Let’s find your proximal hamstrings!
I love coaching the 90/90 position or hamstring bridge to isolate your proximal hamstrings. Cueing and position can make a huge impact on where you feel the work: proximal (below the butt cheek), distal (behind the knee), or lateral (outside part of the leg) or medial (inside part of the leg).
How do you find your proximal hamstrings:
- Come into a 90/90 position against a chair or bench. Your heels will go directly on the bench. I recommend not using the wall to start so we can decrease quad activation here and focus on the hamstrings.
- Place your fingers on your sitz bones. I find feeling the area really helps the connection.
- Elevate your hips off the ground until it lifts a little, and then tuck your bottom under just slightly (not glute gripping).
- Hip flexors, glutes, and quads should be squishy / not gripping or tense. Sometimes utilizing a yoga block can be helpful.
In the video below I talk through finding your distal and proximal hamstrings and cues that can help you connect to both. Want to play around with options more upright? Check out some options here.
The proximal hamstrings can be leveraged to help control pelvis position. Some people will have a really difficult time isolating the proximal hamstrings, which is why we work on it so much :)
We can also isolate the lateral vs medial hamstring by switching up foot position. Essentially changing the inside to outside muscles working based on tibial rotation and what’s happening at the lower limb.
People who turn their feet out a lot will tend to have a lot of lateral hamstring kicking in and not as much medial hamstring. So, for a warm up exercise for the hamstrings we can cue rotating the feet in when lifting and holding to kick in more medial hamstring and adductor to support pelvic control. Just a small change that can make a huge difference in how you experience the movement. Check out the video above for a visual!
Favorite Hamstring Exercises
You can bring in hamstrings to a variety of strength exercise, not just a 90/90 or bridge position. Below are some of my favorites. You can also check out a few social media posts.
Questions about integrating hamstring work in your training? I’d love to chat about online coaching or 1:1 personal training. The BUILDCore program is also a great place to start for building hamstring + core strength.
Feel good mama.
xoxo,
Erica