Hey everybody,
Below, you’ll find an article I wrote to hep golfers with their tight hamstrings. This is a very common issue, and it’s easily solved.
Hope you enjoy!
Have a great day,
Kareem
PS – if you haven’t gotten your hands on my golf fitness guarantee, you can try it for free by clicking the link below:
Golfers With Tight Hamstrings
Golfers With Tight Hamstrings
By Kareem Samhouri, DPT
Tight hamstrings are very common among golfers, and they are very avoidable. Most golfers attempt to relieve hamstring tension by performing quick stretches (i.e. less than 10 seconds with only a brief pause at the area of greatest restriction.) In reality, it is not the amount of ‘flexibility’ a golfer has that determines his/her ability to swing smoothly, but it is the amount of ‘mobility’ instead. Let’s take a closer look at these two words, where:
‘Flexibility’ refers to the amount of passive lengthening (i.e. bending over to touch your toes and holding the position)
versus
‘Mobility,’ which refers to the amount of active lengthening that a muscle can withstand (i.e. while laying on your back , actively extending your knee until you feel a light stretch, slowly returning, and repeating for a desired number of repetitions)
Flexibility is necessary for a gymnast that needs to hold a certain position for a prolonged period of time. Mobility is necessary for people that need to use their muscle flexibility with movement, such as golfers or runners. By working on mobility rather than flexibility, you will dramatically improve your hamstring length as it relates to the golf swing. Please follow the mobility example above to perform your hamstring mobility exercise. Repeat for 3 sets of 15 repetitions per leg, most days of the week.
A second point to emphasize is neural tension. Many times, increased tension arising from the low back and spinal structures can result in increased sciatic nerve activity. The sciatic nerve controls tissue tension throughout the entire backside of the lower extremity. In this case, you would perform the same mobility exercise, but while holding a towel that is wrapped around the ball of your foot to bring your toes towards your face. This ankle movement, otherwise known as ‘dorsiflexion,’ adds a light stretch to the sciatic nerve and will teach your nervous system to believe it can be more relaxed in a normal, standing position. Be careful not to stretch aggressively when stretching neural structures, as they will respond with increased activity (i.e. more tension) if you do.
By following these guidelines for improving hamstring mobility you will greatly reduce incidence of injury, as well as improve pelvic rotation associated with the golf swing. Pelvic rotation is one essential component to improving accuracy and distance in golf.
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