Hamstring tightness, it might not be what you think it is!
Often people who have low back pain will come in and tell me that their hamstrings are so tight. They stretch and stretch and stretch but nothing seems to help. I’m here to give you something else to thing about! Could your hamstring tightness actually be neural tension? Neural tension is associated with nerves. We have a big nerve that travels down the back side of our leg called the Sciatic nerve. Nerves do not like to be stretched or compressed, they can get “tied down” in the muscle and fascia around it. It can cause tightness in the hamstring, in the calf and at times people can have numbness and tingling rather than a tight feeling.
Neural mobilization or flossing is a great movement to add to a rehab program to increase hamstring flexibility. By improving hamstring flexibility, it can prevent lower body injuries. The biggest thing about rehab exercises for nerves, most people want to hold to get a better stretch. Holding a stretch for a long time, makes it better, right? Not so much! Think about flossing your teeth. When you floss, you are trying to remove the debris to prevent it from staying and causing problems. Same thing with nerve flossing, you are trying to create more “space” around the nerve so that it moves better in the soft tissue around it. That is why you want to go through the movement or the flossing motion and then back off of it to have less tension on the nerve.
Let’s go over some ways to nerve floss. My favorite was is done by laying on my back. Grab the back of your leg you want to stretch. Then straighten your leg, and kick your toes towards your head. You should feel a stretch or pull in the back of your leg, calf or bottom of your foot. Then back off and let your foot and knee relax and flex your heel towards your butt. Then go back and forth between those two movements as though you are flossing.
Another way you can do this is by sitting in a chair, kick your leg straight (the one you want to stretch), point your toes towards your head. Then flex your leg back to its normal position. Now add in the neck, so as you kick out your leg, drop your head backwards. Then bring your leg back and tuck your chin towards your chest. If you want videos, there are some on our Instagram (@endurancefargo), if you are a visual person.
You need to be consistent with this movement. Will it take your hamstring tightness away right away? No, probably not. However, when doing consistently you will notice more flexibility in your leg and low back and should hopefully have less pain because of this exercise.
