The Advantages of Strong Hamstrings
Image Credit: Solovyova/iStock/GettyImages Just about every athlete and weekend warrior relies on strong hamstrings. These muscles are responsible for bending your knees. If they’re strong, you can jump high, run fast and accelerate with explosive power. With well-developed hamstrings, you can maintain good posture and prevent leg injuries.
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The hamstrings consist of three main muscles that extend from your sit-bones to your knees: the biceps femoris, the semitendinosus and the semimembranosus.
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Key Functions
Because your hamstrings cross the knee and hip joints, they bend your knees and draw your hips backwards. Your hamstrings contribute to functional motion, such as walking, and they help you to achieve speed, power and agility in many sports. When executing explosive movement, these muscles play an important part in shifting the load from your knees to your hips. For example, a sprinter’s ability to launch off the blocks and accumulate speed depends on strong hamstrings.
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They also contribute to your ability to absorb the shock of movements involving high velocity or force.
Read More: The Best Hamstring Stretching Exercises
Deceleration
During the course of a contraction, your hamstrings shorten and lengthen. The concentric, or shortening, phase of a muscular action allows you to bend your knee, the eccentric phase, or lengthening, of the muscle helps you to control the deceleration of your body.
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For example, when you're running downhill, the lengthening of your hamstrings helps you to control the speed of the descent. This ability to properly decelerate lowers the amount of pressure on the joints in your lower body and prevents injury.
Posture and Alignment
Strong hamstrings work to stabilize your hips and keep your spine properly aligned. Envision your skeletal system as a connected chain; if one link moves out of alignment, problems ripple through the chain.
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If your hamstrings are weak and tight, they'll tug on your hips -- tipping them forward -- and compromise functional movement. A swayback posture, in which your lower back arches and shoulders round, may result.
Your hamstrings also keep your knee and surrounding connective tissue in alignment. Read More: Hamstring Strengthening Exercises at Home
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references
The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier; Amy Taylor Alpers, Rachel Taylor Segel, Lorna Gentry
Nordic Walking for Total Fitness; Suzanne Nottingham, Alexandra Jurasin
Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy; Bret Contreras
Triathlon Anatomy; Mark Klion, Troy Jacobson
The Encyclopedia of Women’s Health; Christine Ammer
Run Strong; Kevin Beck
T Nation: The 7 Best “Regular” Hamstring Exercises
Boot Camp Fitness Guide: Hamstring Exercises
Aurora Health Care: Perfect Posture: Stronger Hamstrings Reduce Harmful Stress
references
The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier; Amy Taylor Alpers, Rachel Taylor Segel, Lorna Gentry
Nordic Walking for Total Fitness; Suzanne Nottingham, Alexandra Jurasin
Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy; Bret Contreras
Triathlon Anatomy; Mark Klion, Troy Jacobson
The Encyclopedia of Women’s Health; Christine Ammer
Run Strong; Kevin Beck
T Nation: The 7 Best “Regular” Hamstring Exercises
Boot Camp Fitness Guide: Hamstring Exercises
Aurora Health Care: Perfect Posture: Stronger Hamstrings Reduce Harmful Stress
The Advantages of Strong Hamstrings
Image Credit: Solovyova/iStock/GettyImages
Image Credit: Solovyova/iStock/GettyImages
The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier; Amy Taylor Alpers, Rachel Taylor Segel, Lorna Gentry
Nordic Walking for Total Fitness; Suzanne Nottingham, Alexandra Jurasin
Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy; Bret Contreras
Triathlon Anatomy; Mark Klion, Troy Jacobson
The Encyclopedia of Women’s Health; Christine Ammer
Run Strong; Kevin Beck
T Nation: The 7 Best “Regular” Hamstring Exercises
Boot Camp Fitness Guide: Hamstring Exercises
Aurora Health Care: Perfect Posture: Stronger Hamstrings Reduce Harmful Stress
