How A Gymnast’s “Tight Hamstrings” Can Really Be a Core Control Problem

Something really interesting happened to me the other night at the gym during practice, and I wanted to share the story. One of my level 8’s told me that she has “really tight hamstrings” and that for some reason no matter how much she stretches her splits or pikes they never get better. I know this gymnast personally, and I know that she is one of the most flexible/hyper mobile girls on our team. So naturally I was thinking there had to be more to this. I decided to take a few minutes to break it down and figure out if it was really a hamstring mobility problem based on a lot of the PT information I’ve been reading/listening to lately. What ended up looking light tight hamstrings and a restricted pike stretch was really a core control /stability problem, and by doing some corrective work I was able to fix what looked like tight hamstrings in about 5 minutes. It all started out with her showing me a pike stretch, where she said she felt a lot of pulling in the back of her legs because of her hamstrings and she could not reach her hands to the floor.

Pre-Test Pike Stretch Suggesting Some “Tightness”

Pike Stretches in Gymnastics: What Muscles You May Be Actually Targeting

For this post I wanted to continue on the lower back flexibility path from last week, and discuss another scenario I’ve seen many times when working with gymnasts. Although this is specific to gymnasts, the information has carry over to anyone who is an active person. Many people who are runners, competitive athletes, or recreational exercisers also struggle with this area. Chronic tightness of the lower leg structures, like the hamstrings and calves, without proper mobilization and stretching may lead to a variety of injuries over time.