Flexibility is important for everyone not just athletes. When your muscles are shortened and not stretched out they are unable to be used to their power potential and range of motion will be limited. Think about a runner’s stride. When a runner has tight hamstrings the quadriceps will work harder because they are working against the hamstrings to compensate. This causes both the quadriceps and hamstrings to fatigue and sets the stage for a poor performance or makes the runner prone to injury.
Also tight hamstrings are a huge contributor to lower back pain, knee pain and leg length differences. If the hamstrings are tight and don’t fire properly, neither do the gluteus maximus and this causes the erector spinae to contract first, followed by the glutes and then the hamstrings and this puts massive stresses on the lumbar spine causing back pain.
For women stretching should be high on the to do list. This is because stretching a tight muscle will help tone sexy, long, lean muscles instead of having big bulky muscles.
The following are examples of some stretches that you can do at home. Make sure to hold them static for a minimum of 30 seconds.
