Hamstring ROM - no day to day gains

My age: 29

Everymorning I stretch my hamstrings and hipflexors. My ROM before I start is something like 1" off touching my toes with straight legs. When I finish I can get my knuckles flat on the floor, but I've never achieved better than this.
The problem is that when I wake up the next day I'm back to where I was before with what seems like no change at all!
I find that my left leg is A LOT worse than my right. It feels like a have a golf ball stuck 1" below the skin behind the superficial hamstring (the bit that is closest to the skin) and about 4 fingers down from where my butt cheek starts.

All this is frustrating because it costs me at least 1/2 in a day and if I don't do it I start to encourage back problems.

What more can I do to make progress? Is there more I can than stretching?


Here's how I stretch every morning:

I stretch my hipflexors down on one knee, only 1x40secs each side.

I then stretch my hamstrings. This is where I'm getting frustrated. Here's what I currently do:

- I might start this in the shower by heating the area and stretching by putting one leg up, stretching upwards and also activating it further by pulling down I do this for only 20secs on each side.
- I then go outside to stretch in the fresh air. Bizzarely I find fresh air and breathing help.
- I start with kicks into the air making sure I can feel the stretch in my hamstrings. I breath out on the stretch. I do 2x10 on each side
- I then stretch my hamstrings by putting one leg onto a box approx 1m high. I activate it by pushing down with my leg and stretch it was well. I bring my toes towards myself to stretch it more. I do this for at least 2 mins. I then switch to the other side. I then both sides again and again so I have done 2-3x2mins of stretching on each leg.
- at this stage I usually find that this hard stretching still isn't enough so I do the same thing but isolating towards the glutes I do 1x2mins on each leg
- I then try to touch my toes with straight legs and find I still can get my hands flat on the floor, but sometimes I can get my knuckles on the floor
- I then stretch standing up by pushing my bum out until I can get my knuckles on the floor
- I then start my day

Increase the stretching from once a day to 2 times a day if not 3. You should hopefully start seeing a difference then.
I say this because I remember a physio buddy of mine telling me the same complaint and how he then fixed it by just stretching more frequently.

Beware that too much hamstring stretching can hurt your back - lots of lumbar flexion can cause disc displacement and cause back pain. Ensure you follow your hamstring stretches with some backward bends or mckenzie extensions / cobra stretch.

I wonder why you have so much emphasis on stretching one muscle. A good morning programme should include a more comprehensive set of goals and you may need to increases flexibility of a range of muscles.

For the "golf ball" this area may respond nicely to a deep massage or muscle release technique. It sounds as though there is a region of scar tissue from an old injury that has healed with thickening and shortening.

Hello Jago,

Hope by now your doing better but just in case your not I had a few thoughts.

Firstly, your method of measuring ROM is not appropriate. When you go from not touching your toes to touching your toes this does not mean you've increased your hamstring flexibility. Much of this could come from stretching ligaments in your back which will be reversed nightly as your body doesn't like ligaments getting loose. You also mentioned a back issue so this could actually be contributing to it.

A better way to self- measure would be to ly on the floor with one leg through a doorway and the other up against the door frame with you trying to get the leg straight and flush with the door frame. Compare how far you get pre and post stretching.

Also try to stretch with your back straight and have the movement come from your pelvis.

If you have back problems you may also have some neural tension which means that the nerve going down the back of your leg will cause the same sensation as a tight hamstring without it actually being the hamstring thats the root cause. Neural stretches differ from muscular stretches which is why you may ot have been getting prolonged relief.

ANyway just some thoughts if your still having trouble.