Continuing on in all-the-things-connected to the pelvic floor journey, we arrive at the derrière and hamstrings. Since this sit cradled in a chair for days and years, it’s incredibly common that adults have underachieve and weak muscles in these areas. The pathway I’m recommending to get them back on…
Massage
In short, foam roll just about everything. Hit up your calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes and back first. Tight adductors (groin) is a super common reason the glutes don’t fire correctly, we covered them in the last episode. Here’s a link to a shorter version of how to foam roll those.
Another crazy connection I’ve seen over the years is the opposite shoulder blade being an issue in glute/hamstring recruitment. The body balances itself on diagonals. Think about your footprints in sand, they’re not in a tightrope-like line, they zig zag. In proper gait (how you walk), the upper body should rotate over the forward leg. When working with clients, this element is often off, leading to a kind of waddle instead of a swagger. These folks are often in my studio because of back pain, knee pain and neck tension. All of it can connect to this diagonal element being lost in their walk and instead they pogo stick side-to-side. So, massaging the shoulder blade is critical as well before we get into trying to activate the rear end.
Stretch
The video details a couple approaches to stretching the hamstrings to start—we stretch the muscle as well as the fascial chain. What’s the difference? Stretching the muscle means working the joint in its full range of motion, versus the fascial chain is more like stretching the skin. Someone who taught a training I once attended likened it to if you were wearing jeans or a wetsuit—if there’s greater pull on the fabric, that’s more like a fascial stretch.
The action of the hamstrings is to bend the knee. Therefore, stretching the hamstring muscle would mean actively pulling open the knee like a clamshell. We have 3 hamstrings muscles, so stretching at different angles means we can target each one.
When most of us think about stretching the hamstrings, we think about a pike stretch or putting a leg out and leaning over it. This is our fascial stretch. Something easy like putting your foot up on a chair and leaning over it, while waving your leg side-to-side to pick up those 3 hamstrings will do the trick.
For the glute and the deeper hip rotational muscles, pigeon pose is a straightforward and good bang for your buck in terms of what it hit and the time you’re in the stretch. There’s a few options in this video to add the active stretch element to pigeon as well as some different fascial components.
Activate
We then move into a couple of simple activations you could even do pre-walk or run. To activate the glute max, gently press your foot into a wall. Make sure your thighs are parallel or have the active thigh slightly behind the standing leg. Feel your rear tone up as you press.
The hamstrings bend the knee, so have the same thigh orientation as above and then pull your heel to your bum. Taking the leg and foot at different angles will help to activate the different hamstring muscles. This is all explained in the video and you can fast forward to 20:23 for details. You can do the same exercise lying on your stomach and it will automatically keep your thighs in that parallel position, making it harder to cheat in the motion.
Lastly, we do a simple hip rotation activation of internal rotation and then external. It’s a gentle exercise, yet deceptively difficult. Another option is the clam series, which you can find here.
I always say my primary concern when doing this work is aging well and not necessarily the biceps and bikini-body. That said, I’m all for a butt-tastic body if it motivates you for some post-Covid fun as well as keeping your hips strong. 🍒