Hamstring Tightness…Are You Sure?

Hamstring tightness is a common scapegoat for musculoskeletal injuries involving the low back and lower extremities. Other structures, however, may be contributing to this apparent limitation in flexibility aside from just the hamstring muscle group. I am writing this post to share a recent publication that I coauthored entitled “The role of neural tension in hamstring flexibility,” which recently appeared in the August issue of the Scand J Med Sci Sports. This article provides clear-cut evidence that passive extensibility of the neural tissue may play a greater role in hamstring extensibility than previously considered.

“It’s not what we don’t know that defeats us but rather what we know that is not so.”