Basic Anatomy of Stretching the Hamstrings
*Updated 4/27/18
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Overview
Additionally, part of the adductor magnus acts as a hamstring muscle by function.
By standard definition, we will consider the 4 muscles listed above in the bullet points to be the hamstrings as a group.
When talking about a muscle or a muscle group, it's important to know where the muscles attach because you will then know how it affects the joint(s) the muscles cross.
Some muscles cross multiple joints and some cross only one. When a muscle crosses two joints it's called a biarticular muscle. Bi meaning two and articular meaning joint (a joint in medical language is often referred to as a bony 'articulation').
Three out of the four hamstring muscles are biarticular. They cross the hip joint and the knee joint. Only the short head of the biceps femoris is a uniarticular joint (crossing one joint). It crosses only the knee.
The three muscles other than the short head begin on the ischial tuberosity, a part of your pelvis. They then travel down the back of your leg and attach below your knee joint.
The biceps femoris muscles are on the outside or lateral part of your thigh and attach on the lateral part of your lower leg.
The semimembranosus and semitendinosus attach on the medial or inside part of the lower leg.
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Indications for Stretching
Arguably you are unable to stretch the short head of the biceps femoris. Since the vast majority of people can fully lock the knee joint, the limitation is never the biceps femoris.
Since the other three mucsles cross the hip joint, you can stretch them across the knee and hip joint.
When the hip joint goes into flexion and the knee stays in extension (knee straight) you are able to stretch those three hamstring muscles.
If the low back (lumbar spine) is flexed (rounded), it makes it harder to stretch the hamstrings because it brings the ischial tuberosity closer to the other attachment point.
To stretch a muscle you have to separate the connection points of the muscle from each other.
How to Stretch the Hamstrings
That deserves it's own post and video, which you can access here.
Summary
In this post you learned the following:
- The names of the 4 hamstring muscles
- Part of the adductor magnus performs a hamstring action
- What a biarticular and uniarticular muscle are
- How positioning the bones and joints that muscles cross affects the stretch
- A link to a specific post and video to stretch this area of your body
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Need help with your lower back and hip mobility?
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Comments
Hi Ryan
What are the 4 hamstrings? I only thought we had 3?
Thanks in advance.
Ed
Long and short head of biceps femoris, semitendinosus, semimembranosus. Part of the adductor magnus is considered a hamstring function as well
Great video Ryan. I enjoyed it and I learnt something.
Glad to hear it Shane
Ryan, not to be a jerk about this but there are ONLY three muscles in the Hamstrings. The Tensor Fascia Latae ISN'T part of the Hamstrings, which is what I presume you are talking about in this episode. The Tensor Fascia Latae is a rather small muscle attached to the IT Band, which attaches below the knee. As you know, the ITB isn't muscle at all and more of a connective tissue. I'm somewhat lost in this one because rarely do you want to loosen tendons, ligaments or even fascia because their jobs are related to holding things together and down.
1. Semimembranosus
2. Semitendinosus
3. Biceps Femoris - Short head
4. Biceps Femoris - Long head
Biceps femoris - short head doesn't cross hip joint. Therefore if you can extend/lockout your knee, you can't stretch that muscle. The other 3 hamstring muscles also cross the hip joint as their origin is on the pelvis itself, so with hip flexion and knee extension they are stretched in a way the short head of the biceps femoris can't
Ryan, I'm rather impressed you responded as quickly as you did to start with. I appreciate that.
Now, back to the discussion at hand, separating the long head and the short head is a misnomer. That's like suggesting that you can separate the iliopsoas. Though they are technically two muscles, they work as one and are connected to the muscle itself. In effect, they ARE one muscle and not two. Stretching of the long head will, by very nature (though weakly) stretch the short head. I'm not questioning your understanding our knowledge on this and will assume that what I'm about to state isn't to explain it to you but to those that would be reading our discussion on this topic. When the fibers of a muscle, or attaching muscle, fire the entire muscle contracts. By very nature, once a muscle is stretched the entire muscle is stretched as well. Both of these impulse controlled relaxation and contraction are not based on ONLY the firing of nervous system but a reaction from the muscular system to protect itself. (Granted, that is a weak explanation of the actual reactions but makes my point). Though they have different innervations, they work in conjunction.
That being said, technically I stand corrected, but more truly we're walking on hairs separating those two muscles.
Definitely not a misnomer. They are distinct muscles and when dissected are clearly different. The bigger misnomer, in my opinion, is naming them 'long head' and 'short head' of the same muscle instead of calling them two different muscles. It's probably ambiguous that we even name muscles the way we do to an extent.
The iliopsoas are distinct muscles that connect together. Thus the reason the are called the iliopsoas but, when I did my cadaver labs, they were different enough and distinct as well. The Psoas attaches much higher on the anterior of the spine. While the illiacus is more contained within the oscosus. The reason they are connected, more realistically, together as the iliopsoas is that, though they have different origins, they have basically the same exact insertion and connect to each other. Granted, the short head is much more distinct from the long head on the Bicep Femoris. Hmmm, I may actually concede that they should be classified as two muscles. The FACT that they have different origin and insertions AND the FACT that they are innervated with different nerves as well, though they are connected in their bellies, it does much sense that we'd see them as different muscles. A good massage therapist could "release" it BUT you're point is made sir.
You've official gained me respect man. I'd love to have you on my podcast.
What is your podcast? I'd be happy to come on if you'd like. Please email [email protected] if you'd like to get something scheduled.
Thank you for the good discussion. Food for thought for everyone I hope.
Metabolic Radio is the name of Taylor and my podcast. Give it a listen. If you don't hear from me, I hopefully won't get sidetracked too far, my e-mail address is [email protected]. I would enjoy any discussion I can see we might get into. Our podcast is based on the concept of health and fitness over all.
[…] Before getting too far into this, if you are not familiar with the anatomy of the hamstrings, we recommend you read our article on the basic anatomy of stretching the hamstrings. […]