Your quadriceps and hamstrings are your major thigh muscles. Your quads, located on the front of your thigh, extend your knee and flex your hip; your hamstrings, located on the rear of your thigh, flex your knee and extend your hip. Both muscle groups are important for the health of your knees and hips and benefit from both strengthening and stretching exercises.
About The Quadriceps
Your quadriceps consist of four individual muscles with a shared insertion point below your knee. The rectus femoris muscle crosses your hip and knee; the vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius and vastus medialis muscles only cross your knee. Stretching these muscles requires you to bend your knee and extend your hip to take the origin and insertion points away from each other.
Quadriceps Stretches
Most quad stretches involve pulling your foot up toward your butt. You can do this while standing or while lying on your side or on your front. When stretching your quads, ensure your knees are together to maximize the effect of the stretch. If you want a deeper quad stretch, extend your hip slightly to draw the origin and insertion points even farther apart. If you have large calves or muscular hamstrings, your foot might not reach your butt. In this case, do not force the stretch by pulling vigorously on your foot, because you could hurt your ankle or knee.
About The Hamstrings
Your hamstring muscles consist of three muscles that cross your hip and knee joints. Your hamstrings are made up from the semi membranosis, the semi tendonosis and the biceps femoris muscles. Stretching the hamstrings requires that you extend your knee and flex your hip to draw the origin and insertion points away from each other.
Hamstring Stretches
Hamstring stretches involve flexing your hip forward while keeping your knee extended. This can be done in a standing, seated or lying position. When stretching your hamstrings, be aware of the position of your lower back. Rounding your lower back allows you to reach further down your leg but does not affect the stretch experienced by your hamstrings and can cause a back injury. Try to keep your spine neutral when stretching your hamstrings. If necessary, loop a towel or a yoga strap around your feet so that you don't have to round your back. To increase the intensity of a hamstring stretch, focus on pushing your butt back rather than leaning forward more.
Maintenance Stretching
To maintain your current flexibility levels, hold your stretches for around 10 to 15 seconds. This is sufficient to prevent the occurrence of adaptive shorting after exercise but not long enough to improve your flexibility. Maintenance stretches are generally used as part of a cool-down at the end of a workout.
Developmental Stretching
Improving your flexibility requires that you hold your stretches for longer. This type of stretching is often called developmental stretching. Most experts agree you should hold a developmental stretch for more than 30 seconds and as long as five minutes. Relaxation is an important factor in developmental stretching, and you should try to ease into a progressively deeper position as you exhale. Focus on breathing nasally; this is strongly linked with the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation. Take care not to "bounce" as you stretch, because this will cause your muscles to tighten up and prevent you from stretching effectively.
References
- "Yoga for Regular Guys"; Diamond Dallas Page & Dr. Craig Aaron; 2005
- "Yoga Anatomy"; Leslie Kaminoff, Sharon Ellis, and Amy Matthews, 2007
- "Stretching"; Bob Anderson and Jean Anderson; 2010
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