You’d think, from all the alarmist pieces online, that everyone you meet—me, you, even leprechauns—has tight hamstrings. If you Google it, you’ll find millions of articles telling you why, how, and when to stretch them. People blame tight hamstrings for a lot of problems, like back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, basically any pain, plus odd things like male pattern baldness, global warming, and even why I forgot to take out the trash. While tight hamstrings can contribute to some issues, blaming them every time is an oversimplification. It’s the default excuse coaches and trainers often fall back on.
Dr. John Rusin puts it plainly: if you’re stretching your hamstrings every day for months without real improvement in flexibility, mobility, movement patterns, or pain, it’s not working and it’s time to move on. If you aren’t seeing results, stretching isn’t just wasted time—it can work against you. Muscles don’t actually get longer; they keep a certain tone based on neurological signals. So yes, strategic stretching can reduce tone and tightness, but if it hasn’t helped by now, it probably won’t.
As for me: to lengthen a muscle you either lengthen bone (which sounds painful) or, in someone who truly appears short or stiff, increase the total number of sarcomeres in series (which takes a lot of stretching). Physical therapist Bill Hartman suggests starting with 2–3 ten-minute holds per day, then working up to twenty-minute holds. That quick 30-second stretch you’re doing (likely done wrong) isn’t really moving the needle.
ARE YOU “TIGHT” OR JUST OUT OF WHACK?
You’d be surprised how often it’s the latter. Most people aren’t really tight; they’re simply stuck in a poor position. This echoes a point Mike Reinold—physical therapist and strength coach—made in casual conversation: which should you tackle first, stability or mobility? Trainers who emphasize stability can overdo it, making clients stand on BOSU balls for long sessions. Those who chase mobility can become obsessed with fancy manuals. Neither view is inherently wrong, but both can be flawed if treated as the universal fix for everyone.
If you strengthen in the wrong alignment, you’ll create imbalance. If you stretch in the wrong alignment, you can create instability. Take someone with a large anterior pelvic tilt. They often complain their hamstrings are always tight, and no amount of stretching helps. After weeks or months of constant stretching, you’d expect relief, but you don’t get it. The problem is the pelvic position, not the hamstrings. Until you address that tilt, stretching the hamstrings will just keep feeding the issue.
We can link this to Lower Cross Syndrome, as described by Vladimir Janda, and stretch what’s tight (hip flexors, erectors). That helps, but for most people it isn’t enough. Instead, focusing on things like anterior core strength (dead bugs, for example) and active hip movements—such as the Core Engaged Active Straight Leg Raise—often pays off.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE OF NOT REALLY TIGHT HAMSTRINGS
Take my client Dima. He looks very tight in the hamstrings, and if you tested his Active Straight Leg Raise now, many would rate him as tight. Yet I can achieve more range of motion passively—there’s a bit of ROM I can gain by gentle manual work. So should we just have him stretch? Not necessarily. He is someone who can benefit from some stretching, but it’s not the main focus.
Instead I have him do things like this: big, dramatic movements that look almost magical. And yes, he still struggles with full knee extension, but his ROM improves dramatically without relying on stretching alone.
Dean Somerset explains the mechanism well: part of it is matching the active ability to reach a position with the available passive ROM. If they can passively get there, they’re not truly “tight” or restricted—they just may lack the strength or motor control in that position, so doing hip-flexion moves helps build the context so that, in a follow-up test, they can actively reach that position.
Bottom line: don’t assume everyone needs stretching. A little active range of motion, in combination with tension, can go a long way toward building context and improving ROM.
THEY EXIST!
No, Michael Bay. No.
