Stretching hamstring through strength exercises

[perman]

I have fairly inflexible hamstrings, and also short arms relative to my torso (deadlifts hit my balls at the top). Been doing SS and TM for 2.5 years.

With hips held high like the SS DL recipe demands, I still struggle maintaining a perfectly straight back. I feel like I need to lower the hips a little to be perfectly safe, but I also feel like that makes me a little weaker, and it therefore leads to my hips rising a little bit, so my natural inclination is just to do DL's as mandated.

Anyways, have tried some hamstring stretching, but it has been ineffective at the frequency/method/whatever I have done it.

The way I would wish to sort this would be through strength training exercises, so I figure using either RDL's or stiff-legged deadlifts. Anyways, I feel RDLs are safer than SLDL since you bounce just where you lose back extensions. On the other hand, RDLs having a slow eccentric makes them fry my hamstring the days afterwards. Since stretching is supposed to be a gentle process, I would imagine an exercise that makes them very sore would not be that effective in lengthening the muscles over time.

SLDLs on the hand are a little less safe. I've had people evaluate my form, and I have slight flexion that tends to get worse at the end of the set. They don't leave my hamstrings feeling quite as sore the day after however.

So my instinct would be to do SLDLs to the best of my ability in order to lengthen the hamstrings. Do you guys believe doing SLDLs to the best of ones ability ought to lengthen the hamstrings over time? Or is conventional boring stretching required?

Would be nice to be able to get more flexible hamstrings without having to stretch them every single day. I also feel hamstrings are the worst muscles to stretch, it's like they're so big that it's almost a mini-workout in itself to stretch them. It's not relaxing at all like how it's said stretching is supposed to be with deep breathing and all that.

[perman]

can you touch your toes with a flat back? Just wondering, I don't think it's necessary to be able to deadlift or anything.

I'm not particularly flexible, and sure it's tough to keep a flat back with heavy deadlifts. I don't think it's a flexibility problem. Lumbar extension is often the first thing to go when a deadlift gets heavy, you just have to fight against it.

Not with straight legs no. If I stretch my hamstrings, then roll a ball under both my feet for half a minute (which helps that stretch for some weird reason I've read and confirmed), I can barely do it.

I hear Rip and co say it's rarely about flexibility, I just reckon I'm an exception. If you're a little inflexible and also have hands far up your thighs, I don't see why the deadlift couldn't conceivably be challenging.

[perman]

Bump.

So noone has experience with the long-term effects SLDLs and RDL have on hamstring flexibility?

[krazyduck]

Paul Carter recently wrote about using SLDL from a deficit as a hamstring stretch or something. I'll see if I can find the article.

Edit: here you go:

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/ar...-mobility-work

These have been a staple of mine for a long time. They build the posterior chain like no other movement, including conventional deadlifts, and because of the extended range of motion will really stretch out the hamstrings.
I use a 4" deficit to do these on. However, if you're too stiff to perform them that way you can simple start by standing on a 45 pound plate.
Now when I write "stiff-legged" you aren't actually in a "straight-legged" position. So it's a bit of a misnomer. You want a soft knee, meaning it's slightly bent, when you perform these. The knee stays locked in that position throughout the movement. Don't turn it into a partial conventional deadlift by bending at the knee more as you get fatigued, or the weight gets heavier.
Bend at the hips to get into position, and hold the soft knee position to start the movement. Keep the low back neutral or just slightly arched.
I actually go quite heavy on these. Sometimes up to over 600 pounds for reps. Generally, I stay around 500 and do several sets of 5-8. If you find yourself losing that neutral spine or bending too much at the knee, then lower the weight and the deficit height, and build back up from there.

Note: I never actually tried them and think its sorta stupid. . . . . but I don't really know anything of value, so there's that.

[hollismb]

RDLs will be better than SLDLs because you have to be able to stretch to get into the start position for the SLDL, whereas, with the RDL, you start in the shortened position, and the movement itself is the stretch, which gets helped by the weight.

For the same reasons, flat-backed goodmornings are a good stretch for the hamstrings. From BBT3:

The idea is to keep the back in extension the whole trip down and up, and the parallels to the RDL should be clear. Your flexibility will determine your depth, and the goodmorning improves hamstring length; there is not a much better stretch than a strict flat-backed goodmorning.

[elVarouza]

Why not just stretch your hamstrings with the touch-your-toes stretch a few times a day? Worked for me. I used to be able to only get within like 4" of touching my toes, so I did the touch-your-toes stretch 3x/day for a 30s hold each time. Within a month at the most I was able to touch the floor.

This doesn't have to be complicated. You say you don't like stretching them, but I bet you can commit to 3x 30s per day.

[perman]

Why not just stretch your hamstrings with the touch-your-toes stretch a few times a day? Worked for me. I used to be able to only get within like 4" of touching my toes, so I did the touch-your-toes stretch 3x/day for a 30s hold each time. Within a month at the most I was able to touch the floor.

This doesn't have to be complicated. You say you don't like stretching them, but I bet you can commit to 3x 30s per day.

Standing or sitting?

[PurpleNurple]

Bump.

So noone has experience with the long-term effects SLDLs and RDL have on hamstring flexibility?

I used a progression of RDLs for a number of weeks, and I didn't notice a superhuman flexibility increase, but probably a bit of increase overall. But I was only doing them once a week, and wasn't doing anything like pausing at the bottom.

[elVarouza]

Standing or sitting?

I did them standing. I used to make it a ritual of doing it in the shower, it was pretty relaxing. It was easy to get in a habit: stretch, shampoo, stretch, soap, stretch, done. 3x 30s each like that once a day helped a lot. Some people worry about keeping their back straight; I never did, and found I could get a better hamstring stretch if I didn't worry about it. It's an unweighted stretch, should be fine unless you have serious back problems.

[perman]

I did them standing. I used to make it a ritual of doing it in the shower, it was pretty relaxing. It was easy to get in a habit: stretch, shampoo, stretch, soap, stretch, done. 3x 30s each like that once a day helped a lot. Some people worry about keeping their back straight; I never did, and found I could get a better hamstring stretch if I didn't worry about it. It's an unweighted stretch, should be fine unless you have serious back problems.

Not sure I have "serious" back problems, but I have back problems, had them before I started lifting, and I periodically aggravate it. Though before it used to make simple chores like vacuuming and cleaning pretty bad, now my flareups only really affect my lifting. So lifting has improved my back issues, but it hasn't eliminated them.

That's actually part of the reason I want more flexible hamstrings, I suspect it affects form occasionally, I feel like I can't comfortably get into a proper deadlift position without really concentrating on back extension, and I sometimes lose that extension towards the end of a work set.

With regards to keeping the back straight, I feel a little pain doing that stretch with my back flexed, so I suppose I'll do the straight version then.

EDIT: Tried doing both straight and flexed, and it feels like I can warm up to flexed. But just going to max flexion of the get-go can induce some pain. I suppose I'll just feel my way out.