Three primary muscles bend your knee and extend your hip: the biceps femoris (fem-er-is), the semitendinosus (semi-ten-duh-no-sis), and the semimembranosus (semi-mem-bruh-no-sis). Together, these three muscles are collectively known as your hamstrings. All of them are found next to each other in the back of your thigh.
Because you use your hamstrings for just about every movement your legs make, an injury to this area takes a long time to heal, and these muscles are easy to reinjure. A pulled hamstring can sideline you for a long time — just ask any professional athlete what a “pain in the butt” it is! So it’s important to do all you can to avoid a strain or pull in this area. A hamstring pull — a strain injury caused by a violent overextension or rapid contraction of the muscle — could be caused by an imbalance of strength between your hamstrings and your quadriceps or because of an imbalance of strength between your right and left leg. But in most cases the cause of the injury is a fundamental lack of flexibility. Keeping your hamstrings flexible is your best defense against this type of injury. So get stretching!
Because you use your hamstrings for just about every movement your legs make, an injury to this area takes a long time to heal, and these muscles are easy to reinjure. A pulled hamstring can sideline you for a long time — just ask any professional athlete what a “pain in the butt” it is! So it’s important to do all you can to avoid a strain or pull in this area. A hamstring pull — a strain injury caused by a violent overextension or rapid contraction of the muscle — could be caused by an imbalance of strength between your hamstrings and your quadriceps or because of an imbalance of strength between your right and left leg. But in most cases the cause of the injury is a fundamental lack of flexibility. Keeping your hamstrings flexible is your best defense against this type of injury. So get stretching!
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