Around 12 years ago a mentor of mine, my Gyrotonic and yoga teacher, asked me if I really believed the 'core' was more important than hamstrings. I did not miss a beat. Of course, I replied. Why would the hamstring be more important or even as important as the 'core' muscles.
It took me at least five years to begin to understand the importance of these superb muscles, the hamstrings. I don't like to individualise muscles or to suggest one may be more important than another, but clearly many people are out of balance and one of the primary areas lacking balance is the hamstring. In fact, the entire back line of the body is often forgotten. It is more difficult to train than the front body. Of course, there are the easy to train back muscles too, such as the latissimus dorsi and the trapezius muscles. But training those large, superficial muscles often leads to imbalance.
The hamstring muscles, through their fascial connections, anchor us to the ground. Through the back line of the body, they are connected to the sole of the feet. In quadruped animals, the hamstrings are the power muscles that propel them forward. A horse's rump, for example, is more hamstring than it is gluteal.
In walking, it is the hamstring muscle that takes the leg backward and allows it to spring forward. It is integrally linked through fascia to the iliopsoas which is also very much a walking muscle. The iliopsoas also allows for the leg to move backward and, like a pendulum, it swings the leg forward. Both the hamstring complex and the iliopsoas work to keep the back long, stable and flexible. Every stride, when these muscles are healthy, allows the spine to lengthen and the belly muscles to elongate with the movement.
In running, many trainers continue to focus on the landing of the front foot. It is suggested the foot needs to land under the knee. This is likely correct, but the motion to get the foot under the knee is not a forward quadricep motion but a hamstring motion. If we observe an elite marathon runner, we will notice his back leg. It moves far behind him so that, as the back leg moves to become the front leg, it is already completely set up to land with the foot under the knee. It seems to me we are looking in the wrong direction.
Running or walking that focuses on the front body misses the point that it is the back body that propels us forward. And not through squeezing gluteal muscles which has been promoted by some specialists in the past. It is the lengthening of the leg behind, from the ground all the way to the top of the head, that propels the body forward. Of course, this simplifies the full body movement of walking or running, but the health of our hamstrings is necessary to maintain 'good posture', easy motion, connection with the ground and a healthy spine.
When the quadriceps muscles are engaged in order to walk, the action directly pulls on the spine. The body becomes confused and the front of the hip begins to resist the back of the hip. If we could unlock the power of the hamstrings in a healthy way, we might become less prone to back problems and we just might begin to understand how movement itself leads to a stronger 'core'.
