Practice THESE 4 yoga asanas to strengthen your hamstring muscles and gain flexibility
Unlock flexibility and strength with these 4 essential yoga asanas. Target your hamstring muscles and improve overall well-being through gentle stretches and poses, perfect for beginners and seasoned practitioners alike.
Working in one place all day not only changes the posture but also causes cramps in the back and hamstring muscles. The pain that increases day by day in the body becomes a cause of trouble. Most people take the help of medicines to get rid of the pain, but with the help of some simple yoga asanas, the tightness in the hamstrings can be reduced and the body can be kept healthy and active. Let us know the easy ways to get rid of tightness in the hamstrings.
What is Hamstring Muscle?
Fitness expert Pooja Malik explains that there is a group of muscles on the back side of the thighs, which includes semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris muscles. This helps in bending backward, bending, running, and sitting on the ground. Sitting for a long time, muscle weakness and injury lead to tightness in the hamstrings. Apart from this, muscle strain also increases due to fatigue, which causes tightness in the hamstrings.
According to the Saudi Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, hamstring tightness is common among students or people who have desk jobs. People who sit with their knees bent for long periods develop tightness in their hamstrings, which can lead to pain and cramps.
You may face these problems with tight hamstrings:
Hamstring stiffness is found in people who do not do regular workouts. Apart from this, sitting for long hours and muscle weakness prove to be the main cause of this problem. Due to this, pain in the lower back and knees starts increasing.
Strengthen your hamstring muscles by practising these yoga asanas:
1. Supta Padangusthasana
- To do this yoga asana, lie down on the mat and straighten your back. Now keep both legs straight by joining them with each other.
- After that, lift the right leg upwards and stretch it as much as possible. During this, keep the other leg on the ground.
- To maintain balance, place the cloth on both sides of the leg and lift the leg up, holding the cloth with your hands.
- After remaining in this yoga posture for 30 seconds to 1 minute, bring the leg down and then do the yoga posture with the other leg.
2. Downward Dog Pose
- To perform this yoga posture, which is done to strengthen the leg muscles, stand straight on the mat.
- Now straighten both legs and maintain normal distance between the legs. After this, bend the body forward from the waist.
- Extend both arms forward and place both hands on the ground. During this, bring both hands to the same width as the shoulders.
- Take a deep breath and exhale. After staying in this yoga posture according to the capacity of the body, stand up straight.
3. Trikonasana
- To do this yogasana, stand straight on the mat. Now maintain a gap between both legs and take a deep breath.
- After this, bend the body towards the right and hold the right leg with the right hand. Take the same right leg outwards.
- Now take your left arm upwards and lift your neck as well. After this, take a deep breath and exhale.
- During yoga posture, keep your waist straight and remain in this posture according to the capacity of the body.
4. Paschimottanasana
- To perform this yoga posture for strengthening the leg muscles, sit straight on the mat and keep your waist straight.
- After this, bring both legs towards the front. After that join both legs together and keep the feet also towards the front.
- Now bend the body forward bend both the arms from the elbow and place them on the ground. After this, rest the face on the knees.
- This can reduce the cramps increasing in the muscles.