Lifestyle Trainers

Do you ever have to be careful with your hamstrings? Do you feel like you are going to tweak them any minute? Are your hamstrings super-tight and take forever to warm up at the gym or for your favourite activity? I’ve had this problem myself recently and I wish to share how I solved it.

Like many people, I keep fit and active but at the same time I’m quite busy and spend a lot of time at a desk. I had been hitting the gym and working with a great personal trainer to strengthen and grow my whole body. However, despite progress in the development of my legs my hamstrings still felt “ordinary”. They had lines of tight muscle that felt like they were going to pull and would need a heap of light sets to warm up properly.

It’s a common saying, that without persisting through pain you will receive no gains. I’d like to challenge that assumption. I’ll start with a rebuttal of “Work smarter, not harder.” You could present for your massage with some tight, sore muscles and get an absolute pummeling. This may or may not solve your problem, it won’t be fun, it may cause post-massage soreness for days and most importantly, aggressive techniques increase the chances of making an injury or condition worse. With massage, your therapist can often work smarter, not harder and achieve great results.

Why on earth would you put up with pain for weeks or even months? Do you tolerate bad drivers, bad fashion or mosquitoes? No, you deal with these swiftly and decisively. Yet dozens of people come to me for remedial massage after putting up with aches, pain and tightness for weeks before they seek help. For example, a story I hear frequently is: “Yeah, I’ve been super-busy at work, my shoulders are really tight and I’ve been having headaches on and off for the last three weeks so I thought I better get a massage.” The usual result, even after only the first massage, is a massive reduction or the elimination of the headache within an hour. That potentially means around three weeks of unnecessary headaches!

Do you slouch at your desk all day? Do you believe you can make up for this with a gym session, a jog or maybe a bike ride? Forget it, you can’t! Sure, some serious exercise during lunch or at the end of the day is great for your health but do not underestimate the power of spending several hours per day hunched over your computer. Doing a Zumba class or a PT session may not fix the damage you do to yourself by slouching for hours on end.