Butt wink problem

[Greu]

Does it make you more prone to lower back injuries if your butt wink when getting to parallel and beyond (my butt starts winking when I almost get to parallel)?

I know what my problem is and why it winks so fast. Tight hamstrings and low flexibility in hamstrings. Even after I stretch them they are still basically tight and my butt still winks.

Any advice on what I should to?

Thank you in advance!

[Fazc]

Personally I don't think it's a massive risk to the lower back.

The greater concern in my opinion is the transfer of power from the hamstrings. At the bottom what should happen is the lower back remain solid which provides stretch to the hamstrings and forces them to contract hard with the stretch reflex.

If you lose tension at that point, the transfer of power from the hamstrings is lost making the movement less efficient and lowers the contribution of the hamstrings. For me that's the bigger worry, it can lead to other problems down the road.

So yes, continue to stretch all relevant areas and work toward less winking.

[Greu]

Originally Posted by Fazc

Personally I don't think it's a massive risk to the lower back.

The greater concern in my opinion is the transfer of power from the hamstrings. At the bottom what should happen is the lower back remain solid which provides stretch to the hamstrings and forces them to contract hard with the stretch reflex.

If you lose tension at that point, the transfer of power from the hamstrings is lost making the movement less efficient and lowers the contribution of the hamstrings. For me that's the bigger worry, it can lead to other problems down the road.

So yes, continue to stretch all relevant areas and work toward less winking.

How often should I stretch?

I've started stretching before I go to sleep for about 10-15 minutes, stretching my hip flexors and my hamstrings mainly. Should I do more stretching sessions throughout the day or is one enough? And how long should I hold a stretch cause at the moment I am holding the stretches for about 1 minute.

[Fazc]

If you're still inflexible then the only real answer is to do more.

Look up a guy called Dr Stark, he has some material on stretching and stretches which you can do. Also there is a bunch of stuff on youtube, a simple search should yield answers.

The only thing I would question is whether you're definitely certain it is hamstrings. I think unless you've had some catastrophic hamstring injury in the past which makes you certain it is them, you would do well to remember that muscles rarely become inflexible by themselves. A little more experimentation in that area may highlight some other areas of attention.

[Greu]

I have a bit of an anterior pelvic tilt, therefore my hip flexors are also tight, but when it comes to hamstrings I basically cannot touch my toes with my fingers unless I bend the knees quite a lot.

The thing is after I do squats my hamstrings are sore (in case I didn't train for a couple of weeks) therefore I am thinking that they might work with my squatting. I may be wrong.

Returning to the flexibility issues. My ankles are really flexible so they aren't the problem. As I said above, I cannot touch my toes with my fingers unless I bend the knees quite a lot so that's why I am thinking it's my hamstrings along with the hip flexors.

[Fazc]

If you're confident then okay. It's hard for me to assess from here, so I'm happy to accept your opinion on it.

I just know that things rarely become tight in isolation. The body doesn't work that way.

[Greu]

Originally Posted by Fazc

If you're confident then okay. It's hard for me to assess from here, so I'm happy to accept your opinion on it.

I just know that things rarely become tight in isolation. The body doesn't work that way.

I've never had any injuries with my legs besides a knee injury 4 years ago. The thing is I've always had tight hamstrings, since forever. I remember trying to solve this around 5 to 6 years ago but I quit cause I was too immature and expected to see results in a matter of days.

[Fazc]

Hamstrings shouldn't take too long to stretch out by themselves.

But not to beat the drum yet again... things rarely become tight in isolation. So I would concentrate on more movement and sport specific stretching. So you're pushing movement patterns rather than muscles.

So stuff like wall stretches and just sitting in the bottom position of the squat with an unloaded barbell for 1 minute at a time. That way you don't need to know exactly what's tight, everything relevant gets stretched.

Certainly some muscle specific stretches alongside that can help. But the movement specific stretches will ultimately have more impact quicker.

[Greu]

Thank you very much for the pieces of advice.

Will look into some wall stretches and combine them with just pause squatting and basic static stretches. Will see what happens, hopefully in a month I can at least hit parallel without winking.

[Fazc]

You're welcome. Good luck.