Have a ball getting your hamstrings in shape

Tight or week hamstrings are trouble. They can cause lower body weakness, tilting of the pelvis which throws off posture, limited range of motion and low back pain. Often times, this collection of side effects can be corrected simply by strengthening the hamstrings and restoring their range of motion. This balances the muscle tone in the legs and corrects the postural shift and this pain associated with it.

In today’s video, my friend Dennis Angelina demonstrates a simple hamstring exercise done with a swiss ball. In just a few minutes a day you can strengthen your hamstrings and core and promote better balance and range of motion.

The Swiss ball is a simple training device that is also called a stability ball. There are different sizes of Swiss balls, and you can use different sizes with different exercises, like the wall squats exercise for the front on the legs shown here. For this hamstring exercise, Dennis is demonstrating with a small size ball, as it’s easier to manage here.

You want to place the Swiss ball on the floor and then take your time getting down to the ground. For safety, from the standing position you can drop to one knee and then two, then sit on your butt.

From here, place your heels on the ball, keeping both legs straight, and lie down so that your back is straight.

For beginners, it is recommended that you spread your arms out to either side, palms down, to create a larger surface area to keep in balance.

For those with more experience and conditioning, you can keep arms closer, which means your core will do more work to maintain your balance.

From this position, you want to lift your hips up and toward the ceiling. The ball will support your lower body and your head and upper back will support the upper body. Now you are ready to do the hamstring exercise.

Simply keep your hips up off the floor and bend your knees to use your heels to roll the ball under you. Then extend your knees to push your heels forward to return the ball to the starting position. Now rest your hips back down on the floor.

Repeat by raising your hips, firing your hamstrings to pull the ball in, and then rolling the ball back out. Then down again.

Start with two sets of 10 repetitions, and you will find conditioning of the core and development of the hamstrings and better stability overall. Over time you can add more repetitions per set and also more sets overall to get a more vigorous workout. Give it a try!