Can My Hamstrings Get Flexible Without Stretching?

Many people are interested in the hamstring flexibility and this question of “Can my hamstrings get flexible without stretching?” has been asked numerous times over the years.

Just last week someone asked me this question. To which I had my own question. “If you are not going to stretch your muscles, what are you going to do, to get them flexible?”

Some people believe that it is possible to get hamstrings flexibility simply by doing relaxation, mediation and breathing exercises. Others believe that massage will loosen up the hamstrings without stretching them. Still others believe that sitting in warm water with Epsom salt will loosen up the hamstrings. Or that doing range of motion exercises, strength exercises, etc, will loosen up the hamstrings.

So this individual told me that he heard that it's the range of motion exercises that can get the hamstrings flexible without stretching them.

I was curious to see what he meant by stretching the hamstrings. Was it passive stretching, partner stretching, pnf stretching, ZST stretching, dynamic stretching? Not all stretching is the same.

I wanted to ask him what he meant by range of motion exercises. Because, in the EasyFlexibility system, range of motion exercises, such as a deadlift is different than a downward facing dog walk or L-inching.

If you familiar with how EasyFlexibility system was created, you would know that the ZST’s (Zaichik Stretching Techniques) came first, later on we developed the supporting exercises. The combination of the ZST’s together with, let’s call them “range of motion” techniques, for the sake of answering the direct question that was asked, gave better results than just the Zaichik Stretching Techniques.

We also tested it the other way to see what happens if a person does just the range of motion techniques without the Zaichik Stretching Techniques.

There were results. People in that test group did get more flexible from various range of motion exercises that were selected specifically for each muscle group. But ZST’s combined with the range of motion exercises, outperformed just the range of motion exercises. So, in conclusion it was determined that ZST’s are not as effective without the supporting exercises. And the “range of motion” exercises are not as effective without the ZST’s.

So the answer to this question is this: If you want to improve your flexibility as fast as possible you would combine stretching exercises with supporting exercises. This applies to hamstrings and all other muscles as well.

The EasyForward Bend – Hamstrings Flexibility Online Training Certification Course has just been released, after years of rigorous testing. If you would like to take your hamstrings flexibility to the next level, and teach the EasyFlexibility system to your students please take a look: