Jill,
I am a private practitioner, and my client base is orthopaedic. I am
located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. When tested isometrically,
hams to quads ratio is a range, perhaps 60-75 percent hams to quads.
What I am referring to are patients who use a muscle recruitment pattern
which favours hamstrings over gluts primarily as hip extension, with
resultant reduction in quads contribution to gait. Therefore the
observation is one which is dynamic, close-chain, and multi-articular.
I believe that this happens more than commonly thought, and can explain
why some patient present with abnormally shortened hamstrings, primarily
medially. Interestingly, if one improves the glut function in gait, and
reduce the contribution of hams, the hams tend to lengthen on their own,
all be it at a rather slow rate. Rarely are hams abnormally short when
the individual has well developed gluts, except in circumstances
involving some type of physical or functional training (eg. long
distance runners, although these individuals often have poorly developed
gluts as well, perhaps because they tend to function their hips in
exension so much). I believe that this is reflected in some of Dr.
Shirley Sahrmann's work. Please let me know what you think.
Michael
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