My querry into hamstrings comes from the clinical problem of patients
with what I call "hamstrings-driven gait". That is, during normal
striding, hamstrings, especially medial, in some individuals dominate
over quads (that is to say, the hams/quads ration--whatever that
is----is abnormally elevated). These individuals seem to be prone to
certain hip and leg symptomatology and biomechanical inefficiency,
including TFL pathology, posterior Glud med. lengthening, VMO
insufficiency, with patellar tracking problems etc etc. The standard
exercises seem to be "hams stretches"--once again, whatever this
means---, quads drill, VMO retraining, patellar taping, US for local
pathologies etc. What I think we should be attempting to do is to
somehow change the recruitment pattern such that quadriceps plays a
larger role, with hams playing less. I recognize that this is a
neurophysiological problem (I think). Thoughts anyone?
Michael Ritchie
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