Stretching the Hamstrings – BowlFit Tips

If you spend a majority of the time sitting at work, chances are you’ve experienced some tight hamstrings. Tight hamstrings (the muscles in the back of your thighs) are responsible for flexing the knee and will be shortened when doing so or posteriorly tilting the hips as many do when they aren’t maintaining proper posture while sitting. This is often a contributing factor for low back pain. The best way to manage it is by strengthening them with hip lifts and leg curls, and by properly stretching them before and after physical activity.

This video demonstrates what I think is the best way to stretch your hamstrings. By doing brief repetitions in a dynamic stretch you can warm up the hamstrings prior to league, a tournament, or your workout. Then by statically holding the end range of this same banded leg stretch, you have a great post-activity hamstring stretch.

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About Heather –

Heather D’Errico MS, CSCS, CFSC, LMT

Heather began BowlFit in 2013 with the hope to provide awareness to bowlers about how crucial training off the lanes truly is. She has been an avid bowler her entire life competing as a collegiate bowler for Robert Morris University, assistant coaching at the University of Central Missouri, and now head coaches at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.

She obtained a master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis on exercise science and interned with the head strength coach at UCM. She became a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) through NSCA shortly after graduation and began coaching athletes at Next Level Strength and Conditioning in Fairport, NY.

In October 2015 she received her certified functional strength coach certification and then went back to school in July 2016 for massage therapy. She is now a licensed massage therapist and runs a business called Restorative Bodywork in Rochester, NY that specializes in movement therapy and sports massage.

Heather has also been competing on the PWBA tour the last 3 seasons and continues to use her experiences as a competitive and professional bowler to create programs for bowlers. She enjoys the challenges of making programs specific to each bowler as every person needs to focus on different areas for their performance goals. With that said her training motto is “do no harm” and believes each program should most importantly make a bowler FEEL better and play with minimal injuries/pain.