How should I do hamstring stretches?

To do hamstring stretches, stand with your legs shoulder-width apart and bend forward slowly, keeping your entire back and knees straight, and bending only from your hips. Reach out for the ground with your palms down, trying to touch the floor. Feel the stretch in the back of your thighs. Take it very slowly at first, and remember to feel the stretch but don't cause pain. (Don't sacrifice form for increased "motion.")

If you bend from your lower back or bend your knees, you will certainly be able to reach lower. However, the purpose of this exercise is to stretch the hamstrings in the back of your thighs, not necessarily to actually reach the floor. Bending your knees and/or lower back will only stress these joints and will not help stretch your hamstrings.

Some people, who can't come close to the floor while doing hamstring stretches, find it helpful to perform a modified version. To do this, place a chair in front of you and reach down for the chair. If you can't reach the chair without breaking form, place pillows on the chair until you can reach over and touch the pillows, bending only from the hips. As you become more flexible, you will be able to remove the pillows from the chair. Eventually, you will be able to forgo the chair and reach down to your ankles, and perhaps your feet and even the floor.

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Sit on the floor with your legs together and extended in front of your torso. If your torso is leaning back, it may be because tight hamstrings are dragging the sitting bones toward the knees and the back of the pelvis toward the floor. It may be helpful to sit on a blanket or a bolster to lift the pelvis.

A simple way to check alignment is to sit with your back against a wall. The sacrum and the shoulder blades should touch the wall, but not lower back or the back of the head. Put a small rolled-up towel between the wall and the lower back.

Sit towards the front of the sitting bones, and adjust the pubis and tail bone equidistant from the floor. Without hardening the belly, firm the thighs, press them down against the floor (or your support), rotate them slightly toward each other, and draw the inner groins toward the sacrum. Flex your ankles, pressing out through your heels.

To lengthen your front torso perpendicular to the floor, think of energy streaming upward from the pubis to the sternum, then down the back from the shoulders to the tail bone. Then imagine the tail lengthening into the floor.

Imagine your spine as the "rod" at the vertical core of your torso, rooted firmly in the ground. Hold this pose for one minute or longer.