Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes

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When dealing with knee pain, you might be quick to blame the knee itself. But here’s the thing: the muscles around your knee play a critical role in stabilizing and protecting the joint. If you’re not paying attention to the entire system—especially your hamstrings—you could be missing the bigger picture.

Today, I want to walk you through why hamstring health is vital for knee stability, and how you can strengthen yours to address knee pain at the source.

Stay with me to the end for my 3 favorite ways to build hamstring health.

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Why Hamstrings Are Essential for Knee Stability

The knee joint is operated by two primary muscle groups:

1. Quadriceps (Front of the Knee): These are the four muscles on the front of your thigh that help extend your leg.
2. Hamstrings (Back of the Knee): The three muscles on the back of your thigh that run from your sits bones down across the knee to the lower leg.

If you’re experiencing knee pain, particularly in the front of the knee, it could be a sign that your quads are over-dominant. When the quads take over, they put a lot of pressure on the front of the knee, leading to tension and discomfort. But here’s where the hamstrings come in.

Hamstrings are vital because they:

• Provide balance to the front and back of the knee.
• Offer stability by reducing excess strain on the knee joint.
• Help your brain reconnect to muscles that might be underutilized due to injury or weakness.

If your hamstrings are weak, the quads pick up the slack. This imbalance puts too much strain on the front of the knee, often leading to pain.

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Strengthen Your Hamstrings to Relieve Knee Pain

By focusing on hamstring strength, you’re helping your body rebalance the load across the knee. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Bodywork (Hands-On Therapy): This helps your brain reconnect to the hamstrings, sending signals that something needs to change in how you use those muscles.

• During your bodywork session, I use techniques like “The World’s Biggest Thumb” to get deep into the hamstring. By using my knee to apply pressure to a large area of the hamstring, I can get deep into the tissue for maximum effect.

2. At-Home Strengthening: Once the bodywork reconnects the brain to the hamstring, you need to follow up with exercises at home to strengthen those muscles. Try these exercises to build hamstring strength:

• Hamstring Curls: Use resistance bands or machines to target the back of your legs.

• Romanian Deadlifts: A great way to engage your hamstrings while strengthening your lower back and glutes.

• Glute Bridges: Focus on driving the movement through your heels to activate the hamstrings fully.

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Final Thoughts

Knee pain isn’t always about the knee itself. Often, it’s a sign that the muscles around the knee—especially the hamstrings—are out of balance. By focusing on strengthening your hamstrings, you can relieve the tension in the front of your knee and restore proper stability to the joint.

Start by getting some hands-on therapy and following it up with regular strengthening exercises. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can improve the health of your knees by focusing on the back of your legs.

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See you next time!

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