Hamstring Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility

Here are eight hamstring stretches that can relieve tight muscles and improve flexibility.

What Are the Hamstrings?

The hamstrings are three muscles running down the back of your thigh.

Most of them start from your sitting bone and travel down to attach around the upper tibia or fibula near your knee.

They are:

• Biceps femoris: A two-headed (one long and one short head) muscle that runs on the outer side of the back of your thigh.
• Semitendinosus: Named for its long tendon, almost like a cord, that inserts on the tibia, this muscle sits on your inner back thigh.
• Semimembranosus: A flat muscle right underneath the semitendinosus.

They (with the exception of the biceps femoris’ short head) cross two joints and have two jobs:

• Knee flexion: Bend your knee, like when you do a leg curl.
• Hip extension: Straighten your hip to move your leg backward behind your body, like when you do a Romanian deadlift.

For athletes, they’re involved in plenty of lower-body action, from sprinting like you stole something to doing a heavy deadlift.

Should You Stretch Your Hamstrings?

When your hamstrings feel tight, it’s easy to think of stretching as the solution. But is that always the case?

No, not necessarily. That “tight” feeling in your hamstrings doesn’t always mean that your hamstrings are actually short. It could be that they’re too weak or that you don’t move around enough.

When that’s the case, stretching doesn’t take care of the reason why your hamstrings feel tight in the first place.

If they’re weak, your first course of action should be to hit the gym. The best part is that strength training through a full range of motion improves flexibility at the same time as it builds muscle and strength. As effectively as stretching itself, according to many studies.^{1 2}

And if you’re already quite flexible, you don’t necessarily gain much from making your hamstrings even more flexible.

But stretching can be great when you have a real reason to do it.

For example, maybe you need more range of motion than your lifting gives you, or you’re restricted in a position you need for a sport. Or you simply enjoy stretching – it feels good or relaxing.

So, if you already have the range of motion you need for daily life, lifting (or your sport), and you’re training with a full ROM, there’s usually little reason to stretch them just for the sake of it.

But stretching absolutely improves flexibility, and it’s especially effective when you need it the most, when your baseline flexibility is really low.³

8 Great Hamstring Stretches

Note that these stretches are for normal tightness and for improving your range of motion, not for rehabbing an injury.

Unless you have been told differently by someone like your physio, stick to movement that doesn’t involve sharp pain if you have something like a muscle strain. Trying to “stretch out” an injured muscle can interfere with healing.

1. Standing Hamstring Stretch

This is one of the best and easiest hamstring stretches for beginners. Even the stiffest of us can start with it, and it’s easy to scale by using a higher step or bench.

How to Do the Standing Hamstring Stretch

1. Stand in front of a step, bench, or chair.
2. Put one heel on the step, leg straight, toes pointing up.
3. Hinge forward from your hips until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
4. Hold the stretch.

2. Legs Up the Wall

This is another beginner-friendly stretch. A nice thing about this one is that the wall’s doing the work. You don’t have to actively hold your leg up or round your back to reach for your toes.

How to Do Legs Up the Wall

1. Lie on your back with your hips close to a wall.
2. Extend both legs upward against it.
3. Scoot your booty close to the wall.
4. Keep your knees straight.
5. Hold the stretch.

Note: This isn’t the traditional yoga Viparita Karani, which looks almost the same but is more of a restful position with very little hamstring stretch. You need to put your hips into a position that gives you the stretch you’re after.

3. Half Splits

The half splits is both a standalone hamstring stretch and a great start if you’re eventually aiming for deeper split positions, like the full front split.

You’ll probably feel this one the most from the middle of your hamstring toward your knee.

How to Do Half Splits

1. Stand on your knees and extend one leg straight out in front of you.
2. Keep the front heel on the floor, toes pointing up.
3. Hinge forward from your hips until you feel the stretch along the back of the front thigh.
4. Hold the stretch.

4. Hurdler Hamstring Stretch

The hurdler stretch is a classic hamstring and hip stretch, done here in a modified version.

In the old-school version of the hurdler stretch, you fold one leg behind you at an awkward angle. It looks iconic, but it puts a lot of twisting force on your knee.

You’ll get similar stretchy benefits where you actually want them by putting that foot against your inner thigh instead.

How to Do the Hurdler Stretch

1. Sit on the floor with one leg straight in front of you.
2. Bend the other knee and place the sole of that foot against the inside of your straight leg.
3. Hinge forward from your hips toward the straight leg.
4. Hold the stretch and repeat on the other side.

You can reach for your shin, ankle, or foot, depending on your flexibility, which makes this stretch nicely scalable.

5. Leg Swings (Forward & Backward)

This is a dynamic stretch rather than a static hold. It’s a better choice before a workout because it warms your hamstrings and improves performance, which static stretching doesn’t.

Start with easy, small swings, then gradually increase the range.

How to Do Leg Swings

1. Stand next to a wall or sturdy gym machine for balance.
2. Swing one leg forward and backward in a controlled way.
3. Repeat on the other side.

6. Seated Forward Fold

The seated forward fold is the classic sit-and-reach-for-your-toes stretch. It looks simple, but it’s more of an intermediate-level stretch than a beginner one.

Think “chest forward,” not “forehead to knees.” If you round your back just to reach farther, you shift the stretch effect away from your hamstrings. Some rounding is OK, but you don’t want your back to look like a staple.

How to Do the Seated Forward Fold

1. Sit with your legs extended straight out in front of you.
2. Hinge forward from your hips, and reach for your shins, ankles, or feet, depending on your flexibility.
3. Hold the stretch.

You don’t need to touch your toes for the stretch to be effective; just reach until you feel a nice stretch in your hamstrings.

7. Standing Forward Fold

This is the standing version of the seated forward fold. Both are great hamstring stretches, but this one, where you stand up, requires a bit more balance and body control.

At the same time, it can actually be a better choice for beginners because you can bend your knees more easily and let your chest and stomach rest on your thighs.

If you do it with straight or almost straight legs, you’ll probably feel this standing version more in your calves, too.

How to Do the Standing Forward Fold

1. Stand up with your toes pointing forward. It’s OK to bend your knees slightly.
2. Hinge forward from your hips.
3. Let your hands reach toward your shins, feet, or the floor.
4. Hold the stretch.

In addition, you can do a dynamic variant where you hinge from your hips, reach down as far as you (semi)-comfortably can, and stand back up instead of holding the static stretch position. Touch your toes or the floor if you can, and no bouncing.

8. Romanian Deadlift / Stiff-Legged Deadlift

Both the Romanian deadlift and the stiff-legged deadlift are top-tier exercises for building your posterior chain, which includes the glutes, lower back, and hamstrings.

Both are also excellent dynamic hamstring stretches that train them under load at long muscle lengths. If you do one of these exercises with a good range of motion on a regular basis, you might never need to do any actual hamstring stretches.

Stiff-legged deadlifts stretch the hamstrings more than the Romanian variant, but they require more flexibility to begin with. And they’re easier to compensate for by rounding your lower back. Both are good, though Romanian deadlifts are probably the better choice if you’ve never done either and don’t have great hamstring flexibility.

If you have great posterior chain mobility and the plates bang the floor, you can even stand on a weight plate or block for more range.

When to Stretch Your Hamstrings

Your hamstrings are tight, you say. Better stretch them, right?

Maybe, but there’s a right time and a right way to do so.

Static stretches right before working out aren’t as good an idea as they might sound.

For one thing, they make your muscles relax. The one thing you don’t want when you lift is relaxed hamstrings.

Plus, they can make you weaker for several hours afterward.⁴

Before a workout, warm up with dynamic stretches like leg swings or hip hinges. Or do some bodyweight good mornings or Romanian deadlifts with an empty bar.

You get warm, you improve your mobility, and, unlike static stretching, a dynamic warm-up actually improves performance.⁵

Static stretching is better left to after your workout or on a different occasion entirely (warm up first).

But sure, if you need some light stretching to be able to do an exercise with the form you want, go ahead. You don’t have to worry about tanking your performance if you keep it below 60 seconds.

Also, tight hamstrings aren’t always short hamstrings. They can be weak or feel tight because your hips or glutes aren’t doing their job.

So don’t just yank on them for the sake of doing so. Stretch with a purpose. And make them strong first and foremost. Romanian deadlifts, Nordic hamstring curls, and leg curls are good exercises for this.

Avoid These Stretching Mistakes

Stretching is pretty straightforward, but there are mistakes to be made, and some can set you back or even hurt you. Here are six of the biggest don’ts.

1. Rounding your back. Some rounding is OK, often even unavoidable, but curling your spine just to reach your toes isn’t. Yes, it probably makes the stretch feel more intense, but it’s not your hamstrings getting stretched.
2. Locking out your knees hard. Nothing wrong with stretching with straight knees, but going overboard and locking them out as hard as possible can backfire and stress your tendon insertions rather than the muscle belly. A wee bend is better, especially if you’re relatively tight.
3. Stretching too hard. Too hard is always a bad thing, but face-turning-red stretching is a particularly bad idea if you’re not used to it. It’s even possible to stretch yourself into a muscle strain. And you don’t get many particular flexibility benefits from going from the slight discomfort zone to the pain zone.
4. Stretching cold. Some swear by stretching cold, and it does have its uses. For example, it makes you good at getting into your ROM while cold, and that’s a legit reason if you’re, say, into martial arts, where you can’t always rely on a perfect warm-up. But for us hobby stretchers, warming up first is safer, and likely more effective, too.
5. Bouncing. Unless you really know what you’re doing (ballistic stretching), using momentum to bounce in and out of a stretched position is risky and not worth it for any potential benefits.
6. Stretching with an injury. Many people automatically think they should stretch a muscle if they hurt it, but doing so can actually tear the muscle up even more and delay healing. Careful and progressive loading is usually a better idea than trying to “stretch it out.”

A Simple Hamstring Stretch Routine

Try this simple routine to improve your hamstring flexibility. The stretches go from gentle to more intense.

You can do it as a standalone stretching session or after a lower-body workout.

After you’re already warm, do:

Stretch	Time
Standing Hamstring Stretch	30–45 seconds
Half Splits	30–45 seconds
Modified Hurdler Stretch	30–45 seconds

Do one round after a warm-up if you’re just after some mobility. After a lower-body workout, 1–2 rounds are plenty.

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You can find all the hamstring stretches in this guide in our free workout log app, StrengthLog, along with many other neat mobility exercises for the entire body.

But where the app really shines is for tracking your training. If you don’t track your training, making progress becomes much more of a challenge than it needs to be.

Final Rep

Tight hamstrings – or at least tight-feeling hamstrings – are very common.

Stretching isn’t always the solution. If your hamstrings feel tight like beef jerky no matter how much you reach for your toes, making them stronger often helps more than stretching.

But if they’re actually tight, and you need more range of motion for your lifting, sport, or daily life, give these hamstring stretches a try.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training (and stretching).

And for more great stretching exercises, check out these resources:

• Adductor Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility
• Chest Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility
• Glute Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility
• Hip Flexor Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility
• Quad Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility
• Shoulder Stretches to Improve Your Flexibility

Last reviewed: 2026-09-21

References

1. Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Apr 7;9(4):427. Strength Training versus Stretching for Improving Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
2. Sports Med. 2023 Jan 9;53(3):707–722. Resistance Training Induces Improvements in Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
3. Sports Med. 2025 Mar;55(3):597-617. Optimising the Dose of Static Stretching to Improve Flexibility: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Multivariate Meta-regression.
4. J Sport Health Sci. 2024 May 10;13(6):805–819. Revisiting the stretch-induced force deficit: A systematic review with multilevel meta-analysis of acute effects.
5. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2023 Aug 29;15(1):106. A systematic review and net meta-analysis of the effects of different warm-up methods on the acute effects of lower limb explosive strength.