Andrew Huberman· PhD
So, for instance, if you have tight quadriceps, you can do the opposite. You can contract your hamstring very intensely for let's say 10 seconds, or 20 seconds, or 30 seconds.
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So, for instance, if you have tight quadriceps, you can do the opposite. You can contract your hamstring very intensely for let's say 10 seconds, or 20 seconds, or 30 seconds.
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So, what happens is when you contract your quadriceps hard, you are relaxing or releasing some of the stretch that's occurring in those intrafusal spindle sensory fibers going into your spinal cord. And as a consequence, you're able then to stretch your hamstrings further, or we can be more accurate and say that your range of motion about the hamstring and its related joints is greater when you aren't engaging that spindle reflex, which would cause the hamstrings to contract.
Okay, so if you are somebody who has tight hamstrings, there could be a variety of reasons for that, but part of the reason is likely to be neural and you can release that neural spindle reflex by contracting the opposite antagonistic muscle, which in this case is the quadriceps.
What most of you will find is that you have an immediate increase in hamstring flexibility, or your range of motion has increased.