How to loosen up your POSTERIOR CHAIN? (Hamstrings, back, calves)

The first question I selected in this episode of the Mouvers Podcast concerns posterior chain flexibility .

I selected it because this week I went to a CrossFit gym in Tokyo and someone saw me training, so he came to ask me questions and I was exactly training that part of the body.

I took the opportunity to explain a few things to him; he was an interesting and curious person!

Why is it important to loosen your posterior chain?

So, posterior chain relaxation is a vocabulary that you will certainly come across, when you realize that there is a difference between the front and the back of your body , to put it simply.

Whether it is to perform movements, such as bent hip hinges, pulling movements such as the deadlift,

Whether it's even for kettlebell swings, whether it's simply to do a downward dog in yoga, or trying to touch the ground with your hands while keeping your legs straight.

Anyway, you're going to be led to ask yourself the question, why is the back of my body stiff, so from the back of my neck to my heels .

What prevents my body from bending, from compressing, if I keep my legs straight?

Naturally you will realize that there are different muscles, different tendons, different ligaments, different parts of the body that are perhaps neglected in certain physical practices that generally focus on certain very limited planes and on the front of the body.

I'm thinking in particular of weight training, running, cycling.

Things that people do out of habit, and for which they have no knowledge of physiology, anatomy, etc.

They tell themselves that as long as they do their sport and are aligned with their goals, which are quite often aesthetic goals or endurance goals to maintain physical fitness, well in the end with years and years of practice we accumulate and accentuate these asymmetries .

So if we've never heard of this, or if we've never been sensitive to this, or if we've never talked to someone who told us to pay attention to our posterior chain, the back of our body,

Well, we will never have to ask ourselves the question about the relaxation of the posterior chain.

I mentioned the common practices, but there is also yoga in which there is zero pulling movement, and the chain is often used.

There are many people who will have precisely these asymmetries, these gaps between a slightly more developed musculature in front , or repeated pushing movements with the front of the body.

And generally behind it, whether it's for the drawing, the compression, etc., there will be little work.

So, we come to this terminology, when we have a problem we will ask ourselves:

Is it coming from the back of my thighs, my buttocks, my calves?

Is it coming from my back?

How do I stretch and loosen all this up?

Are there any bodyweight exercises, should I use bars, elastic bands?

What are the most effective exercises for loosening up your posterior chain?

So that's the heart of the matter, I'm not going to share protocols but I want to share some interesting ideas.

Having a flexible posterior chain does not mean it is flabby, which does not allow you to do things,

The idea is also, as always, to be able to develop a greater range of movement , but also and above all to have strength at every point of this range ,

So if I am able to compress my body and from that position I am unable to get out of it, generate force, or even get there safely,

It doesn't make much sense for me to have this flexibility, because I take just as much risk, or even more risk, of getting injured.

What you need to understand is that with practices that will promote flexibility in the static sense, therefore prolonged static stretching , even contracted relaxed like yoga, stretching...

This is because in the end we do not put any emphasis on control, on the “entry and exit” aspect of a position, on the active aspect, on gaining range of motion.

This vocabulary is really associated with this type of training modalities, flexibility.

And as you know, what I recommend on the contrary is what we could call joint mobility, it is this combination between strength, flexibility, and body control .

At every point of an amplitude I want to be able to have strength,

And so the relaxation of the posterior chain, for me, must follow the same rules.

Typically, if I have the perception that maybe my hamstrings are too short, and I put huge quotation marks because I'm going to explain all of this to you later, and I want to lengthen them,

I deliberately use somewhat simple vocabulary, because it is the everyday vocabulary that people will generally use. We will come back to more precise definitions later.

Well, stretching my hamstrings won't do anything.

It's no use.

What I need to do is get into and out of positions where my hamstrings are going to be a little bit more elongated, where I'm going to ask my body to go further in a range of motion,

And so through small training sessions that we will specify later, well little by little I will gain strength, range of motion and above all I will be able to use these ranges of motion, because even at the extremes of these ranges I will be able to generate force.

So in the exercises that are often shared on this idea of ​​loosening up the posterior chain, we will see deadlifts, good mornings, Jefferson curls , we have plenty of variations and exercises to work the posterior chain.

I can give you some more specific exercises, including Russian baby makers with bars, or you can do Jefferson curls with a bar or a kettlebell, while standing on a box.

The Jefferson curls, I remind you, is the action of unrolling the spine while keeping the legs straight , for example with a bar in the hands, in the zercher position, where the bar is placed in the hollow of the elbow.

In short, there are plenty of ways to loosen up this posterior chain,

We can also look at gymnastics, be on the floor, work on your pancake, all the straddle type movements,

All the workouts that go with straddle, whether it's using cables, or just a good old plate that you put on your back and try to get down.

We could also work with a partner who could help us.

What can limit my posterior chain flexibility?

No matter the modality, no matter how you are going to train, what I recommend is to have this notion of:

“ I want to gain strength in a range of motion ”

I think that's how we'll manage to regain usable posterior chain flexibility.

Another important point is that this is essentially the work of the central nervous system.

What we are trying to do is to bring about a lasting structural change in our tissues, in our muscles, in our tendons, in our ligaments, and even in our cartilage , as we will see with certain training techniques.

So the nervous system is actively employed.

It's not something you can do while thinking about something else, so this idea of ​​adding awareness to your training and your movements is literally what it means.

That is, engaging the central nervous system and having a neuromuscular connection that is precise , so right now you are present and doing it correctly.

You are fully in your practice, you use your breathing to relax, etc.

Another important point for this posterior chain flexibility, beyond strength throughout the range of motion and at the ends of motion, there is also a part that is a little mental,

For many people, it will also be necessary to take into account your history of physical activity or non-physical activity , sedentary lifestyle, immobility,

Your injury history, your traumas and also the level of stress that we may have and which is literally a blockage that the body will generate to protect us,

So if for example you have already spent 20 years in different positions and none of them have led you to have the back, perhaps of your legs, your glutes, your back, really stretched to the maximum,

Well, in your head, the mapping, the visual representation of your range of motion, is reduced .

So a big part of this training that you're going to have to do for this posterior chain flexibility, it's going to be mental, you have to relax, you have to breathe, you have to visualize what you're capable of doing.

It is with this positive speech that you will gradually bring your body to unlock, to relax,

Because the body wants two things, your survival and not to use energy to move , it wants to go to the most efficient solution, so if you have already trained it to never use these positions, there will be a large volume of training where you have not used this position, so you will have potentially lost it.

This is how you have to read things, and not in the sense that it is something you are going to win.

No, it's something that you're going to find again and so there's really work to be done on this mental part which is, I have to relax, I have to help myself to go there,

It's a position that you have, that you are capable of reaching , except that you are no longer capable of reaching it at this moment, that's all!

What it is, it's not something new.

You weren't born stiff and unable to put your hands on the floor with your legs straight, or unable to do a deadlift without hurting your hamstrings or glutes,

This is something you're supposed to already be able to do, except now your mind, the central nervous system, is blocking you because it hasn't used this feature of your body in a long time.

He removed this functionality, and so he associated it with a danger zone, a red zone, and so the trick we have to do is use this protective mechanism of our central nervous system against it.

So we're going to gradually bring it there, we're going to go into that red zone a little bit and come out of it, but not intensely.

So if you want to speed up the flexibility process, you might want to directly take a weighted bar and do Jefferson curls with 40 kg of weight , while you are unable to control your movement when you roll and unroll your spine, simply by body weight, with calm nasal breathing.

You're going to get your wings burned in that case!

It will be counterproductive because you will accentuate, you will aggravate this fear that your brain has of this area.

So by wanting to go faster than the music, you're going to put even more brakes on yourself and put sticks in your wheels, you're going to take one step forward for six steps back.

So it's really important to go there gradually , very gently, does that mean that you must first have, for example, a bodyweight Jefferson curl before doing barbells,

Not necessarily, you can use different training modalities, you can use different tools, etc.

It is above all a work of acquiring this bodily awareness that you must have, after a while you will feel that you are much more relaxed, that you can bring yourself to these positions more easily, that you are less stressed, that you are less afraid,

And so little by little the body will also allow you to move towards the movement you want.

What time of day should you work on your mobility?

Another little tip I can give you is to always train cold ,

Not without warming up, but not at the end of a workout where you've already been warmed up, where your body has already warmed up,

And so naturally you feel a little more relaxed, a little more loose,

For what ?

Because it will distort your results , you are already relaxed, and this is also where you can directly understand the impact of this relaxation of your central nervous system,

If I put you in a sauna, or if I give you a massage, I put you in a beautiful room with a beautiful mantra, essential oils, etc.

You will be literally relaxed, so if I ask you to move you will see that everything will be a little more fluid and at that moment your body will offer you positions and movements that outside of this context you will not have access to .

What does that mean?

This is what I've been explaining to you for a while now, you already have access to it!

Except that there is a whole protective mechanism, barriers everywhere, apart from cases of serious injury, etc.

Obviously, if you tell me that your leg has been amputated, obviously you won't have access to that range of motion, but I'm talking to you about the most general case, let's say.

People don't really have major traumas, they haven't had a tendon removed or whatever, they have everything they need in their body, except that there is a sedentary lifestyle, there may have been some lack of movement, there was life, children, work, etc.

Which meant that they didn't move, so in this case, well you realize that in a context of extreme relaxation, vacation, massage, etc.

You can see very well that you can go there, so in the same way if you finish your training you will be warm, you will be relaxed, and so if it is at this moment that you choose to evaluate your body, to evaluate its mobility, its amplitudes, its flexibility, in quotation marks,

Well, the results will be distorted, so the best thing is to do it, let's say, a little cold before the day begins .

Working on this gain in strength, control of this posterior chain, and therefore the posterior chain is really all these parts, it is the back of the body in a simple way.

So your problem could really be in your glutes, it could be in your hamstrings, it could be in your calves, it could be in the back of your knee, it could be in your lower back, it could be in your upper back...

This is once again an invitation to do some personal investigation and inquiry to find out what is wrong with you , with your body, based on your past experiences.

But generally you will be led to ask yourself these questions when you want to do certain movements, like deadlifts, like Jefferson Curls,

If you do weightlifting, for example, you might find yourself asking this question often, especially with explosive movements.

Maybe if you do martial arts, if you do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you will have to ask yourself this question too, because certain movements engage the posterior chain.

Why is it important to work on our weak points during our physical activities?

The idea, in any case one of the things to extract from this question, from the posterior chain, is that once again, we must extend our vision of our body, our body is not simply muscles, we must take into account all the tissues, we must take into account the different planes of space .

Just because you're doing movements that are always in front of you doesn't mean that's all there is to do in your body and that to keep your body healthy you'll have to do only what you're led to do in your modern environment.

No, your body hasn't had time to adapt to the lifestyle we have today . The internet was 25 years ago, and office jobs were less than 100 years ago.

Our bodies have had hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, they are not yet used to this, so what we have to do in our training is to maintain all the other functions as well, even if we do not use them in our daily lives.

You see, in everyday life, you will never be required to make huge extensions of your spine, but having a little bit of extension in your practice can be useful.

Same with shoulder flexion, it's rare that in your daily life you will be led to hang from a bar, yet your shoulder is designed for that, so to maintain the health of your shoulder it will be useful to hang yourself ,

And in the same way for the posterior chain, in your daily life you will do locomotion, you will walk, you will perhaps push objects, you will do squats, things like that,

Things that will be just pushing it, and that will only be focused on the front of the body.

Well, that's no reason to neglect all the rotational movements, all the twisting movements, all the movements that will allow you to work the back of your legs .

Whether it's Nordic curls.

Whether it's deadlifts.

Whether it's Good Mornings or not, it doesn't matter.

There is the whole back of your body which must also be taken into account, especially the legs,

Same for the back of the upper body, all the pulling movements, if you've never done pull-ups, things like that, well you'll quickly realize that after a while,

You will have developed the body which literally can also be brought to change your posture so much it will be overdeveloped on the front, and so you have to see that there are lots of things,

Lots of compensatory mechanisms in the way your muscles rest on your skeleton will tend to push you a little forward , as behind there is nothing at all.

Also recurring injuries, which will happen for example when you go running, because there are huge weaknesses in the back of your body, potentially falls which will be more and more painful or even fatal, etc.

So that's what's important to understand, is that the body is not what you see in the mirror , it's an object that is 3D, that has lots of ramifications, that has lots of connections .

If you look at the fascia diagrams, you will quickly understand that what is above must be balanced with what is below.

What's in front and behind must be balanced, what's on the sides must be balanced, what's at the level of the twists, the shears of your spine must be at least balanced.

Balance is a vague concept, what is balance?

If you've done 10 years of wrestling, well, you'll have plenty of adaptation mechanisms that have made your body built, optimized for that practice,

And so there will be things that will be missing, compared to someone who has done 10 years of swimming,

So the balance must be contextualized each time.

It's personal, it's up to you to find that balance, and balance isn't 50/50, it's not saying that everything must be equal.

No, it's you, looking at your physical activity history, injuries, your recurring pains, it's you who will try to do this investigation, and then attack each weak point as a priority, before being able to enjoy the sports you want to practice.

In any case, this is one of the recommendations I would give: always attack by these major weak points .

The posterior chain you will be led to ask yourself the question quickly, if you do this type of current practice which is always in the same planes, always towards the front of the body, always pushing.

This creates the problems we have today, whether it's back pain, pelvic problems, hip problems, hamstrings that click, etc.

We have the results of this lack of attention paid to rebalancing the body, and this three-dimensional vision of our machine, and of all that it is capable of doing.

It's much more complex than doing bench presses, there are a lot of movements, there are a lot of fundamental things that we should know and therefore we should more or less have these rebalancings all the time in our physical practices ,

Even though each of the physical practices cannot obviously be complete and perfect,

But it's up to us to pick and choose from here and there, and perhaps to have this movement-oriented approach to try to build this body, this injury-proof body, for that it may be interesting to implement a mobility routine in your daily life.

Or at least ones that can last a long time and allow us to experience something without too much pain or too many accidents.

So I talked about the mentality, the philosophy, some exercise names...

But here is the important idea to understand is that the posterior chain, the back of the body is something not to be neglected in your training , and don't wait until you have these injuries to realize it!

Start now to change your view of your body, to change your paradigm, to think in this way:

If you've done 10 years of bodybuilding and certain movements repeatedly, you've obviously had gains, you've obviously had benefits, it's made you really happy, it's great.

But on the other hand, we must not be blind, it also creates asymmetries, weaknesses elsewhere, limitations and restrictions.

Nothing is perfect.

You can't run for 10 years and say everything is fine in your body.

No !

Your body has adapted to your stimulus and has also masked many things so that you don't stop functioning.

That's what happens, except that after a while there will be wear and tear that will occur and so after a while there will be an injury that will come out and that's when you will realize your imbalance.

If for 10 years you have had nothing and one day you get injured, it is not that day that you got injured, for 10 years you have used the machine in a certain way, it has masked many signals to allow you to get back into your movement, into your daily life,

Because as I said at the beginning, your body only wants your survival and so after a while this wear and tear, this accumulation of bad movements, in quotation marks,

Of limited movement,

Of non-appreciation,

From unawareness to the rest of the body's functions.

Well, it's going to pay off at the end of the game, my friends. We all have to pay up unfortunately, and so we have to pay for what we've done.

That’s it for this first question!

Thank you for your attention, my Mouver!

Nomad Slim
Founder of MOUVERS