Is Hamstring Flexibility Limiting Your Speed?

As we enter the off-season for many sports, we’ll be seeing more and more young athletes joining our Summer Athletic Development Program (ADP).

While we spend a lot of time developing strength, improving landing mechanics, and building speed, one factor that often gets overlooked is hamstring flexibility.

The truth is, adequate hamstring flexibility can directly influence how much power you produce with every stride.

Why Hamstring Flexibility Matters for Speed

When you sprint, your ability to drive your knee forward aggressively helps create longer, more powerful strides. If your hamstrings are tight, they can limit that knee drive and act like a small brake on every step you take.

The result?

• Reduced stride length
• Less force production
• Decreased sprint speed
• Increased effort for the same result

For many athletes, improving hamstring mobility can unlock speed they didn’t realize they were leaving on the table.

How We Assess Hamstring Flexibility

One of our favourite assessments is the Active Straight Leg Raise Test.

It’s simple, quick, and effective.

How to Perform the Test

1. Lie flat on your back with both legs straight.
2. Keep one leg firmly planted on the floor.
3. Raise the opposite leg as high as possible while keeping the knee straight.
4. Avoid bending either leg or allowing your pelvis to rotate.

Elite sprinters can often achieve 110-115 degrees of hip flexion during this test.

For most athletes, a good target is getting the raised leg directly over the hip or slightly beyond, approximately 90-100 degrees.

If you’re well below that range, hamstring mobility may be limiting your athletic performance.

A Three-Step Approach to Improving Hamstring Flexibility

At Performance Institute, we often use a simple three-step progression:

Step 1: Improve Tissue Quality

Goal: Reduce stiffness, improve tissue quality, and create better movement within the fascia surrounding the hamstrings.

Active Self-Myofascial Release

Using a dimpled softball or massage ball:

1. Place the ball underneath the upper hamstring near the glute attachment. (Make sure to sit on a hard surface)
2. Apply bodyweight pressure onto the ball.
3. Slowly bend and straighten the knee 5-10 times.
4. Move the ball to several different locations along the hamstring.
5. Spend approximately 2 minutes per leg.

This helps improve tissue quality before stretching.

Step 2: Increase Range of Motion

Goal: Improve flexibility throughout the entire posterior chain, including the foot, calf, hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

Distracted Sprinter Hamstring Stretch

1. Anchor a thick resistance band securely to a squat rack.
2. Loop the band around the front of your hip crease.
3. Step forward until you feel moderate tension pulling the hip backward.
4. Assume a position similar to a sprinter in the starting blocks.
5. Keeping the front leg straight, repeatedly bend and straighten through the available range 15-20 times.
6. Repeat on the opposite side.

The band helps create space at the hip while allowing you to access additional range of motion.

Step 3: Strengthen the New Range

Goal: Teach your body to control and use the mobility you’ve just gained.

Kettlebell Romanian Deadlift

There are many deadlift variations and progressions that can be used to strengthen the hamstrings through their newly acquired range of motion. Depending on the athlete, we may use double-leg and single-leg variations, along with a variety of loading methods. For simplicity, we’ll focus on the kettlebell Romanian deadlift.

1. Hold a kettlebell with both hands in front of your body.
2. Stand tall and brace your core.
3. Hinge backward through the hips while keeping a slight bend in the knees.
4. Lower until you feel a gentle stretch in the hamstrings while maintaining a flat back.
5. Pause briefly.
6. Squeeze your glutes and return to standing.

Mobility that isn’t strengthened is mobility that often disappears. That’s why strengthening the newly acquired range is a critical final step.

A Philosophy We Use Throughout Training

Although we’re using hamstring flexibility as the example here, this three-step process applies to many movement limitations:

1. Improve tissue quality.
2. Create additional range of motion.
3. Strengthen and control that new range.

Whether we’re working with youth athletes, active adults, rehabilitation clients, or high-performance athletes, this approach helps create lasting improvements instead of temporary changes.

Want to Learn More?

Check out these related articles:

• How Proper Foot Strike Improves Sprinting
• Move Like and Athlete: Fast Arms, Fast Legs
• Tight hamstrings? Here’s How to Test and Fix Them
• Why we use Soft Tissue Release in Our Programs

Interested in Our Summer Athletic Development Program?

Our Summer ADP is designed for athletes aged 8-18 who want to improve their strength, speed, movement quality, and overall athleticism.

Programs are available in flexible 4-week and 6-week options throughout the summer.

Follow us on social media, give us a call with any questions, or register today through the link below.

Contact Performance Institute today to learn more about our Summer Athletic Development Program or click here to register.

Email or call us at 604-291-9941 or share this article with someone you care about to learn more about all our programs. We work with clients as young as 8 and as “young” as 80+!