Activating hamstrings?

[Guest JRSDANCER87]

Hi everyone! I got a correction today, that I've never gotten before, and I'm not sure I fully understand it, so if any of you do, please help me! My teacher said that everyone in our class needs to rotate their "knees" more. THis does not mean rotate, FROM the knee, it means that our knees weren't exactly over our toes but were facing a bit inward instead. She said that if you engage your hamstring mucsles, you will be able to rotate from the top of the leg better, which in turn, will send your knees out over your toes instead of locking the knees to keep them straight and having them be slightly turned in. DOes this make sense to anyone? I understand what she's getting at, I'm just not sure I know how to fix the problem. I have a large amount of difficulty activating my hamstring mucsles, with this, and with passe and other positions where you're supposed to use your hamstring mucsles to hold the legs. Any help? Thanks in advanced!

[Victoria Leigh]

Jenna, this is another hard one to answer. I think that it is very hard to feel the hamstrings in some things, although fairly easy in extensions. For the standing leg, you will probably feel the quad muscle a bit more in terms of trying to control any hyperextension, and while the hamstrings are certainly involved in the rotation of that leg, it's probably easier to think of just using the rotator muscles and presenting the inside of the thigh forward as you step into the position. Very important to be extremely lifted up out of the standing leg and working the buttocks muscles while keeping the weight forward. If it is an arabesque, the weight placement is crucial to both rotation and control of hyperextension.

[Guest Terin]

I'm not sure if this is right, but it sounds something like what my teachers say. The way they phrase it is that you need to keep your knees over your toes. If it's the same thing, then what works for me is just to doublecheck and make sure I'm turning out from my hips. Hope this helps!

[Guest JRSDANCER87]

Thankyou, this also applies in various other positions, develope, passe, it's hard to figure out how to activate the hamstring muclses, instead of the hip flexer ones. Are there any excercises that teach you how to activate those mucsles. There are a lot you can do for your quads, and you can do releves for your shins, but is there anything you can do for the hamstrings?

[dancer8906]

Im pretty sure that this exercise is for your hamstrings, you lay on your back with your knees bent in paralell and your feet flat on the floor and lift your pelvis up. You then extend one leg to the front keeping your pelvis off the floor, you turnout the leg thats in the air, bring it so your foot is on top of your other kneee, extend it back out, turn it back in to paralell, put it on the floor, then lower your pelvis. do this to both sides however many times you need to to really feel the burn. Also, you can carry it to the side like a ronde de jambe and that one you can really feel. I hope i explained that clearly enough.