Today, we’re going to talk about the hamstring muscles.
The hamstrings run along the back of your thigh, extending from the lower portion of the hipbone down to the back and sides of the knee. These muscles are commonly injured—especially in runners. You’ve probably seen it happen: someone running suddenly stops, grabs the back of their thigh, and starts limping. What they’re grabbing is the belly of the hamstring muscle.
Understanding the Hamstring Anatomy
Hamstrings are long, elongated muscles with:
When people say they “pulled a hamstring,” they’re usually referring to that muscle belly.
Can a Massage Chair Massage the Hamstrings?
This is a question we hear all the time:
“I need a massage chair that can work my hamstrings.”
Here’s the honest answer: most massage chairs do not effectively massage the hamstring muscle belly.
Some chairs—specifically those with an SL-track (also called L-track or LRA)—have rollers that travel down the spine and continue underneath the seat. These rollers do a great job on:
However, the bulk of the massage pressure in that area is really focused on the glutes. And that’s because of physics.
Why Rollers Don’t Work Well on Hamstrings
When you’re reclined in a massage chair:
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Your body weight presses firmly into the back rollers, which allows deep, effective massage for the back, neck, and glutes.
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Your thighs and legs are elevated, meaning there’s very little body weight pressing the hamstrings into the rollers.
Without gravity and body weight pushing down, the rollers simply can’t dig in. Even in chairs where the rollers technically reach the hamstring area, the sensation is usually very light.
To me, it feels more like tickling than therapeutic massage—and unless you really enjoy being tickled, there’s not much clinical benefit there.
Why Hamstrings Are Often Neglected
So there are two main reasons hamstrings don’t get much attention from massage chairs:
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Many chairs don’t reach the hamstring belly at all
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Even those that do lack sufficient body weight and pressure to deliver a deep massage
Injury Considerations
If you’ve had a recent hamstring injury, especially within the first 72 hours, you should not be aggressively massaging the area anyway. During the acute phase of a muscle strain or ligament sprain:
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Ice is usually recommended
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Massage should be very gentle, if used at all
Once you move past the acute and subacute stages and the injury becomes more chronic, massage can be extremely helpful. It can:
Those of you who use massage chairs regularly already understand how beneficial massage can be for many muscle groups—just not the hamstrings.
The Physics Problem
Engineers are constantly trying to improve massage chair design, and I’m sure many are working on ways to better reach the hamstrings. But there are real mechanical limitations.
Massage chairs typically have a seat depth of about 19 to 21 inches. The roller mechanism itself is like a train car on a track:
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The rollers sit in the middle
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The mechanism has structure in front of and behind the rollers
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The track must extend beyond the roller assembly to allow movement
Because of these constraints, it’s simply not feasible for rollers to travel far enough down to reach the middle or lower hamstring, especially near the knee.
What Can You Do Instead?
If hamstring work is important to you, better options include:
Just remember: don’t aggressively work the muscle immediately after an injury. Allow the healing process to begin first.
Bottom Line
Hamstrings are incredibly important muscles and should be stretched and cared for regularly. Massage chairs do a great job on the back, neck, and glutes, and they can lightly touch the upper hamstrings, but don’t rely on today’s robotic massage chairs to provide deep, therapeutic hamstring massage.
At least—not with the way they’re currently designed.
I hope you found this video helpful.
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I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from Massage Chair Relief, and I’ll see you in the next video.
Bye-bye.