Why can’t I touch my toes? Reasons & solution!

If you’ve been subjected to flexibility tests, you were probably asked to try and touch your toes. Or maybe Social Media made you aware of “standards” you should fulfil.

Whatever the reason, now that you found that you can’t touch your toes, you want to know why.

After all, the first step to fixing anything is understanding the cause, right?

Can’t touch your toes? Tight hamstrings are to blame!

The most common cause of not being able to touch your toes is a lack of flexibility in your hamstrings. You know, those muscles at the back of your thighs.

If you can’t touch your toes without bending your knees, these muscles cannot lengthen enough to have you bend forward with straight legs.

You can try it right now: bend forward slowly while keeping your lower back straight (!!) and notice where you feel the stretch.

In the back of your legs, right?

Okay, but why can’t I touch my toes while sitting?

Alright, now you might wonder about the seated toe touch stretch. Why are you not able to do that?

Mostly, the same answer as for the standing forward fold will apply. It’s probably your hamstrings limiting your forward fold.

If you look at the seated forward fold and the standing toe touch pose, you’ll see how it’s basically the same movement.

Is it bad if you can’t touch your toes?

So what if you can’t touch your toes? Is it a bad sign for your health?

Not necessarily. While being able to touch your toes without pain is a good indicator for hamstring flexibility, it doesn’t make you “unhealthy” if you can’t.

You can have hamstring flexibility and other physical problems. At the same time, you can be really fit, but lack the hamstring flexibility to touch your toes.

In general though, if touching your toes seems completely out of question, it is time to stretch a little bit!

Why is it important to be able to touch your toes?

So why exactly does it matter if you can touch your toes or not?

As we found out, not being able to do that is a sign of tight hamstrings. And tight ANYTHING in your body means a lack of flexibility.

Flexibility in general is important to protect your muscles from injuries. Flexibility in your hamstrings, specifically, reduces strain on your lower back muscles, and, of course, allows for a bigger range of motion in all kinds of movements.

Wait, is touching your toes bad for your back?

If you’ve already did some research on how to touch your toes , you might have read some warnings.

“Touching your toes can hurt your back.” “Toe touches will hurt your lower back muscles.”

And the truth is, there is a good chance to hurt yourself IF you’re not doing the stretch correctly. Therefore it is really important for you to understand the stretch BEFORE you start working on your toe touches.

I explain how to do a proper forward fold stretch safely here. If you follow the instructions there, you are all set to start practicing toe touches.

Get practicing!

The good news? Increasing your hamstring flexibility is not only really good for you. It’s also pretty easy. All it takes is some understanding of how flexibility works and a few minutes per day.

Yep, that easy!

If you’re up for the challenge, I’ll teach you how to touch your toes in 10 minutes per day! Check it out and happy practicing!