Your hamstrings aren’t simply back-of-the-leg filler however important for power, pace, and damage prevention. Revolutionary hamstring coaching makes a distinction, whether or not you’re sprinting, deadlifting, or simply making an attempt to thicken up your posterior chain. However not all hamstring workouts are created equal.
Hamstrings are a biarticular muscle group that crosses the hip and knee joints. Which means to coach them fully, it’s essential to goal each hip extension (assume Romanian deadlifts) and knee flexion (like leg curls). Additionally they are inclined to get better extra slowly than quads, so hitting them two instances per week with the right combination of quantity and depth is the candy spot for development.
On this installment of our “Greatest to Worst” workouts sequence, we’re breaking down hamstring workouts by their effectiveness in focusing on and stimulating true hypertrophy. From exact, meat-and-potatoes mass-builders to people who may not be price your weekly quantity, this record of greatest hamstring workouts will enable you to program with intent—and stack slabs of muscle on the again of your legs.
Greatest Workouts to Construct Your Hamstrings
These workouts are your bread and butter for hamstring improvement. They load the hamstrings by means of a full vary of movement, maintain rigidity the place it counts, and stability knee flexion and hip hinge mechanics. If you wish to develop your hamstrings, that is the highest tier.
Mendacity Leg Curls
Basic and laser-focused. Mendacity leg curls are pure knee flexion, locking your hips in place and dialing in on the hamstrings. They’re simple to progress and permit for killer tempo work.
Coach’s Tip: Strive one-and-a-quarter reps to increase time below rigidity—curl all the way in which up, come down 1 / 4, then again up earlier than reducing fully.
Seated Leg Curls
Arguably superior to mendacity curls as a result of stretch place. Sitting locations the hamstrings in a lengthened state, rising muscle harm and development stimulus.
Coach’s Tip: Preserve your butt glued to the seat and keep away from chaotic reps. Easy, full-range reps right here will torch your hamstrings.
Stiff-Leg Deadlifts
A staple for loading the hamstrings by means of a deep hip hinge. With minimal knee bend and a brutal stretch on the backside, this motion builds dimension and resilience.
Coach’s Tip: Preserve the bar near your physique and push your hips again such as you’re making an attempt to the touch a wall behind you.
Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)
Usually confused with stiff-legs, RDLs contain a slight knee bend and larger management, making them splendid for hypertrophy. The constant hamstring rigidity all through the motion is unmatched.
Coach’s Tip: Management the eccentric (reducing part) for 3 to 4 seconds, and maintain the reps clean. Don’t bounce or let momentum take over.
Common Workouts to Construct Your Hamstrings
These workouts positively prepare your hamstrings, however they arrive with trade-offs, like over-involving the glutes or limiting rigidity. Consider these as sturdy accent strikes (excluding typical deadlifts) that help your major lifts or present selection.
Typical Deadlifts
They construct total-body power and hit the hamstrings onerous, however they’re extra of a basic, strength-defining posterior chain motion. The glutes and low again typically dominate, limiting focused hamstring development.
Coach’s Tip: Use these for power improvement, not isolation. Pair them with curls or RDLs for full protection.
Hyperextensions
Glute-heavy? Sure. However with correct kind and slight tweaks, you will get strong hamstring activation. The bottom line is controlling tempo and adjusting foot placement.
Coach’s Tip: Level your toes outward and maintain your backbone impartial to shift extra load into the hamstrings.
45-Diploma Hip Extensions
Just like hyperextensions however with a hard and fast angle. These are barely extra range-limited however nonetheless beneficial when dialing within the hinge.
Coach’s Tip: Transfer slowly by means of the eccentric, and don’t overextend your decrease again on the prime—deal with the hip hinge.
Nordic Curls
Brutal and efficient, however insanely superior. Nordic curls overload the eccentric portion of knee flexion like nothing else, however most individuals don’t have the power to do them appropriately or persistently.
Coach’s Tip: Use help bands, a companion, or carry out solely the eccentric (reducing) part slowly earlier than scaling as much as full reps.
Beneath-Common Workouts to Construct Your Hamstrings
These workouts contain the hamstrings, however don’t instantly or successfully overload them. They can be utilized for selection, mobility, or gentle activation, however are usually not your major development drivers.
Squats
They’ll make your legs sturdy and thick, however hamstrings take a backseat to the quads and glutes throughout squats, particularly in a typical high-bar or entrance squat.
Coach’s Tip: Use squats to construct the bottom, however not as a hamstring isolation technique.
Slider Leg Curls
These look nice on Instagram and are useful for warm-ups or rehab. However they lack overload potential, and also you’ll shortly outgrow them when it comes to hypertrophy stimulus.
Single-Leg RDLs
Good for stability and management, however not nice for maximal hamstring loading. These are higher as accent actions than mass-builders.
Coach’s Tip: Use lighter weights and ideal your hinge mechanics. Deal with them as a motion ability, not a muscle-building staple.
Lunges
Lunges hit many lower-body muscle groups, however the hamstrings aren’t the prime mover. Relying on stride size and torso angle, many of the load shifts to the quads and glutes.
Coach’s Tip: Longer strides with a ahead lean can improve hamstring engagement, however don’t anticipate vital development from lunges alone.
How To Prepare For the Greatest Hamstring Positive aspects
Wish to construct stronger, thicker, injury-resistant hamstrings? Right here’s the right way to program like a professional:
- Prioritize each hip extension and knee flexion: Mix leg curls and RDL-style actions to hit all heads of the hamstrings.
- Prepare hamstrings 2x per week: They reply nicely to reasonable frequency with sensible quantity and sufficient relaxation between classes.
- Management the tempo: Eccentric-focused reps (3–5 seconds reducing) create extra rigidity, main to raised hypertrophy outcomes.
- Use machines and free weights: Combining machine curls and compound hinge actions provides you the perfect of each worlds.
- Progress quantity or load—not each directly: Add reps, units, or depth slowly and keep away from leaping too quick between overload variables.
- Prepare hamstrings after quads? Flip it: Put hamstrings first on leg day sometimes—particularly in the event that they’re a weak level.
- Embody hamstring finishers: To finish classes with a bang, strive drop units on leg curls or RDL/pulse combos.
The Takeaway
revolutionary programming + strategic train choice = bulletproof hamstrings. In case you’re chasing pace, power, or simply next-level legs, construct your plan across the “greatest” workouts, sprinkle in a couple of “common” ones for selection, and know when to depart the remaining for warm-ups or off days.
