The hamstrings are a biarticular muscle. This means that they cross not one, but two major joints, in this case, the hips and the knees. This means that they help to move the hips and the knees.

A great way to target the hamstrings is to split hamstring exercises into hip-dominant exercises, that have a stiffer, more extended knee joint throughout the movement, or knee-dominant exercises, that have a stiffer, more extended hip joint.

1 - Barbell RDL (Hip Dominant)

The Barbell Romanian Deadlift is great for training the hamstrings at long muscle lengths, eccentrically, during a hip dominant exercise. This is a good exercise to add in if most of your hinge training only uses deadlifts off the floor, which tend to focus more on the concentric portion of the lift. Use lifting straps so that you aren’t limited by your grip strength during high rep RDL sets.

2 - Nordic Hamstring Curl (Knee Dominant)

This is a great exercise to eccentrically overload your hamstrings during a knee dominant hamstring exercise, which often gets forgotten about in the mists of the more popular hinge exercises.

3 - Glute Bridge Hamstring Walk Out (Knee Dominant)

This variation is a great way to load the hamstrings in a knee dominant fashion for beginners because you can slowly ease your way into it by just walking slightly further out each time.

4 - Barbell Deadlift (Hip Dominant)

This is a great way to load the concentric portion of your hinge movement, targeting the entire posterior, including the hamstrings. This exercise is often used to improve daily and sporting functionality.

5 - GHD Hip Extension (Hip Dominant)

The GHD Machine locks the knee in place to force you to work predominantly around the hips. This is a great variation if you struggle to load your hips/struggle for technique during more complex exercises.

6 - Staggered Stance (B Stance) RDL (Hip Dominant)

The B stance is a great way to bridge the gap between unilateral and bilateral exercises. It allows you to target one leg, but with the support of the opposite leg so that you can load it heavily, without balance being an issue.

7 - Stiff Leg Deadlift (Hip Dominant)

This variation is similar to a deadlift but with even less knee flexion in the bottom position, making it even more hip dominant and putting more stress on the hamstrings and less on the quads in comparison to the traditional deadlift.

8 - Single Leg Kettlebell RDL (Hip Dominant)

This true unilateral hamstring exercise is a great way to load the hamstrings, one leg at a time, while also improving your lower body stability.

9 - Trap Bar Deadlift (Hip Dominant)

This variation can be useful for those that struggle with their deadlift technique off the floor or struggle with lower back pain because the load is close to your centre of mass, unlike a barbell, which is further from your centre of mass because it is in front of your shins.

10 - Swiss Ball Hamstring Curl (Knee Dominant)

This variation is another way to load the hamstrings in a knee dominant fashion, without the need for extensive equipment. The Swiss Ball allows you to choose how you want to train your hamstrings. For instance, you can do super slow tempo reps or lots of fast, high velocity reps to work on your high velocity capacity for exercises like max sprinting.

11 - Dumbbell RDL (Hip Dominant)

The Dumbbells are another way to load your RDL and can be beneficial for a number of ways. For example, the dumbbells allow you to hinge through a greater range of motion than with a barbell and plates because of the smaller size.

12 - Toe Raised Barbell RDL (Hip Dominant)

If you struggle with your RDL technique and it tends to look more like a squat, this is a great variation for you. The toe raise helps you keep your shins vertical and makes it easier to push your hips backwards.

13 - Razor Hamstring Curl (Knee Dominant)

Like the Nordic hamstring curl, this exercise is a great way to eccentrically overload the hamstrings, which is great for hypertrophy. However, this variation is performed with a degree of flexion at the hips, which is thought to be a functional way to strengthen the hamstring, given that they rarely work around one joint at a time, but instead both at once, to varying degrees.

14 - Kettlebell Swing (Hip Dominant)

Unlike most of the exercises on the list, which predominantly focus on strength and hypertrophy, this exercise focuses on high power output from the posterior chain. Therefore, this exercise is a good choice if you want to get more powerful.

15 - Barbell Good Morning (Hip Dominant)

The good morning allows you to heavily load the hamstrings and hip extensors without much external load and is also a great way to learn how to hinge because you don’t have to focus on your arms, which can often disrupt the technique of beginner lifters.

Remember, while all of these are great exercises, none of these are mutually exclusive. Pick a bunch of the exercises on this list for your training, depending on your requirements and preferences and train them with intensity!

Written by guest author Ewan Hammond.

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Tags: Equipment > Power Racks and Cages ; Exercise Type > Strength