Hamstrings, The Athlete's Muscle...

The hamstrings play an important role in athletic function, most notably, our ability to sprint at high speeds, without injury, which is why strong and powerful hamstrings are essential for athletes. We should use resistance training to build the underlying strength and power requirements in our hamstrings so that they are ready for these athletic movements.

The Hamstrings are BIARTICULAR…

A biarticular muscle group is one that works around multiple joints: The hamstring muscle group works around the hip and the knee. Therefore, hamstring exercise tend to get split into those that are more hip dominant or more knee dominant, so that we are training through both the key functions of the hamstring.  If needed, read our blog - What is a superset?

The Ultimate Hamstring Superset

1 - Stiff Leg Deadlift (Hip Dominant)

• Approach the barbell and squat rack, pushing your thighs right up against the Barbell, with it adjusted to the height of your mid-thigh on the squat rack.

• Assume a shoulder width grip on the barbell or wide enough to get out the way of your legs.

• Bring your shoulders back and down towards your bum and then lift the weight off and step away from the rack.

• Then, simply push your bum back to the wall behind you, while keeping your legs as straight as possible, thus isolating the hip joint.

• Once you can’t push your hips back any further, stand back up, ‘pulling your shorts up with the barbell’ to keep it close.

Key Tip - Improve Your Stability by Driving Your Toes Into the Ground

With the cue ‘push your bum back to the wall behind you’ used to get the hips working, people often rock back into their heels, causing their toes to shoot up. While this may not necessarily be an issue in this exercise, it’s best practice to maintain balance and thus we should aim for even foot pressure.

Think about driving your big toe into the ground while you push your bum back to the wall behind you. This will even out your foot pressure and make you more stable.

2 - Hamstring Slides (Knee Dominant)

• Lay on your back with your feet tucked up, halfway towards your bum, with a Core Slider under each foot.

• Drive your hips to the sky as if doing a glute bridge to use up your hips before the movement starts, thus biasing the knee joint.

• Then simply slide your feet out as far as possible, keeping your bum as high as possible throughout.

• ‘Pull’ the sliders back in towards your bum with your heels to complete the movement.

Key Tip - Go As Deep As You Can

Another important quality when training the hamstrings is to train and load them at length. Therefore, progressing this exercise with range of motion should be a priority. Go as deep/shallow as you can control and slowly look to progress this week on week. You can even add in negative reps, where you can as deep as possible, and then just reset for the concentric phase, if that is too difficult.

Transform your Hamstring Training by adding these two exercises into your training, so that you are working both key functions of the hamstring muscle and not missing out on any gains.

Grab yourself some Core Sliders, a Barbell and Bumper Plates and Get Started.

Written by guest author Ewan Hammond.

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Tags: Equipment > Bars and Weight Plates ; Exercise Type > Conditioning ; Misc > Workout ; Target Area > Legs