Your hamstrings aren’t simply back-of-the-leg filler however vital for power, velocity, and damage prevention. Progressive hamstring coaching makes a distinction, whether or not you’re sprinting, deadlifting, or simply attempting to thicken up your posterior chain. However not all hamstring workout routines are created equal.
Hamstrings are a biarticular muscle group that crosses the hip and knee joints. Meaning to coach them utterly, you might want to goal each hip extension (suppose Romanian deadlifts) and knee flexion (like leg curls). Additionally they are likely to get better extra slowly than quads, so hitting them two occasions per week with the correct mix of quantity and depth is the candy spot for development.
On this installment of our “Finest to Worst” workout routines sequence, we’re breaking down hamstring workout routines by their effectiveness in targeting and stimulating true hypertrophy. From exact, meat-and-potatoes mass-builders to those who may not be value your weekly quantity, this listing of finest hamstring workout routines will assist you to program with intent—and stack slabs of muscle on the again of your legs.
Finest Workout routines to Construct Your Hamstrings
These workout routines are your bread and butter for hamstring improvement. They load the hamstrings by means of a full vary of movement, hold pressure the place it counts, and steadiness 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 straightforward to progress and permit for killer tempo work.
Coach’s Tip: Attempt one-and-a-quarter reps to increase time beneath pressure—curl all the way in which up, come down 1 / 4, then again up earlier than decreasing utterly.
Seated Leg Curls
Arguably superior to mendacity curls because of the 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. Clean, 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 measurement and resilience.
Coach’s Tip: Preserve the bar near your physique and push your hips again such as you’re attempting to the touch a wall behind you.
Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)
Usually confused with stiff-legs, RDLs contain a slight knee bend and higher management, making them excellent for hypertrophy. The constant hamstring pressure all through the motion is unmatched.
Coach’s Tip: Management the eccentric (decreasing section) for 3 to 4 seconds, and hold the reps easy. Don’t bounce or let momentum take over.
Common Workout routines to Construct Your Hamstrings
These workout routines undoubtedly prepare your hamstrings, however they arrive with trade-offs, like over-involving the glutes or limiting pressure. Consider these as sturdy accent strikes (excluding typical deadlifts) that assist your foremost lifts or present selection.
Typical Deadlifts
They construct total-body power and hit the hamstrings laborious, however they’re extra of a normal, 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 may get stable hamstring activation. The hot button is controlling tempo and adjusting foot placement.
Coach’s Tip: Level your toes outward and hold 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 invaluable 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 constantly.
Coach’s Tip: Use help bands, a companion, or carry out solely the eccentric (decreasing) section slowly earlier than scaling as much as full reps.
Beneath-Common Workout routines to Construct Your Hamstrings
These workout routines contain the hamstrings, however don’t immediately or successfully overload them. They can be utilized for selection, mobility, or gentle activation, however should not your foremost 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 by way of hypertrophy stimulus.
Single-Leg RDLs
Good for steadiness 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 excellent your hinge mechanics. Deal with them as a motion ability, not a muscle-building staple.
Lunges
Lunges hit many lower-body muscle tissues, 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 important development from lunges alone.
How To Prepare For the Finest Hamstring Features
Need to construct stronger, thicker, injury-resistant hamstrings? Right here’s tips on how 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 properly to average frequency with good quantity and enough relaxation between classes.
- Management the tempo: Eccentric-focused reps (3–5 seconds decreasing) create extra pressure, main to raised hypertrophy outcomes.
- Use machines and free weights: Combining machine curls and compound hinge actions offers you the most effective 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 often—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. Should you’re chasing velocity, power, or simply next-level legs, build your plan around the “best” exercises, sprinkle in just a few “common” ones for selection, and know when to depart the remainder for warm-ups or off days.
