Nu-Skool Knowledge….The hamstring revolution…

If you’re like me , you didn’t really begin training hamstrings until at least a few years into your body building education. At first we all work our asses off on the bench press, hit a few barbell curls and of course, if we’re extra keen, we will throw in some lat pull downs.

However, very few of us get around to giving the hamstrings the attention they truly deserve. Only if you are ever lucky enough to step onto a Body building stage, will you notice the importance of the hamstrings, at least aesthetically. Not only do good, well developed hamstrings positively affect your physique and it’s balance, they are also essential for ensuring injury prevention. Being the primary stabilising agent of the knee joint, solid, powerful, functional hamstrings are vital for athletes of all types. Most beginning weight trainers avoid hamstring movements, choosing instead to favour exercises that target the quadriceps. Even when these people do graduate towards training the hamstrings, all they usually warrant is a few half-assed leg curls thrown in after a gruelling squat workout.

What body builders and anyone interested in hamstring development, need to learn is that the hamstrings do have dual functionality. i.e they not only flex the lower leg (curling movement) but they extend at the hip also. To put in bluntly, kick-ass hamstrings look fantastic!!

A major problem surrounding hamstring training can be lack of variety. Most gym have a lying leg curl and a barbell, but once you’ve hit curls and stiff-legged dead lifts for a few months, it get’s kinda boring.

Over the next two issues, I will introduce you to 8 hamstring exercises that maybe you haven’t tried before. They’re nothing new to most strength and resistance experts, but maybe they’re just the extra incentive you need to turn those hamstrings into steel cords.

1) Sprinting. A-ha fooled ya! Whilst sprinting may not be a specific “exercise” performed in the gym, it really can help with hamstring development. Next time you get the opportunity to watch athletics, check out the hamstrings on the 100 and 200m sprinters…awesome.

2) Cable curls (1-legged). This could be likened to a standing leg curl, though essentially it’s great because it works both functions of the hamstring (knee and hip extension). Stand in front of a weight stack and attach your ankle (usually with a padded attachment) to the bottom connection. Whilst facing the weight stack, bend forward at the waist slightly. Start the movement by extending the leg backwards and upwards as far as it will go, then continue the movement by curling the lower leg until the heel touches your backside (at least as close as is possible). The advantage of this exercise is that it allows you to train one leg at a time, which has been favourably linked with the ability to recruit more muscle fibers than if you followed the traditional “both legs at a time” plan.

3) Russian dead lift (Flat backed good morning). This is a true killer and an exercise that I have been using for a number of years. Unlike a traditional good morning where the back is rounded, the Russian dead lift calls for a ram-rod straight back and really emphasises the hamstrings and glutes. Hold a barbell across your shoulders and simply bend forward at the waist, whilst keeping the chest up high. However, unlike the way you see guys performing the stiff-legs dead lift, don’t keep your legs stiff. The knees should be slightly bent and the glutes should be thrust out and back. The pull on the hamstring swill be extreme, so go nice and slowly.

4) The last exercise in this weeks list is: 1 and 1/3 leg curls. These are performed exactly how they sound and really take advantage of the time under tension principle. 1 rep is only completed when the legs are first raised to the glutes, lowered 1/3 of the way down, paused, then curled back up towards the glutes again.

Main points to remember when training hamstrings:

1) Emphasise the negative portion of the repetition (no quicker than 3 seconds to lower the weight/stack

2) Work predominantly with low reps (4-8), due to the fast twitch fiber make-up of the hamstrings, they respond better to heavy weights, slow negatives and explosive movements.

3) Don’t just lump hamstrings and the end of a gruelling quad workout! Train them alongside quads, with the use of alternates, or devote an entire workout to them.

Catch me at JASON RICKABY’S NATURAL TRAINING TEAM on uk-muscle.com

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