![]() Once you’ve mastered these variations (followed by the single leg stiff-legged deadlift), you’ll start to look at machines and exercises in a whole new light.Starting Position: Lie prone (on your stomach) on a mat and attach a cuff (cable or band resistance) to one ankle with the anchor or resistance point away from your body. just because the machine may not show an example of a single-leg variation, doesn’t mean that you can’t do one. Hamstrings may not be the first muscle that comes to mind when you think of performing an exercise one side at a time (like you might with a one-arm preacher curl), but that doesn’t mean you won’t get a benefit from performing one leg a time – even on a standard lying hamstring or seated leg curl machine. There’s times where I’ll want to only focus on my hamstrings – like when I feel I need to give them more attention and shock them more than I can when combining them with quad training, or just to mix up my training from time to time, so as not to get to stagnated performing the same type of leg routine week in, week out. Whilst this particular routine is based around only training the hamstrings, all of these exercises can be included within a more overall approach to leg training, involving your quads and calves. ![]() Hamstrings are a muscle group that should be approached with a sort of refined, slower tempo whereby you can really feel the muscle fibers all be pulled into play and working hard together. Unless you’re a professional athlete like a sprinter or football player, who require fast, explosive movements, and who train specifically to develop their hamstrings to cope with these types of stresses (and who still face hamstring related injuries even with the best training and recovery available to them), it’s unlikely that your hamstrings will be used to such explosive or faster-pace of training.īesides the lying hamstring curl, which even then I still perform at a slower tempo than most, squeezing my hamstrings hard at the top of each rep, most of the other hamstring-related movements should not be performed at a fast pace – like the good-morning raises. Training hamstrings is not one of these times. Whether we were closing in on the final few reps, or we’re cheating the rep to really work the muscle hard, there’s times where this may be acceptable, and even beneficial. We’ve all been guilty at some point of throwing the weight up to perform an exercise. (It also helps to really think about the hamstrings when performing these exercise and envision them pulling your torso back up as you consciously try to contract them). By keeping the knees soft (and not locked out), and pushing backwards slightly with your hips when lowering and raising the upper torso, you should be feeling the hamstrings be worked. These can take a little practice to master at first, and to really feel the hamstrings become involved. ![]() ![]() You’ll see on exercises 2 and 3 that both required a standing stance with the hamstrings being worked by lengthening and shortening during the movement, but not by flexing at the knee. This type of press-movement, unlike the isolated contraction movements mentioned earlier, can bring about a greater call for growth, thanks in part to the ability to manage much higher weight loads. For example, performing a leg press (specifically a sled or cradled leg-press), with your feet positioned at the very top of the foot plate, will involve more hamstring muscle activation, and less work from the quads. Performing a lying leg curl or seated leg curl is a sure way to feel the hamstrings being worked, but there’s a whole number of other exercises that be included, and often with greater effect for size and strength.
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