Glute dominant, poor hamstrings...

[thehazzle]

As the title says I'm very glute dominant whenever doing any posterior chain work which has led to having huge glutes and crap hamstrings.

Any ideas to bring them up? Just started hamstring isolations before compounds to pre exhaust and using deficit deadlifts at the moment.

 

[ajdos]

I found I had the same issues, for me making sure I had a stretch movement in my hammie exercises like hypers or good mornings made a big difference.

 

[comedycentral]

If you can get access then use a glute ham raise bench.. My hams became much stronger and more flexible..

How about good mornings especially using chains so your heaviest part is almost lockout.

Heavy kettle bell swings

 

[thehazzle]

Yeah only thing is glutes tend to take over most the work. Suppose if I work mostly in the stretches position and avoid locking out I can focus more on hams

 

[CDJack]

There's no way your glutes will take over doing a glute ham raise...do you have access to a legit GHR machine?

Also, strict RDLs...

 

[thehazzle]

Yeah got a decent one at my gym. Find it hard to progress with though. Maybe will just give it more time

 

[1bigmofo]

Deads always worked for me.

 

[CDJack]

Yeah got a decent one at my gym. Find it hard to progress with though. Maybe will just give it more time

Do you do the concentric portion of the rep and not just lowering yourself? Lower yourself slowly and come up using only your hamstrings as much as you can. Don't go fast. You can hold plates in your hands as you progress. Don't be afraid to utilize 2.5lb plates...it's a tough exercise.

Oh, and make sure your hip angle is straight...i.e. dont go down by bending at the waist instead of lowering yourself via your knee joint. Your body should be pretty much straight from head to your knee.

 

[myosaurus]

one thing you should know about glute is that they cant fire efficiently when your lumbar is in lordosis or in arched position. they fire optimally when spine is in neutral position which is when the lumbar starts to bend forward during bottom of leg press or squat. so keeping an arched back throughout the hip extension movements will maximize hamstring and minimize glute activation. one movement I found effective is SLD with arched back(with limited range, perhaps torso parallel to floor) and keeting weight on toes rather than heels and not sit back so much. ar the bottom of movement, your legs will be 90 degree to floor and you'll feel like about to fall forward. think of grabbing floor with toes.

 

[Kaladryn]

More than 20 degree bend to the knees allows allows the glutes to activate (probably a lot of individual variance too), so work the hamstrings at the HIP with the knees fairly straight (stiff leg deadlifts, hamstring hyperextensions).

 

[Ironman2010]

Stiff leg deads and the seated ones were you push down (not sure what there called lol) really brought my hammies up, especially from the side, i actually found though, keeping it lighter weight and focusing on really slow negatives helped, it takes maybe little bit longer for the burn to get into the muscle, but once it does its real good, few drop sets as well for them!

 

[thehazzle]

Do you do the concentric portion of the rep and not just lowering yourself? Lower yourself slowly and come up using only your hamstrings as much as you can. Don't go fast. You can hold plates in your hands as you progress. Don't be afraid to utilize 2.5lb plates...it's a tough exercise.

Oh, and make sure your hip angle is straight...i.e. dont go down by bending at the waist instead of lowering yourself via your knee joint. Your body should be pretty much straight from head to your knee.

Yeah I can do 10decent reps with 5kg

Thanks guys. Will try the SLDL's too