Hamstrings help

[sean70ss]

Flustered here! I work and work my hams, just cannot seem to get a nice shape to them. Started doing some stretching methods hoping that will help. Any pointers on helping to get them to grow more?

 

[Kaladryn]

Flustered here! I work and work my hams, just cannot seem to get a nice shape to them. Started doing some stretching methods hoping that will help. Any pointers on helping to get them to grow more?

Focus on depth when doing squats and leg press, get good mind muscle connections while doing romanian deadlifts.

 

[IronLion2]

Focus on the full ROM and make sure you have proper hip hinging/spinal flexion

 

[buck]

Do you train hams first or on their own. Or do you train them like they are a secondary muscle. Hams glutes and calves had there own day for many years.

 

[mayan]

This might sound silly, and certainly no fun, but make sure they are activating. I trained my hamstrings for years and must have been moving the weight mostly with my lower back and momentum (curls), and extremely quad dominant when squatting/pressing. Finally able to activate and make them grow by doing single leg curls with almost no weight. Or maybe even start with a resistance band. One leg at a time, and I would even "lose" control of the weight in the beginning, stop and hold it in place, maybe drop back a little to reactivate the ham, then continue to curl, squeeze at the top. It's slow and tedious, but if those muscles have been asleep for years, it takes some time to wake them up. Once you start using the hamstrings and they strengthen a bit, then you can start to squeeze the glute to further isolate the hamstring, and before long your ham will feel like your bicep feels during and after doing biceps curls...like it's pumping up. Then you will surely see a change in size and hang etc. if poor or little activation is the problem.

 

[Fa Seeshus]

Glute ham raise, reverse hyper (1 leg or 2) and hip thrust (1 and 2 leg)

All these use the glute and ham together, the way they are designed to work.

I feel all these more than standard ham curl machines.

 

[USMuscle9403]

I credit "heel presses" on the leg press for most of my hamstring strength and development. Reverse hypers and single leg curls, also, but the heel presses are number one for me.

 

[sean70ss]

hams

I do train them on there own days. I have noticed some improvement with the heel press that was mentioned. Plus trying to develop that quad sweep on the front to. Not a big guy have good definition etc just struggling with gaining size and uniform development. Work in progress!

 

[maldorf]

Stiff leg deadlifts helped mine get some more size.

Also, when you do leg curls make sure you point your toes, don't flex your ankle joint. Keep the foot extended out the whole time. Keeping the toe pointed helps keep your gastrocnemius from helping curl the weight. That calf muscle crosses the knee joint and actually helps flex the knee joint a bit. A gross anatomy professor drew my attention to it and he was so right. I have pointed my toes ever since. Youll have to lower the weight quite a bit.

Once you hit failure you can then flex ankle joint and get out another 2 or 3 reps. That's ok, kinda like cheating on bicep curls.

 

[FrancisK]

Stiff leg deadlifts helped mine get some more size.

Also, when you do leg curls make sure you point your toes, don't flex your ankle joint. Keep the foot extended out the whole time. Keeping the toe pointed helps keep your gastrocnemius from helping curl the weight. That calf muscle crosses the knee joint and actually helps flex the knee joint a bit. A gross anatomy professor drew my attention to it and he was so right. I have pointed my toes ever since. Youll have to lower the weight quite a bit.

Once you hit failure you can then flex ankle joint and get out another 2 or 3 reps. That's ok, kinda like cheating on bicep curls.

Mine as well, stiff leg wide grip dead lifts I really feel my hams. Oh and lunges, god do lunges make my ass and hams sore the next day! If you're not doing lunges on leg day you are cheating yourself, bar across the neck and walking for each rep.

As much as I want to improve everything I could say one thing my hams aren't so bad thanks to those two!

 

[buck]

The largest muscles in the hams are used to straighten the hip and I found the Romanian dead-lift good for that. Use a light enough weight to feel them work to start. Lying leg curls activate smaller muscles, try to keep the hips down on the pad so that other muscles aren't taking over. You can see many people raise the hips because it makes it easier to move the weight.

 

[maldorf]

The largest muscles in the hams are used to straighten the hip and I found the Romanian dead-lift good for that. Use a light enough weight to feel them work to start. Lying leg curls activate smaller muscles, try to keep the hips down on the pad so that other muscles aren't taking over. You can see many people raise the hips because it makes it easier to move the weight.

I like seated leg curls, those always seem to feel better to me and make me more sore the next day. Standing leg curls are good too.

 

[Ashop]

I really like the HAMMER STRENGTH Iso Lateral Standing Hamstring curl machine. This machine really helped me bring up my lagging hamstrings.

 

[maldorf]

I really like the HAMMER STRENGTH Iso Lateral Standing Hamstring curl machine. This machine really helped me bring up my lagging hamstrings.

That's what I have been using for awhile now. Its pretty good!

 

[Dens228]

High reps............

I do seated leg curls most of the time. I rotate three workouts for them.

1. DC rest pause but the get to at least 15 reps before the first pause

2. Muscle rounds from Fortitude training

3. DC rest pause but hold at the stretch for a 3 count

 

[Kaladryn]

Everyone is talking about various hamstring curls but the hamstrings work primarily at the hip, not the knee. I would only do a leg curl as a finishing exercise or a pre-exhaust exercise, big movements at the hip are what builds hamstrings IMO.

 

[juggy38]

Everyone is talking about various hamstring curls but the hamstrings work primarily at the hip, not the knee. I would only do a leg curl as a finishing exercise or a pre-exhaust exercise, big movements at the hip are what builds hamstrings IMO.

This^^^

When you can strict good morning with 225lbs or RDL 315+ Reps your hams will be big. The loaded stretch is what really creates the trauma to grow.

 

[beastmode121]

the way I did it, I made hamstrings a day that they deserve and included glute work to that day like hip thrusts and lots of Abductor glute work. Lots of squeezing and holding


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[Delt123]

I like curls more than a rdl. I even ditched rdl from my hamstring training. Saw John Meadows stating that his hams 'hang' from doing leg curls. Mine started to look a lot better from the Side since I've been focussing on leg curls.

Quick tip; put your feet close togheter. Not forcing them togheter but close enough

 

[IronLion2]

I like curls more than a rdl. I even ditched rdl from my hamstring training. Saw John Meadows stating that his hams 'hang' from doing leg curls. Mine started to look a lot better from the Side since I've been focussing on leg curls.

Quick tip; put your feet close togheter. Not forcing them togheter but close enough

JM trained as a powerlifter at the worlds strongest gym for 10 years..... You cant pull that out of context, he started doing that as a 40+ year old master IFBB.