Workout Routines for Hamstrings

There are three types of workout routines you can perform for your hamstrings, which are a group of four muscles at the back of your thighs. These muscles are the short and long heads of the biceps femoris, the semimembranosus and the semitendinosus. You can train these muscles by doing a hip-extensor workout, a knee-flexor workout or a combination of the two.

  1. Hip-Extension Workout

    • The biggest muscles of the hamstrings are the biceps femoris long head, the semimembranosus and the semitendinosus. They are largely involved during hip extension. And thus, you can exercise them with a hip workout routine. Hip extension is a movement in which you move your thighs or pelvis towards the rear. A hip-extension workout routine should comprise two to three exercises. Examples are the standing barbell straight-leg deadlift, barbell good mornings and hyperextensions.

    Hip-Extension Exercises

    • During both the straight-leg deadlift and good morning, you stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart and your back and legs straight. You lean forward until your torso is parallel to the ground to stretch your hamstrings, then stop and return to the start, contracting your hamstrings. The difference between these two exercises is the barbell position. During deadlifts, you hold the barbell with an overhanded grip and your hands placed shoulder-width apart and you position the barbell in front of your body with your arms straight. During good mornings, you hold the barbell with your hands shoulder-width apart and you position the barbell over your upper back with your arms bent. As for hyperextensions, you do this exercise with just your body weight. However, instead of standing upright, you put your lower body on the hyperextension machine platform and then bend and extend your hips to work your hamstrings.

    Knee-Flexion Workout

    • If you want to work all four muscles of the hamstrings, instead of just the three you worked during the hip-extending workout, then perform two to three knee-flexing exercises instead. Knee flexion just refers to the bending of your knees to bring your heels towards your buttocks. Examples include the standing, seated and lying leg curls.

    Knee-Flexing Exercises

    • To do leg curls, whether standing, seated or lying, the execution is pretty much the same. You position one or both ankles under the machine roll pads and then bend your knees to raise your ankles towards your buttocks. You then hold the contraction for a second or two and extend your knees to return to the beginning position. Seated leg curls provide the most stretch to your hamstrings, while the standing and lying variations provide a slightly lesser stretch.

    Combination Workout

    • The best workout routine for your hamstrings is one that comprises a combination of hip-extending and knee-flexing exercises. For example, do the standing barbell straight-leg deadlift, the seated leg curl and the lying leg curl in one workout. This workout routine will allow you to train your hamstrings at two different joints and will result in a better training adaptation of the entire muscle group. No matter which workout routine you perform, always do two to three exercises for the hamstrings, three sets per exercise with eight to 12 repetitions per set.