Hamstring growth.

Natty teen

New member
My quads are super developed and my hams are not bad, but I would like them bigger. Wondering if you guys could see if this would be a good routine for leg day.
Side note: I follow phat so I hit legs 2x. A week. I was planning on doing this my hyper day.

Back squats
Seated leg curl
Standing single leg curl
Rdl or Stiff leg deads
Leg ext.
 
Switch to low bar squats for a period of time. I recommend to follow up with front squats to make sure your still hittin the quads with heavy weight. But low bar squats made my glutes and hams big and strong as hell.
 
Separate quad and hams and give them each there own day.
 
My hams are my strong point of my legs. I workout legs twice a week and this is my routine:

Day A
Squats (7 sets) Reps- 10,5,3,3,3,5,10
RDL (7 sets)
Sumo DLs (really puts focus on hams and glutes) 5 x 2 (I keep weight heavy and legs are already getting beat up, plus I don't like to dead in high reps)
Sliding leg curls 5 sets of 10 (if you can- they burn bad)
standing calf

Day B
Fr squats (7 sets)
Split leg squats (7 sets)
SLDL
lying leg curls
seated squats
 
More emphasis on hip extension (e.g. good mornings, SLDL) than knee flexion (e.g. leg curls). Do them twice per week with varying stances and bar placement in addition to lunge variations.
 
Taking a page from Bret Contreras, you can divide hamstring exercises into 4 types:

1. Semi-straight leg standing hip extension: RDL's, single leg RDL's, and good mornings

2. Straight leg prone and supine hip extension: back extensions, single leg back extensions, reverse hypers, single leg reverse hypers, straight leg elevated glute bridges, and single leg straight leg elevated glute bridges

3. Isolated knee flexion: Lying leg curls, seated leg curls, and single leg standing leg curls

4. Simultaneous hip extension and knee flexion: Russian leg curls, glute ham raises, stability ball leg curls, slideboard leg curls, single leg slideboard leg curls, slideboard bodycurls, suspended bodycurls, single leg suspended bodycurls, inverse hamstring curls, overhead 45 degree inverse hamstring curls

As a general rule, of those 4, you could rank #4 as the best, followed by #1, then #2, and in last place #3. My ranking is taking into account the different muscle fibers in the hamstring and what gets worked by the movements - something like #3 might only work the biceps femoris whereas #4 works all parts of the hamstring and gets the glutes for an added bonus.

In your proposed workout, you have 1 exercise for #1 and 2 for #3. RDL/SLDLs are fine (I don't like RDLs at all, personally), but I would also consider good morning variations, glute ham raises, russian leg curls, and suspended hamstring body curls (think stability ball leg curl, but your feet are resting on a bench and you're holding onto a barbell in a smith machine or suspension straps over a rack.
 
Heavy SLDL ( romanian deadlifts ) do it for me when I am trying to really isolate the hamstrings. Just be sure to keep it a romanian deadlift and not slip out of form and end up with some bastard sort of modified deadlift. No lockout at the top either .... keep tension on the hams.
 
My hamstring workouts include smith machine sumo squats, heavy weighted walking lunges, heavy weighted step ups, lying leg curls, seated leg curls and glute/ham raises.
 
I'm surprised no one mentioned weighted Bulgarian split squats, with the leg far enough out in front. I have yet to get as much burn from anything compared to these. They are intense for the posterior chain.
 
I'm surprised no one mentioned weighted Bulgarian split squats, with the leg far enough out in front. I have yet to get as much burn from anything compared to these. They are intense for the posterior chain.

This depends on what you use. I always feel DB BSS in my quads and glutes not my hams. NB BSS shifts to PC with the quads acting as stabilizers primarily.
 
This depends on what you use. I always feel DB BSS in my quads and glutes not my hams. NB BSS shifts to PC with the quads acting as stabilizers primarily.

When I extend my forward foot out more, to mimic a box squat, so I'm really far back in the squat - I feel a deep burn in the whole posterior chain for days after. Definitely in the quads too though. It's possible I'm experiencing this just because they are new to my routine. I'm hoping the effects don't diminish in the posterior chain.

What would you recommend so as to focus more on the posterior chain when doing BSS? I'm actually trying to completely replace squats for now with BSS, because of a back injury and until I gain proper mobility back.
 
When I extend my forward foot out more, to mimic a box squat, so I'm really far back in the squat - I feel a deep burn in the whole posterior chain for days after. Definitely in the quads too though. What would you recommend so as to focus more on the posterior chain when doing BSS? I'm actually trying to completely replace squats for now with BSS, because of a back injury and until I gain proper mobility back.

Using a BB is a start. As a small plus, you'll still get some spinal loading as well. I wouldn't completely abandon squats, though.
 
Using a BB is a start. As a small plus, you'll still get some spinal loading as well. I wouldn't completely abandon squats, though.

Followed your advice, did some light ATG squats today and back started spasming pretty badly on the side of that past injury. Had to immediately foam roll. I was doing them as part of a complex though as I'm cutting down atm, but still...think I need to lay off barbell squats for some more time while I get more rehab done. It's getting pretty frustrating.
 
Here is some newly published evidence that basically shows RDL>glute ham raise>machine leg curl for hamstring activation.

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And if you are interested in doing curling, then razor curls > prone machine hamstring curls.

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Here is some newly published evidence that basically shows RDL>glute ham raise>machine leg curl for hamstring activation.

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And if you are interested in doing curling, then razor curls > prone machine hamstring curls.

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Nice info.Do you have an illustration link for the razor curl?
 
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