The Best Hamstring Workout For Women’s in 2024

The hamstrings start at the pelvis and are made up of three muscles located at the back of the thigh: the biceps femora, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus.

All in all, hamstrings play a significant role in functional movements such as hip extension and the flexion of the knee. As a result, they are involved in everyday mobility tasks such as straightening up and walking. Strong hamstrings are essential for activities such as running, jumping, and lifting things from the ground.

On the fitness front, the hamstrings play an important role in lower body strength and power workouts such as cycling, rowing, and more. Hamstring injuries are a common issue for both casual and professional athletes. (We’ll go into how to prevent them later.)

Warm up your Hamstrings to improve circulation

To improve performance and avoid injury, warm up your hamstrings for the next exercise. Warm up your hamstrings to improve circulation to them, zone in mentally, and prepare your body to lift heavy weights. If you’re doing exercises that require eccentric strength such as hinges and sprinting, you’ll need to pay extra attention to your hamstrings. Stretching your hamstrings isn’t going to get you anywhere. Instead, warm up with exercises that stretch your hamstrings over time. Your muscles will thank you for this:

• 5-10 minutes of slow-paced steady state cardio
• Dynamic Hamstring Stretches or Soft-Tissue Mobilizations
• 2-3 sets of lightweight hip hinge movements like kettlebell deadlift or prone leg curl.

5 Best Hamstring Exercises

1. Lying leg curl.
2. Hamstring slide.
3. Toes-elevated Romanian Deadlift.
4. Dumbbell Good Morning
5. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

1. Lying Leg Curl

The lying leg curl isn’t well-known and is often done incorrectly. However, when done correctly and with full range of motion it strengthens the hamstrings and calf muscles.

When performing the lying leg curl, keep the hips and upper body stable so that you only move from the hamstrings.

The lying leg curl improves the flexibility of your hamstrings and isolates your hammier completely, eliminating the need for supporting muscles such as the glutes and lower back.

How To Do It

• On the leg curl machine, lie on your back with your ankles tucked under the pad. Keep your hips low and draw your belly button in to avoid movement compensation.
• Shift your weight to your glutes.
• Lift slowly to get the most time under pressure during the eccentric part. Repeat.
• Coach’s Tip: Actively press your pelvis into the pad.
• Sets and Reps: Try 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.

2. Hamstring Slide

The Hamstring Slide utilizes your hamstrings for their role as a hip extender and knee flexor. The Hamstring Slide is a lighter version of the Razor Curl (more on that below).

How To Do It

• Get on your back on all fours with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle and your heels below your knees. Your heels should be on workout sliders.
• If you’re doing it at home, place your heels on top of your socks on your hardwood floor.
• Lift your hips with your glutes and lower your heels to the floor until your legs are nearly fully extended.
• Bring your heels back under your knees by flexing your hamstrings and repeat.

Coach’s Tip: If you’re doing this at home, you can place your heels on a pair of socks on a hardwood floor.

Sets and Reps: Go for 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions.

3. Toes-Elevated Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

As an addition to deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts are an effective exercise for building strength and mass in the glutes and hams. The toes-up variation takes this exercise to a whole new level.

By lifting the toes, the weight is shifted back onto the heels, which further isolates and strengthens the hamstrings.

When performed in a slow eccentric position, it will strengthen your hamstrings in a longer position to prevent strain.

How To Do It

• Use a 25 pound bumper plate or a low platform to lift your toes and bring your feet together.
• As you hinge, spread your dumbbells out,
• so they track over your toes instead of staying close to your body.
• Feel the stretch by controlling the eccentric pace.
• Hold in the bottom position for a second, then re-hinge.

Coach’s Tip: You needn’t elevate your toes too high. Half an inch to an inch of height should do the trick.

Sets and Reps: Try out 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.

4.Dumbbell Good Morning

While the barbell good morning is a great movement for loading the hamstrings, not everyone has the flexibility to reach behind the barbell to stabilize it. Or, after the compressive/ shear load of squatting and deadlifts, your spine may need a break.

The dumbbell good morning engages the anterior core and works the same muscles as a barbell, but without the strain on your spine. With the weight in the anterior position, you’ll also be more mindful of your upper body positioning.

How To Do It

• Grab a dumbbell and hold it against your chest. Keep your shoulders low and chest high.
• Kneel with a soft bend and hinge at the hips until your back is almost flat on the floor.
• Stop for a few seconds and go back to your starting position.
• Do it again.

Coach’s Tip: Squeeze your lats to help keep the dumbbell firmly against your torso.

Sets and Reps: Bang out 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions.

5.Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

The single leg RDL is one of the most difficult lower-body exercises to perform. However, if you can do it, it’s definitely worth it:

• Working with one leg allows you to slow down your eccentric movements.
• This builds crucial eccentric hamstring strength to protect your hamstrings.
• If you’re going to do the single leg RDL, make sure you’re doing it with bodyweight exercises before adding load.
• It won’t be your best moment if you fall flat on your face.

How To Do It

• Stand with your legs hip-width apart,
• lift one foot off the ground, balance on the grounded foot,
• work your working knee, keep your chest and shoulders relaxed,
• hinge your hips back,
• hinge until your belly button touches the floor,
• stabilize, and go back to your starting position.

Coach’s Tip: Try not to rotate your working hip upwards.

Sets and Reps: 2 or 3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions per leg is a great place to start.

The Benefits of Building Strong Hamstrings

There are many benefits of developing strong hamstrings; here are some of the most notable of the bunch.

Balanced Leg Strength

Most people tend to have stronger quad muscles than hamstrings, which are the muscles that sit on the front of your thighs. This is normal and natural (in fact, the quads have the most muscle mass of any muscle group in your body). However, you don’t want to over-dominate your quads to the detriment of your hamstrings.

Hamstring strength adds to overall leg strength which can improve athletic performance and everyday activities,” explains Jermaine. “When it comes to working out, you could benefit from strengthening your hamstrings if your performance in activities such as running and squatting is declining.” In general, tightness or pain at the back of the thighs, and sometimes at the knee, can be a sign that you need to work on strengthening your hamstrings.

Injury Prevention

Hamstrings play an important stabilizer role in preventing strains or injuries during physical activity,” says Jermaine. “More specifically, well-developed hamstrings help stabilize your knee joint, which reduces the risk of knee injury, especially in sports.”

According to a review in the IJPT, sprinting requires a high level of eccentric strength (e.g., manipulating elongation (e.g. by slowing down when a muscle is moving in a downward motion), when the hamstrings are lengthened. Studies show that athletes with hammy strains lack enough strength in this group of muscles, and failing to increase eccentric strength after a hammy injury can result in reinjury.

Improved Athletic Performance

Hamstring muscles play an important stabilizing role in preventing strains and injuries during physical activity,” explains Jermaine. “In particular, well-developed hamstrings help stabilize your knee joint, which can help prevent knee injuries, especially in sports.”

If you’re looking to increase your athletic output or set new personal bests, developing your hamstrings will help you in many ways. “Hamstring muscles can be a great complement to other modalities such as running, cycling and boxing,” says Jermaine, “as powerful hamstrings help with speed and efficiency in running and cycling by helping with leg extension and leg flexion. They also help with stability and balance in quick footwork or pivoting movements in boxing.”

Additional Benefits of Strong Hamstrings

Improving your hamstrings can help you feel more in control of your body all day, every day. Hamstring exercises improve flexibility, which improves mobility and helps prevent tightness, which many of us suffer from from sitting for too long.

But hamstring exercises don’t stop there. A well-balanced lower body, including strong hamstrings, improves posture and reduces lower back pain.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the hamstrings are crucial muscles involved in various functional movements like hip extension and knee flexion, essential for everyday tasks and athletic activities. Strengthening the hamstrings through targeted exercises not only improves athletic performance but also helps prevent injuries and enhances overall leg strength and balance.

Read:

1. The Best Leg Press Workouts In The Gym

2. The Best Six Packs Abs Workouts In The Gym
3. The Best Sunny Health And Fitness Bike Reviews

FAQs

Q1: What are the hamstrings and where are they located?**

A:  Hamstrings are three muscles in the back of your thigh. They start at your pelvis and go all the way down to your knee.

Q2: Name the three muscles that make up the hamstrings.

A:  The hamstrings are composed of three muscles: the bicep, which is made up of the femur, the shoulder, and the arm, which are made up of the shoulder, elbow, and leg.

Q3: What is the function of the hamstrings?

A:  The hamstrings play a role in bending the knee (knee flexion) and straightening the hip (hip extension). They also stabilise the knee joint.

Q4: What are some common hamstring injuries?

A:  Common hamstring injuries include strains (tears in the muscle fibers) and tendinitis (inflammation of the tendons that attach the muscles to the bone).

Q5: What are the symptoms of a hamstring injury?

A:  Symptoms of a hamstring injury can include pain, swelling, bruising, and difficulty walking or running.