The scientifically perfect hamstring workout. With it, you'll get better looking legs and it will prevent knee aches. People usually don't pay it attention, and there are things you need to understand which will make the difference in your workout, your legs and knees.
Let's start by saying that squats, leg press and lunges don't work the hamstrings, so let's move to the first exercise. The standing unilateral leg curls. If you don't have this machine, do unilateral lying leg curls.
The fact the hips are extended and you are bending the knees unilaterally, you get a bigger neural activation. Studies show that unilateral exercises demand more from the muscles, activating it more. This will make you move bigger weights, as the muscle is more activated.
With this, we activate the first big hypertrophy factor, which is mechanical tension. You'll see that there are other 2 factors. The idea behind the exercise is turning this muscle at full power and work it by itself, and this exercise has some peculiarities.
You'll do one leg and then the other. Some people may think: "I can do it with one leg, the other, and then move to the first and so forth! " This is an advanced technique called "No Stop" and I even use it in Muscle 60D, but you don't need to do it now.
It's the first exercise, we'll focus on the load. For that, we need to have more time to rest. You do one leg, then the other, and then you rest for like 30 seconds, and then come back.
You can give around 60 seconds of rest for each leg. Now, one thing that you'll see here and that will apply for other exercises is "humping" the machine. Your body will want to flex the hip, it will want to cheat.
The idea is to thrust the machine, and you'll notice your glutes will tense, and this will isolate the work on your hamstrings. You'll do 4 sets in this exercise, not to mention the warm-up set which doesn't count. So, 4 sets and you can do it at a lower volume, with around 6 to 8 reps.
Remember, the idea is to push this muscle. The second exercise is the lying leg curl. If you did the unilateral lying curls, you may be thinking that you did it already.
You'll do it again, but with both legs. You'll move them at the same time. What's the idea here?
Why is it used at this moment? I want to draw attention to the second most important thing, which is the muscular hypoxia. Your hips are extended, and we'll work with both legs, so we'll have more muscular contraction.
Now, for advanced students, you can include peak contraction. We'll increase even more time under tension, and the second thing that boost hypertrophy, muscular hypoxia, activating this shortened muscle, and for this exercise you can do from 3 to 4 sets, with 1 minute between each set, squeezing this muscle a lot. We want to contract it, without oxygen, causing that second stimulus.
Now, for the third exercise, which can be the last for some, but may not be. This exercise composes the training we are building since the beginning. We started with mechanical tension, and then went for muscular hypoxia.
We are now going to tissue damage, the three pillars of hypertrophy. One stimulates the other. I do all this in Muscle 60D, to give you more results in less time.
In this point, you will include the seated leg curls. Now, your hips are flexed, and if so, your hamstrings are stretched more, and this will lead to more elongation, and will cause more tissue damage. This is seen as the hamstring exercise which leads to most hypertrophy, but you need to be careful, because when you start doing it, you tend to move your hips forward, losing muscle work.
In the others, I told you to "thrust" the machine, and now you should be careful to keep your hips and lower back on the seat. If you watch out for this, you'll get a more intense work in the exercise. We'll do 3 to 4 sets and the repetition range is from 12 to 15.
One minute between each set is enough for the hammys to rest. Now, if you are more advanced, you can include one more exercise, which will the be the cherry on top. The stiff leg deadlift.
I just talked about the seated leg curls and tissue damage. It stretches the muscle. And the SLDL does just that.
It's basically an exercise which stretches your hamstrings, and you can use its work for hypertrophy. You have to be careful to keep your spine locked in, with its natural curves, or you can hurt your back trying to grow your hamstrings. - My back!
- You have to pay attention to how much you'll bend your knees. There are two ways of doing the SLDL. One with slightly bent knees, and the other with more extended knees.
If it's more extended, you give more focus to the hamstrings, and if it's bent,, you focus on the glutes. By the way, you can get that as a bonus. I like the SLDL because it stretches the muscle a lot.
It's there standing behind your quads. When you do leg curls, you have stabilized hips, and the work happens in the knee joint. So, the muscle is trying to bend the knee.
Now, with the stiff, the knees are stable. You are moving your hips. You are changing the dynamics in the muscle work.
This is interesting to complete the training. For the SLDL, 3 sets are more than enough. It's a good hamstring exercise, it can work your glutes, but it can also work your lumbar and spine erectors.
Don't mess with them. If you go overboard, you can get hurt, and that sucks. Regarding the weight, I don't like indicating higher loads for the SLDL because of the spine erectors.
You do around 12 to 15 reps, and you can have a bigger rest for your lower back, around 90 seconds. I'm thinking of activating the muscle and not letting you get hurt. I did this for the quad workout.
You have to be careful not to hurt your lower back, and there are some strategies which will compliment this workout. Click it now!