Greatest 12 Hamstring Workouts Ranked: Construct Greater, Stronger Legs—Smarter

Your hamstrings aren’t simply back-of-the-leg filler however vital for power, velocity, and harm prevention. Revolutionary hamstring coaching makes a distinction, whether or not you’re sprinting, deadlifting, or simply making an attempt to thicken up your posterior chain. However not all hamstring workout routines are created equal.

Hamstrings are a biarticular muscle group that crosses the hip and knee joints. Meaning to coach them utterly, you want to goal each hip extension (assume Romanian deadlifts) and knee flexion (like leg curls). In addition they are likely to get better extra slowly than quads, so hitting them two occasions per week with the correct mix of quantity and depth is the candy spot for progress.

On this installment of our “Greatest to Worst” workout routines sequence, we’re breaking down hamstring workout routines by their effectiveness in concentrating on and stimulating true hypertrophy. From exact, meat-and-potatoes mass-builders to those who may not be price your weekly quantity, this listing of greatest hamstring workout routines will assist you program with intent—and stack slabs of muscle on the again of your legs.

Greatest Workouts to Construct Your Hamstrings

These workout routines are your bread and butter for hamstring improvement. They load the hamstrings by means of a full vary of movement, maintain pressure the place it counts, and steadiness knee flexion and hip hinge mechanics. If you wish to develop your hamstrings, that is the highest tier.

Mendacity Leg Curls

Basic and laser-focused. Mendacity leg curls are pure knee flexion, locking your hips in place and dialing in on the hamstrings. They’re straightforward to progress and permit for killer tempo work.

Coach’s Tip: Strive one-and-a-quarter reps to increase time below pressure—curl all the best way up, come down 1 / 4, then again up earlier than reducing utterly.

Seated Leg Curls

Arguably superior to mendacity curls because of the stretch place. Sitting locations the hamstrings in a lengthened state, rising muscle injury and progress stimulus.

Coach’s Tip: Preserve your butt glued to the seat and keep away from chaotic reps. Easy, full-range reps right here will torch your hamstrings.

Stiff-Leg Deadlifts

A staple for loading the hamstrings by means of a deep hip hinge. With minimal knee bend and a brutal stretch on the backside, this motion builds dimension and resilience.

Coach’s Tip: Preserve the bar near your physique and push your hips again such as you’re making an attempt to the touch a wall behind you.

Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)

Typically confused with stiff-legs, RDLs contain a slight knee bend and larger management, making them excellent for hypertrophy. The constant hamstring pressure all through the motion is unmatched.

Coach’s Tip: Management the eccentric (reducing section) for 3 to 4 seconds, and maintain the reps clean. Don’t bounce or let momentum take over.

Common Workouts to Construct Your Hamstrings

These workout routines positively prepare your hamstrings, however they arrive with trade-offs, like over-involving the glutes or limiting pressure. Consider these as robust accent strikes (excluding typical deadlifts) that assist your essential lifts or present selection.

Typical Deadlifts

They construct total-body power and hit the hamstrings exhausting, however they’re extra of a normal, strength-defining posterior chain motion. The glutes and low again typically dominate, limiting focused hamstring progress.

Coach’s Tip: Use these for power improvement, not isolation. Pair them with curls or RDLs for full protection.

Hyperextensions

Glute-heavy? Sure. However with correct type and slight tweaks, you will get strong hamstring activation. The hot button is controlling tempo and adjusting foot placement.

Coach’s Tip: Level your toes outward and maintain your backbone impartial to shift extra load into the hamstrings.

45-Diploma Hip Extensions

Much like hyperextensions however with a set angle. These are barely extra range-limited however nonetheless helpful when dialing within the hinge.

Coach’s Tip: Transfer slowly by means of the eccentric, and don’t overextend your decrease again on the prime—deal with the hip hinge.

Nordic Curls

Brutal and efficient, however insanely superior. Nordic curls overload the eccentric portion of knee flexion like nothing else, however most individuals don’t have the power to do them accurately or constantly.

Coach’s Tip: Use help bands, a companion, or carry out solely the eccentric (reducing) section slowly earlier than scaling as much as full reps.

Under-Common Workouts to Construct Your Hamstrings

These workout routines contain the hamstrings, however don’t straight or successfully overload them. They can be utilized for selection, mobility, or gentle activation, however will not be your essential progress drivers.

Squats

They’ll make your legs robust and thick, however hamstrings take a backseat to the quads and glutes throughout squats, particularly in a typical high-bar or entrance squat.

Coach’s Tip: Use squats to construct the bottom, however not as a hamstring isolation technique.

Slider Leg Curls

These look nice on Instagram and are useful for warm-ups or rehab. However they lack overload potential, and also you’ll rapidly outgrow them when it comes to hypertrophy stimulus.

Single-Leg RDLs

Good for steadiness and management, however not nice for maximal hamstring loading. These are higher as accent actions than mass-builders.

Coach’s Tip: Use lighter weights and ideal your hinge mechanics. Deal with them as a motion talent, not a muscle-building staple.

Lunges

Lunges hit many lower-body muscle mass, however the hamstrings aren’t the prime mover. Relying on stride size and torso angle, many of the load shifts to the quads and glutes.

Coach’s Tip: Longer strides with a ahead lean can enhance hamstring engagement, however don’t count on important progress from lunges alone.

How To Practice For the Greatest Hamstring Positive aspects

Wish to construct stronger, thicker, injury-resistant hamstrings? Right here’s program like a professional:

• Prioritize each hip extension and knee flexion: Mix leg curls and RDL-style actions to hit all heads of the hamstrings.
• Practice hamstrings 2x per week: They reply effectively to average frequency with good quantity and ample relaxation between classes.
• Management the tempo: Eccentric-focused reps (3–5 seconds reducing) create extra pressure, main to raised hypertrophy outcomes.
• Use machines and free weights: Combining machine curls and compound hinge actions offers you one of the best of each worlds.
• Progress quantity or load—not each directly: Add reps, units, or depth slowly and keep away from leaping too quick between overload variables.
• Practice hamstrings after quads? Flip it: Put hamstrings first on leg day often—particularly in the event that they’re a weak level.
• Embrace hamstring finishers: To finish classes with a bang, attempt drop units on leg curls or RDL/pulse combos.

The Takeaway

modern programming + strategic train choice = bulletproof hamstrings. When you’re chasing velocity, power, or simply next-level legs, construct your plan across the “greatest” workout routines, sprinkle in a number of “common” ones for selection, and know when to depart the remainder for warm-ups or off days.