The Best Exercise Supersets to Build Ironclad, Injury-Proof Hamstrings
Hamstrings may not exactly be glamour muscles, but these prime movers are responsible for all your biggest lifts. Keep ‘em strong with these supersets, and they’ll keep delivering on your gym days.
The Best Exercise Supersets to Build Ironclad, Injury-Proof Hamstrings
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GrapeImages / Getty
Hammie Time
Few people ever receive compliments about their beautiful hamstrings. Glutes, quads, and calves receive more attention, both by their owners and admirers. It’s possible, after all, to make noticeable improvements in those areas.Strong, flexible hamstrings, on the other hand, are subtle—but they’re no less important. Your hammies play a key role in everyday movement—now more than ever in our sedentary world in which most of us spend hours sitting behind a desk, driving, or wedged into an airline seat sized for a child.Tight hamstrings signal a tight, inflexible body that will lead to injury. When your hip flexors are locked up, the body shuts down the glutes and makes the hamstrings less efficient. Tight hamstrings are a product of tight hips, which are a product of inactivated glutes. No wonder hamstring strains and lower-back pain are so commonplace at the gym and the office.The worst part? Many people address hamstrings with only a handful of token gym class exercises taught decades ago, though still seen regularly before 5K races. They’re the ones who are pushing up against trees or bending over to touch their toes for minutes at a time. There’s a better way. And with this workout, we’re doing it with supersets.
DIRECTIONS
Instead of trying to force out bodies into submission, let’s train the hamstrings through active, supersetted movements that will lengthen and strengthen not only the hamstrings but also your entire posterior chain.You can add these supersets into your usual workouts, or you can do all five supersets as one big workout. If you do, make sure you rest only after the second exercise in each pairing.Pete Williams is a NASM-certified personal trainer and the author or co-author of a number of books on performance and training.
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Ian Spanier / M+F Magazine
A. Handwalks
Why it works: This not only lengthens your hamstrings and lower-back muscles, it also builds stability in your shoulders and core.How to do it: Start with legs straight and hands on the floor. Keeping the legs straight, walk your hands out. Then walk your feet back up to your hands, keeping your legs straight. Take baby steps using only the ankles. Avoid using the hips, knees, and quads.Precscription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
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FilippoBacci / Getty
B. Inverted Hamstring
Why it works: This not only works your hamstrings, but tests your balance and core strength. You’ll be surprised by how many hulking he-men can deadlift 500lbs without being able to do this simple move.How to do it: Balance on your right foot, keeping your midsection tight, and shoulders back and down. Bend at the waist with both hands out to the sides, and extend your left leg back as you fire the left glute. Your shoulder and heel should move together, forming a straight line. Return to your starting position and switch legs.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
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James and Therese Michelfelder
A. Sumo Squat to Stand
Why it works: This improves flexibility in your hamstrings, and is a good indicator of how much room you have to improve, which for most of us is quite a bit.How to do it: Bend at the waist, grabbing underneath your big toes. Keeping your arms straight inside your knees, pull your hips down until they’re between your ankles, and lift your chest up. Tuck your chin and try to straighten your legs, holding on to your toes as you straighten the hips and knees.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
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James Michelfelder
B. Swiss Ball Leg Curl
Why it works: This classic bodyweight move improves stability and strength in the hamstrings, as well as the glutes and lower back.How to do it: Lying face-up on the floor, put your hands on a physio ball, pulling your toes toward your shins. Squeeze your glutes until your body is in a straight line from ankle to shoulder. Keeping your hips raised, pull your heels in toward your glutes. Let the ball roll back slowly as you strengthen your legs, keeping your hips elevated.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
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Jay Sullivan
Lateral Lunges and Lateral Bounds
3A. LATERAL LUNGESWhy it works: Lateral movement is vital for sports performance and the motions of everyday life, but too often we ignore it in the gym. The lateral lunge hits the quads and glutes, but especially focuses on the hamstrings.How to do it: Step out to the right, keeping your toes pointed straight ahead and your feet flat. Squat down on your right leg, keeping your left leg straight. Squat as low as possible, keeping the left leg straight, and hold that pose for two seconds. Return to the starting position, and repeat for set of 10. Switch sides.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).3B. LATERAL BOUNDSWhy it works: This builds lateral power in your legs, and challenges the hamstrings differently from traditional stretching exercises.How to do it: Stand on your right leg, with your left foot off the ground. Squat slightly on your right leg, and fire your right leg and glute to jump laterally (to the left). Land on your left foot (and only your left foot!), maintaining balance. Hold for three seconds. Repeat to the other side.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
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A. Romanian Deadlift
Why it works: This popular hamstring move builds strength in your hamstrings and back. It’s also a phenomenal way to stretch the entire hamstring muscle.How to do it: Stand up, and hold dumbbells at your sides. Hinge forward at the hips so you start to feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Pro tip: Don’t think of the exercise as bending forward, but rather as sitting back with your torso moving forward instead of staying upright.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
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Dustin Snipes
B. One-Arm, One-Leg Bentover Dumbbell Row
Why it works: This row variation not only challenges you to work each side of your body independently (as with a traditional one-arm row), but also works your hamstrings while inevitably lowering the dumbbell deeper. Make sure your hips are flat, rather than tilted over. It’ll be more challenging, but better for your hip mobility.How to do it: Stand on one leg, grasping a dumbbell rack or bench in front of you with one hand. Drop your chest and lift the leg opposite your free hand to create a T with your body. Grab a dumbbell with your free hand, pull it to your side, and then lower it. Do 10 reps on one side, and then repeat with the opposite arm and leg.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
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Sidekick / Getty
A. Knee Hugs
Why it works: This simple move stretches the hamstring and glute of your front leg, as well as the hip flexor of your back leg.How to do it: Lift your right knee to your chest, and grab below the knee with your hands. Pull your right knee to your chest while squeezing your left glute. Return to the starting position, and repeat on the left side. Continue alternating sides.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
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Edgar Artiga
B. Sliding Legs Curls
Why it works: This move challenges your hamstrings, as well as your glutes and lower back.How to do it: Lie face-up on the floor with your arms at your sides, legs straight, and heels on a towel on a slippery surface (or while in socks on a smooth surface). Lift your hips off the ground, keeping a straight line from ankle to shoulders, sliding your heels to your body. Return to the starting position.Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
Few people ever receive compliments about their beautiful hamstrings. Glutes, quads, and calves receive more attention, both by their owners and admirers. It’s possible, after all, to make noticeable improvements in those areas.
Strong, flexible hamstrings, on the other hand, are subtle—but they’re no less important. Your hammies play a key role in everyday movement—now more than ever in our sedentary world in which most of us spend hours sitting behind a desk, driving, or wedged into an airline seat sized for a child.
Tight hamstrings signal a tight, inflexible body that will lead to injury. When your hip flexors are locked up, the body shuts down the glutes and makes the hamstrings less efficient. Tight hamstrings are a product of tight hips, which are a product of inactivated glutes. No wonder hamstring strains and lower-back pain are so commonplace at the gym and the office.
The worst part? Many people address hamstrings with only a handful of token gym class exercises taught decades ago, though still seen regularly before 5K races. They’re the ones who are pushing up against trees or bending over to touch their toes for minutes at a time. There’s a better way. And with this workout, we’re doing it with supersets.
DIRECTIONS
Instead of trying to force out bodies into submission, let’s train the hamstrings through active, supersetted movements that will lengthen and strengthen not only the hamstrings but also your entire posterior chain.
You can add these supersets into your usual workouts, or you can do all five supersets as one big workout. If you do, make sure you rest only after the second exercise in each pairing.
Pete Williams is a NASM-certified personal trainer and the author or co-author of a number of books on performance and training.
A. Handwalks
Why it works: This not only lengthens your hamstrings and lower-back muscles, it also builds stability in your shoulders and core.
How to do it: Start with legs straight and hands on the floor. Keeping the legs straight, walk your hands out. Then walk your feet back up to your hands, keeping your legs straight. Take baby steps using only the ankles. Avoid using the hips, knees, and quads.
Precscription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
B. Inverted Hamstring
Why it works: This not only works your hamstrings, but tests your balance and core strength. You’ll be surprised by how many hulking he-men can deadlift 500lbs without being able to do this simple move.
How to do it: Balance on your right foot, keeping your midsection tight, and shoulders back and down. Bend at the waist with both hands out to the sides, and extend your left leg back as you fire the left glute. Your shoulder and heel should move together, forming a straight line. Return to your starting position and switch legs.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
A. Sumo Squat to Stand
Why it works: This improves flexibility in your hamstrings, and is a good indicator of how much room you have to improve, which for most of us is quite a bit.
How to do it: Bend at the waist, grabbing underneath your big toes. Keeping your arms straight inside your knees, pull your hips down until they’re between your ankles, and lift your chest up. Tuck your chin and try to straighten your legs, holding on to your toes as you straighten the hips and knees.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
B. Swiss Ball Leg Curl
Why it works: This classic bodyweight move improves stability and strength in the hamstrings, as well as the glutes and lower back.
How to do it: Lying face-up on the floor, put your hands on a physio ball, pulling your toes toward your shins. Squeeze your glutes until your body is in a straight line from ankle to shoulder. Keeping your hips raised, pull your heels in toward your glutes. Let the ball roll back slowly as you strengthen your legs, keeping your hips elevated.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
Lateral Lunges and Lateral Bounds
3A. LATERAL LUNGES
Why it works: Lateral movement is vital for sports performance and the motions of everyday life, but too often we ignore it in the gym. The lateral lunge hits the quads and glutes, but especially focuses on the hamstrings.
How to do it: Step out to the right, keeping your toes pointed straight ahead and your feet flat. Squat down on your right leg, keeping your left leg straight. Squat as low as possible, keeping the left leg straight, and hold that pose for two seconds. Return to the starting position, and repeat for set of 10. Switch sides.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
3B. LATERAL BOUNDS
Why it works: This builds lateral power in your legs, and challenges the hamstrings differently from traditional stretching exercises.
How to do it: Stand on your right leg, with your left foot off the ground. Squat slightly on your right leg, and fire your right leg and glute to jump laterally (to the left). Land on your left foot (and only your left foot!), maintaining balance. Hold for three seconds. Repeat to the other side.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
A. Romanian Deadlift
Why it works: This popular hamstring move builds strength in your hamstrings and back. It’s also a phenomenal way to stretch the entire hamstring muscle.
How to do it: Stand up, and hold dumbbells at your sides. Hinge forward at the hips so you start to feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Pro tip: Don’t think of the exercise as bending forward, but rather as sitting back with your torso moving forward instead of staying upright.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
B. One-Arm, One-Leg Bentover Dumbbell Row
Why it works: This row variation not only challenges you to work each side of your body independently (as with a traditional one-arm row), but also works your hamstrings while inevitably lowering the dumbbell deeper. Make sure your hips are flat, rather than tilted over. It’ll be more challenging, but better for your hip mobility.
How to do it: Stand on one leg, grasping a dumbbell rack or bench in front of you with one hand. Drop your chest and lift the leg opposite your free hand to create a T with your body. Grab a dumbbell with your free hand, pull it to your side, and then lower it. Do 10 reps on one side, and then repeat with the opposite arm and leg.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps.
A. Knee Hugs
Why it works: This simple move stretches the hamstring and glute of your front leg, as well as the hip flexor of your back leg.
How to do it: Lift your right knee to your chest, and grab below the knee with your hands. Pull your right knee to your chest while squeezing your left glute. Return to the starting position, and repeat on the left side. Continue alternating sides.
Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps (per side).
B. Sliding Legs Curls
Why it works: This move challenges your hamstrings, as well as your glutes and lower back.
How to do it: Lie face-up on the floor with your arms at your sides, legs straight, and heels on a towel on a slippery surface (or while in socks on a smooth surface). Lift your hips off the ground, keeping a straight line from ankle to shoulders, sliding your heels to your body. Return to the starting position.
