Some spots oftentimes need extra attention, your hamstrings being one of those muscle groups. Almost weekly during the regular season, you’ll read the latest injury report and discover a top running back or receiver or other position players have had their seasons cut short due to hamstring strains or tears. It’s why the NFL recently announced that they were investing $4 million to fund research into hamstring injuries.
Alex Guerrero can understand the NFL’s concern. Guerrero, co-founder of TB12, is best known as seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady’s body coach. From the beginning of their relationship, the pair have focused on doing everything possible to extend the future Hall of Famer’s career, including specific attention to the hamstrings. The results speak for themselves. Whereas it used to be rare to see an NFL player continue at the age of 40, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signal caller recently celebrated his 44th birthday preparing for his 21st NFL season.
He credits Guerrero with helping him remain virtually injury. And Guerrero says keeping him on the field requires loads of hamstring work to ensure pliable muscles.
“Pliable muscles are long, resilient and move without restriction, enabling them to absorb and dispense forces. In other words, to fully contract and relax under load, repetitively, and without injury,” Guerrero explained.
“In an attempt to gain strength and power through exclusively using traditional weightlifting, we end up shortening the muscles under load. We then step out onto a field, a court, or the ice and we go ahead and ask that same tissue to not only fully contract but also fully lengthen repetitively under load and to do that explosively. That right there is the biggest mistake.”
Guerrero is an advocate of committing as much time as necessary to properly warm up. Whether it’s game day or leg day, that time commitment to preparing properly can make a profound difference. “We recommend about 10 to 15 minutes of pliability work before and after activity, which should be sufficient for most people. The goal should always be to spend about two to three minutes targeting each major muscle group with a Vibrating Pliability Roller or Sphere.” If you don’t have access to those items, do the best you can with what you do have.
The work shouldn’t be done when the last set is over, either. Recovery from training can be even more important as you get older and more experienced. “Consistency is critical and as you get older focusing on your pliability becomes ever more important, he said. Proper nutrition and supplementation should be a priority as well. “We take a holistic approach to performance and recovery and believe that
supplementing with natural ingredients such as tart cherry or boswellia can also be a key part of a healthy recovery protocol — along with a healthy sleep/wake cycle.”
2 of 3
Jasminko Ibrakovic
Best Exercises and Proper Priorities
Another mistake that many physique athletes and beginners may make is believing they are limited in how they train the hamstrings. Doing leg curls and calling it a day won’t get the job done. Guerrero’s suggestion for the necessary exercise to be added to your routine immediately — the single-leg Romanian deadlift with a resistance band.
“This is a multisegmental exercise that works to address the hamstring muscle complex while incorporating functional core strength, balance, and dynamic hip stability,” he says. “It allows us to work through the hip flexion / contralateral hip extension movement pattern and to do so through a single leg closed-chain stance which mimics the exact running motion required in most sports and activities.”
More often than not, the next question regarding training is what his most famous client does. Guerrero shared a few of Brady’s lower-body exercises that can be incorporated into anyone’s routine. They could be added within a current program or used on their own in a separate session.
“With Tom, we work on lateral band walks with a resistance band above the knees, along with resistance band split squats, and resisted sprinting or running.”
Getting stronger with exercises like these is a good goal. According to Guerrero, the definition of strength shouldn’t just be limited to what is on a bar, stack, or a dumbbell.
“In my opinion, there is an important distinction between strength and functional strength. We add load to movement through resistance bands or weight vests, which allows us to not only train the hamstring muscles, but also focus attention on the core stabilizers/accessory muscles and maximize the time spent when doing so. Without a strong core and pliable musculature, injury is almost inevitable.”
3 of 3
Maridav / Shutterstock
Are you training glutes too?
What if I told you hamstring injuries could be caused by the glutes? Yes, fellas. It isn’t just the ladies that should focus on that area. Those muscles are very important in all aspects of athletics, and Guerrero wants to make sure that message gets across loud and clear.
“A lack of tissue pliability and glute inhibition is a recipe for hamstring disaster. It’s the primary cause of hamstring overload, and that is what leads to the large number of hamstring injuries we see throughout all levels and types of sports today. If your glutes are not firing right (sitting is a major culprit), other muscles like the hamstrings are forced to take on excess load and strain,” Guerrero stated. He also offers a way to make the training more productive overall – make the glutes work first.
“Once you activate the glutes, you allow the larger posterior chain muscle to do its part during training and exercise and disperse that load away from the smaller hamstring muscle complex – preventing overload and injury.”
He isn’t one to talk about an issue without offering a solution. The longtime trainer and body coach suggests a few different movements to focus on.
“For beginners and experts alike, I would say any hamstring program, in addition to pliability work, should be accompanied by an appropriate glute facilitation program. Exercises like glute bridges, lateral resistance band walks, glute medius side planks, and single-leg balance with three-directional toe taps and a resistance band at the knees are all great exercises to get the job done and fire up the glutes.”
