The hamstring muscles extend your hip or thigh backward and bend your lower leg or knee toward the back of your thigh. The opposing muscle, your quadriceps and hip flexors, work in tandem with your hamstrings to straighten your legs as you walk and run. If you train your hamstrings, you should also exercise your quadriceps and hip flexors, reducing your risk of injury by balancing the strength of the opposing muscle group.
Considerations
The quadriceps and hamstrings should be trained during the same workout, pairing a leg exercise with a deltoid or abdominal exercise. For instance, pair squats with shoulder presses, dead lifts with lateral raises, leg extensions with decline crunches and leg curls with hanging leg raises. A leg workout is quite taxing, because you are training the big muscle groups with multijoint exercises. Reserve this workout for the end of your training week so you have plenty of energy for your other routines. Use light resistance or weights to tone your muscles for three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions. If you want to build the size of your muscles, use moderate to heavy weights so you can complete four to six sets of six to 12 repetitions.
Hanging Leg Raises
Hanging leg raises may be done on a Roman chair machine or off a pullup bar using abdominal slings. Contract your core to stabilize your body so you do not swing excessively. Perform the exercise by focusing on your hip flexor muscles at the anterior bend of your hips. Raise your straightened legs until they are parallel to the floor, holding the contraction for three seconds. Slowly lower your legs back to the start position and repeat for one set. You may also secure ankle weights around each ankle to increase the intensity of the exercise, flexing your hips.
Leg Extensions
Leg extensions by your quadriceps muscles are the opposite of leg curls by your hamstrings, focusing on the knee end of your thigh muscles. This exercise is best done on a leg extension machine, although you may use a cable pulley if you are rehabilitating your knee, if you are sticking with light weights or if you are unable to lie flat on your tummy. Position your body in the leg extension machine such that your knees are in line with the rotating axis of the machine. The leg pad should be just above your ankles. Contract your quadriceps muscles to straighten your leg, extending your knee. Hold the contraction for three seconds and then slowly lower the weight and complete one set.
Squats
Squats engage the entire length of your quadriceps muscles by straightening your leg at your knee joints. This is a primary leg exercise, because it engages multiple joints and you are able to carry a significant amount of weight across your back, strengthening the antagonistic muscle that reverses the action for your hamstrings. You should perform squats within a squat cage, reducing your risk of injury in case you are unable to push the weight back up. Complete a squat by securing the barbell behind your neck and across your shoulder muscles. Hold the bar in place as you step away from the barbell supports and place your feet slightly wider than your shoulders. Tighten your core to keep your back flat, then bend your legs to lower your body until your thighs are nearly parallel to the floor. Contract your quad muscles and push through your feet to return to an upright position. Complete one set.
References
- "Anatomy & Physiology"; Gary Thibodeau, Ph.D., and Kevin Patton, Ph.D.; 2007
- "Personal Trainer Manual"; American Council on Exercise; 1997
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