Hamstring Pulls

The Hamstrings group plays a large role in virtually all sports’ movements, especially sprinting. The hamstrings flex the knee, bringing the heel toward the glutes, but they also assist the glutes in hip extension, which occurs in sprinting. For the purpose of this post, I want to look at the most effective ways to train the hamstrings to prevent pulls (tears), and prepare them for the demands of sport performance.

Muscle pulls (tears) primarily occur when the muscle is stretched and it tries to produce a forceful movement at the same time. The hamstring group is stretched during the forceful ‘pushing’ action of sprinting, as well as other athletic movements. This action puts a great deal of strain on the hamstrings, and they will tear easily if they aren’t trained correctly.

Hamstring exercises in the gym are typically knee flexion, like the lying leg curl machine, seated leg curl machine, etc. I focus on hip extension exercises such as squats, walking lunges, split squats, glute-ham raises (eccentric), etc. These movements put the hamstrings in a stretched state, while requiring them to generate force along with the glutes and quadriceps to perform the exercise.

Eccentric Glute-Ham Raises are an exercise of particular interest here, because they basically isolate the hamstrings, while putting them in a stretched-work state. By kneeling on a mat and lowering yourself toward the ground (face first), without bending at the waist, your hamstrings are producing a great deal of force while they are lengthened, which is the eccentric portion of the exercise. The hamstrings are eccentrically contracted during sprinting, so this exercise replicates that movement.

If you want to protect your hamstrings, add eccentric glute-ham raises into your next leg workout.

-Bryan-