Weak Hamstrings

[Claudette]

I cannot, for the life of me, strengthen my hamstring muscles!!! I've been doing a split leg routine (quads one day, hams and glutes the next) for a few months now and have NOT gone up in weight (for my hams) in anything but deadlifts.

Before anyone makes any comments about my split leg routine, I did switch back to total leg days, but that routine doesn't seem to work for my legs as well as the split days.

So here's my two major problems, that are probably related.

#1: I can't seem to keep my feet pointing in the right direction when doing lying and seated leg curls. I try my hardest to focus on keeping my toes straight, but they keep on pointing out. I have even dropped the weight to practically nothing to see if maybe I was lifting too much weight, but that didn't even help Are my feet just jacked up???? Oh, I've also tried pointing my toes instead of flexing, just to see if it made a difference, and it kind of did, only it was really hard on my calves, so I don't do that. I think you're supposed to keep them flexed anyway????

#2: It might be because of the above, but I can't seem to strengthen my hams. Here's my split for both quad and ham/glutes days:

Quads:
Squats, Leg Press, Hack Squat, Leg Extension and lunches
Hams/Glutes:
Lying leg curl, Seated leg curl, Deadlifts, Plie Squats, Butt blaster machine (occasionally), and I do the adductor machine on this day and/or quad day--depends on how ambitious I am. Then, for cardio on ham/glutes day, I'll do the stair master or the treadmill at 15% incline with 3.7-4.1 pace for about 20 minutes.

I keep a workout log and I have not seen any progress in my hams/glutes! I have for my quads but not much difference in my hams. What's wrong?????


Thanks, Y'all!

Tracie

 

[KarlW]

To me (and just personally) it sounds like your'e trying to do too much for quads and hams. Try sticking to 2 exercises for each, if that. Also, the glutes tend to get worked on quad day not ham day.

I like a split leg routine as yours is. I find an all leg day too much and by the time I get around to doing calves I couldn't be bothered. So I do Quads/shoulders/abs together, Hams/Chest/Tricep/traps together, Back/bicep/calves together.

For hammy's I stick to Stiff Deadlifts then 1 or 2 sets seated leg curl. I know what your saying about keeping your feet straight and I've also tried pointing my toes which effectively relaxes the hamstrings and doesn't really feel right and you can't do much weight.

Also, I don't think your hamstrings would normally be as strong relative to your quads. Sure, the aim of the game is to gain strength, but the hamstrings need special care to ensure injury free training and continued flexibility.

So, try Stiff deads if you don't already do them, then after a while do leg curls as well and see if your strength has improved

 

[Claudette]

Thanks Karl,

Everyone on these forums always tell me that I'm doing too much, but my ultimate goals are to do a figure competition and so I'm not only after maintenance. I had to reduce my workouts for the summer b/c I'm at work all day (0800-4pm) and in class all night (5pm-10pm) M-TH and that was fine for my muscles for the first month, but it's been 2 months of only 3 day a week workouts, and minimum exercises, and I can totally tell the difference from 2 months ago when I workouted 6 days a week.

Okay, the above was just in my defense for doing too much. But if my hamstrings are indeed weak (not relative to the quads) but for the muscle group alone--(I just haven't had been able to go up in weight) then I'll definitely have to cut back on the hamstring exercises. I currently only do quads by themselves with no arm exercises, and the same goes for hams. Maybe cutting down the ham routine will give me more time to do shoulders or some other muscle group that day. Thanks again for your advice, Karl.

-T

 

[Scotty the Body]

I had a problem going up in weight till I started doing low reps, like 4-6 then before I knew it, I was doing the whole stack on lying leg curls.

How much of a split do you have between your two leg workouts? If your going to keep doing the workouts on different days, do the hamms first so they're the most rested.
And like Karl said, your volume is a little high.

 

[gopro]

Originally posted by Claudette
I cannot, for the life of me, strengthen my hamstring muscles!!! I've been doing a split leg routine (quads one day, hams and glutes the next) for a few months now and have NOT gone up in weight (for my hams) in anything but deadlifts.

Before anyone makes any comments about my split leg routine, I did switch back to total leg days, but that routine doesn't seem to work for my legs as well as the split days.

So here's my two major problems, that are probably related.

#1: I can't seem to keep my feet pointing in the right direction when doing lying and seated leg curls. I try my hardest to focus on keeping my toes straight, but they keep on pointing out. I have even dropped the weight to practically nothing to see if maybe I was lifting too much weight, but that didn't even help Are my feet just jacked up???? Oh, I've also tried pointing my toes instead of flexing, just to see if it made a difference, and it kind of did, only it was really hard on my calves, so I don't do that. I think you're supposed to keep them flexed anyway????

#2: It might be because of the above, but I can't seem to strengthen my hams. Here's my split for both quad and ham/glutes days:

Quads:
Squats, Leg Press, Hack Squat, Leg Extension and lunches
Hams/Glutes:
Lying leg curl, Seated leg curl, Deadlifts, Plie Squats, Butt blaster machine (occasionally), and I do the adductor machine on this day and/or quad day--depends on how ambitious I am. Then, for cardio on ham/glutes day, I'll do the stair master or the treadmill at 15% incline with 3.7-4.1 pace for about 20 minutes.

I keep a workout log and I have not seen any progress in my hams/glutes! I have for my quads but not much difference in my hams. What's wrong?????


Thanks, Y'all!

Tracie

If I understand you correctly, you are saying that during leg curls your feet are turning AWAY from the midline of your body...also known as lateral rotation. If this is true, this is most likely because of unbalanced development of the various hamstring muscles. When the feet turn out it is a sign that your biceps femoris is too strong for your semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles and you need to focus on turning yours feet slightly inward during stiff deadlifts, good mornings, hyperextensions, and leg curls. I also suggest you start doing more sets with the toes POINTED during leg curls which will recruit the hams better.

Also, you need to keep your repetitions under 10 per set in order to best strengthen and develop the hams. The hams are primarily fast twitch muscles and respond best to sets of 6-8 reps.

Finally, you need to begin doing some uni-lateral hammy work on leg curls. You most likely have an imbalance between your two legs. Use the single leg curl machine or the lying machine with one leg at a time.

I suggest to you that you include 3 types of hamstring exercises at each workout for 2 sets each:

1- a stiff deadlift, good morning, or hyperextension
2- a lying, seated, or standing leg curl (preferably on leg at a time)
3- a "straight leg kickback" with an ankle strap attatched to a lower pully

Over time you will see better development and strength increases this way!

 

[Neil]

I highly recommend SLDL's, they really shot my ham strength through the roof.
Your volume looks a little high. What does your set and rep scheme look like?

 

[Claudette]

Wow! Thanks, guys! I'm going to do quads tomorrow, which means I won't do hams until Thursday morning, and I'll let y'all know how it went.

As for my reps, I tend to do 3 sets of 12-15 when I'm not strength training, and then 3 sets of 8-10. Legs are my favorite body part to work, and I know I tend to go overboard, but I've tried minimizing my exercises and I can immediately tell the difference and it's not a good difference.

GoPro, you recommended pointing my toes when doing curls, but I find that that strains my calves. It's very uncomfortable because the pad rests on my calves and well, it just hurts . Do you think I could just stick to pointing my toes slightly in, while keeping my feet flexed???

Thanks again for all your advice, guys!
-Tracie

 

[sawheet]

Have someone hold the back of your ankles and cross your arms in front of your chest and decend twords the ground, do not hit your pretty face on the dirty floor. Also try to do some stretches like pilatis type stretches to lenthen the muscle. Sprints are also good. you must work all muscle fibers to have nice elongated strong hams

 

[gopro]

Originally posted by Claudette

GoPro, you recommended pointing my toes when doing curls, but I find that that strains my calves. It's very uncomfortable because the pad rests on my calves and well, it just hurts . Do you think I could just stick to pointing my toes slightly in, while keeping my feet flexed???

-Tracie

If it really strains your calves than just focus on pointing the toes in. Perhaps bringing the pad a little lower down toward the ankles would help though if you want to try to point your feet rather than flex them.