10 Exercises for the Hamstrings

When injuries are suffered in our body, specifically in the muscles, they can cause recurring pain for a long time and their recovery can be very slow.

The hamstring muscle injury requires more attention, since these muscles are essential to perform a large number of physical activities such as jumping, running, walking, extending the hip, bending the knee when sitting, among others. Due to their daily use, they are always at risk of re-injury when making sudden movements or those that require greater strength and intensity.

Among the main reasons why they should be performed hamstring exercises have:

• They are the muscles that suffer the most in training sessions.
• To prevent them from being re-injured or susceptible to injury.
• To quickly and effectively recover from injuries to that muscle area.
• To relieve post-traumatic pain after accidents or surgeries that have led to a muscle breakdown or other pathologies.
• To increase and improve flexibility when extending the hip or flexing the knee.

The hamstring or femoral muscles are made up of the semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris muscle. These form in the pelvis and end in the fibula and tibia. Its main functions are to flex the knee and extend the hip. There is a wide variety of exercises that can be performed to exercise the hamstring muscles, below, we bring you 10 of them so that you know how to practice them step by step.

With this machine-free hamstring exercise you work on muscle power, explosive strength, and symmetry. Practice it for strengthen the hamstrings and prevent injuries during your workouts, especially if you practice running.

1. Stand on flat ground or running track to perform this exercise.
2. Calculate about 50 free meters of linear displacement.
3. Relax your body before starting this exercise.
4. Shift by raising your legs with each stride without bending your knees.
5. After reaching the end, return to the starting point in the same way that you did initially.
6. Repeat this run back and forth four times and then rest for about five minutes.
7. Do 4 sessions.

This exercise is great to help you recover from hamstring injuries. In addition, it is very easy to perform and allows you to tighten the hamstrings and glutes, helping to increase the strength in these muscles. To do so, just follow these steps:

1. Lie on your back, back and palms flat on the floor.
2. Bend your knees.
3. Perform a contraction of the muscles raising the pelvis to its maximum height, without allowing the feet to lift off the ground.
4. Gently lower your pelvis, without letting your buttocks touch the surface.
5. Perform a series of four sessions made up of 20 repetitions with 30-second rest intervals between sessions.

The hamstrings play an important role in leg flexibility. This isometric bridge exercise is great for improving pelvic and knee flexibility, so it will help you be more flexible overall.

1. Lie on your back with the palms of your hands facing the floor.
2. Place a towel or cloth under your feet so that you can slide them freely on the floor.
3. Bend your knees.
4. Raise your hips as far as you can and slide your feet out without touching the floor with your buttocks.
5. Pick up your feet again, lower your hips to the ground without touching it.
6. Repeat this exercise 15 times.
7. Rest for about 30 seconds and do the exercise again for about four sessions of 15 repetitions each.

If you want to know more exercises to increase your flexibility, be sure to visit our article 14 flexibility exercises.

In addition to strengthen the hamstrings, bending exercises and hamstring stretch they increase the flexibility of the knees, giving your legs the necessary strength to endure high-impact exercises. You can do these hamstring exercises at the gym on a Smith machine or parallel bar.

1. Lie on your back under a Smith machine or low parallel bar. You should be able to support it with your arms as you extend them from the ground.
2. Grab the bar or machine with both hands.
3. Raise your body slightly and extend your legs as far as possible.
4. Place your heels on the floor and, with the strength of your legs, lift your body by bending your knees.
5. You must be in a bridge position but with your arms attached to the bar.
6. Return to the starting position and repeat the movement 10 times.
7. Do 4 sessions resting about 30 seconds between each one.

The Nordic curl is a great exercise to increase knee flexibility and strengthen your hamstrings. You can do it in the gym or, if you prefer the hamstring exercises at home, you can find a surface on which to hook your feet. We explain how to do the Nordic curl here:

1. Get on your knees on a soft surface or a mat.
2. Place your feet on a support that supports them without moving. You can put them under a bench, a high bar, or you can ask a partner to hold them while you do the exercise.
3. Drop forward in one smooth motion. When you get to the ground, lean on your hands. Focus on controlling the movement with your hamstrings.
4. Push yourself up with your hands and repeat the movement 10 times.
5. Do 4 sessions with one minute intervals between each one.

Image: Runner’s World

This exercise is very simple to perform, but in the end it will strengthen your hamstrings to prevent future injuries.

1. Lie on your back and find a raised surface that you can rest your feet on. When supported, your legs should be extended at a 20-degree angle to the ground.
2. Slightly bend your knees and leave your hands on the floor.
3. Activate the abdomen and glutes to raise the hips as high as you can. Hold this position for about 10 seconds.
4. Go down very gently and repeat the movement 10 times.
5. Do 4 sessions with 30-second breaks between each.
6. You can increase the intensity of the exercise, raise one leg when raising the hips and keep it as straight as possible for at least 5 seconds.
7. Lower your leg and hip gently, repeat the exercise, switching legs.

This type of hamstring exercises at the gym It is especially recommended for those who suffer from cruciate ligament tears or suffer from hypertension in the knee. Likewise, it can also be practiced for a warm-up in the gym before your exercise routine.

1. As you can see in the picture, lie face down on the machine and bend your knees slightly, with your heels under the pad.
2. Make sure that your torso is not separated from the machine and that your legs are kept as straight as possible before starting the exercise.
3. To start, bend your legs up as you exhale. Hold the position for 1 second.
4. Lower your knees again gently.
5. Repeat the movement 15 times.
6. Do 2 sessions with 20 seconds of rest between each.

In addition to strengthening your arms, with this exercise you can improve knee flexibility and stretch your hamstrings with each movement. Practicing it is very easy, you can do it with a bar with or without weights at the gym or with dumbbells from home.

1. Grab a barbell, weights, or dumbbells.
2. Angle your hands slightly outward. Hands should not be perpendicular to the bar or weights.
3. To start, raise the bar and lower it doing a small bend in the knees.
4. Now, lightly rest the bar on your thighs with your arms extended.
5. Keep your sword completely straight and start lowering the bar without bending your knees as far as you can. Don’t force the movement. Pull your glutes back as you lower yourself.
6. Go up carefully until your back is straight again.
7. Do 4 sessions of 10 repetitions with 1 minute breaks in between.

In addition to strengthening your hamstrings, this …