"Strengthen Your Lower Body with These 10 Hamstring Exercises"

The muscles at the front of your body, also known as your anterior chain, are often more focused upon in fitness. However, the hamstrings - the group of muscles situated at the back of your thighs - are crucial as they aid in bending and straightening your knees and leg extension from the hips. In addition, strengthening the hamstrings and the surrounding muscles, which are your quads, adductors, and glutes, can alleviate lower back and knee pain.

Effective exercises concentrating on the back of the thighs can heighten the muscles' strength and flexibility. Jill Goodtree, a trainer at Rumble Boxing and Swerve Fitness and a NASM-CPT and RRCA run coach, walks us through ten excellent hamstring-based exercises.

Jill remarks on the importance of hamstrings, a combination of semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris muscles, emphasizing their significance in the functioning of the knees and hips. Activities involving knee-bends - walking, running, among others - heavily rely on these muscles.

She also underscores the prevalence of people having stronger anterior leg muscles than their posterior ones; hence, hamstring strengthening exercises can prevent such imbalances and aid in avoiding injuries.

Keep in mind, a flat back and an engaged core are requisite for the successful execution of these exercises, as per Jill's advice. As such, these steps are crucial for weight-bearing hamstring exercises, such as deadlifts and kettlebell swings, in order to steer clear of injuring your lower back.

Highlighting various exercises, she elaborates on how they can be adjusted based on what equipment you have access to.

She advises on the most effective way of incorporating the best hamstring exercises into your workout routine. One to two sessions of a lower-body workout per week on your 'pull' day, if following a workout split program, can be beneficial. The goal should be for 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise, with enough weight or intensity so that the final few repetitions feel challenging. A dynamic warm-up routine before working out can activate your muscles.

Jill also demonstrates each hamstring exercise and delves into the advantages of each of these exercises for the back of thighs - they all aim to increase the strength of the hamstrings.

She highlights how certain exercises like the kickstand deadlift and Romanian deadlift can effectively target and challenge the hamstrings, with or without the use of weights. Other exercises, such as the one using sliders, keep the hamstrings active throughout the movement, increasing their strength and flexibility.

Keeping your knees slightly bent, back, and arms straight, tilt forward at the hips until you feel slight tension in your hamstrings. Engage and contract your glutes and hamstrings, return to a standing position and repeat.

This exercise is beneficial because while the hip lift primarily targets the glutes, it also engages the hamstrings. By taking an extra step with your feet, the hamstrings are isolated even further, increasing muscle recruitment.

Firstly, sit on the ground with your shoulder blade meeting a bench or box, knees bent and feet slightly wider than hip-width apart on the floor. Hold a medium or heavy dumbbell in the crease of your hip with both hands.

Your back should be flat with your chin tucked and gaze forward. Engage your glutes, push through your heels and lift the dumbbell towards the ceiling by extending your hips to reach a starting position. Make sure that your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.

Keeping your back flat and knees stable, lower your hips slowly until your butt is just a few inches off the ground. Then through your heels, raise the dumbbell by extending your hips and use your glutes and hamstrings, not your back, to do this movement.

Continue to lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to knees. Repeat this for one full rep.

If you do a kettlebell swing correctly, a majority of the work should come from your lower body and core, working your hamstrings as you hinge backward and thrust the kettlebell in the air.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, hands at your sides, and a kettlebell on the floor about a foot in front of your toes. Bend your knees a little and hinge at your hips to lower your arms towards the floor. Grasp the kettlebell handle with both hands and tilt it towards your body.

Next, inhale and move the kettlebell back and up between your thighs. As you exhale, press your feet into the ground, squeeze your glutes and drive through your hips to quickly stand up and explosively swing the kettlebell forward and up to chest height. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows and allow your gaze to follow the kettlebell.

Then, hinge at the hips, slightly bend your knees and lower the kettlebell back down between your thighs. Repeat as a full rep.

Doing the good morning without any weight is an excellent way to dynamically stretch your hamstrings.

Standing with your feet hip-width apart, toes pointed forward and knees slightly bent. Your hands should be straight down, crossed over your chest or supporting the back of your head.

Tighten your core and hinge at your hips whilst pushing your butt straight back, ensuring to keep your lower legs perpendicular to the floor. Keep your back flat and continue to lower your torso towards the floor until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings or your back begins to round.

Press into your feet and push through your hips to reverse the movement, relying on your hamstrings and core to stand up straight and exert a squeeze at the top. Repeat as a full rep.

Just like the hip thrust, a regular glute bridge mainly engages your glutes. By taking another small step with your feet, the engagement of your hamstrings increases.

Lying faced up on the ground, bend your knees with your feet placed flat and hip-width apart. Your arms should be placed at your sides with your palms faced down. Take one more step with each foot outward so that your heels are digging into the ground and your toes are pointed upwards at a 45-degree angle.

Ensure to engage your core and tuck your tailbone as you exhale and slowly push through both heels to lift your hips off the ground. Lift your hips as high as possible without arching your lower back.

Inhale and gently lower your hips back to the ground, one vertebra at a time. Repeat this for a complete rep.

The sumo squat is excellent for strengthening your inner thighs, which lie near your hamstrings. Devote training time to these muscles to prevent imbalance as they add strength to the hamstrings.

Hold two medium-sized dumbbells in front of your torso, your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart with your toes pointed outwards at a 45-degree angle. Arms should be fully extended with the dumbbells placed below your belly button.

As you inhale, sit back into your hips and bend your knees until your thighs reach or almost reach parallel with the ground, whilst keeping your chest up and preventing your back from rounding. As you exhale, press through your feet to straighten your legs and return to a standing position. Repeat as a full rep.

Remember, among all these hamstring exercises, it is also important to train your quads such as through exercises like split squats. Integrate these into your regimen to target the hamstrings from different movements thus addressing various muscle areas.

A. Stand in a staggered stance with feet hip-width apart, right leg forward and left leg behind, left heel raised off the ground. Left knee should be in line with right heel when lowered; it might take a few tries to find the correct position fo your body. Hold a pair of medium dumbbells at sides.

B. Slowly lower down until left knee hovers just above the floor. Maintain a flat back and open chest by peeling shoulder blades back and engaging core.

C. Exhale and drive right foot into the ground to return to a standing position. That's one rep.

Why it works: You don't need a full hamstring curl machine to work your hammies. All you need for a challenging hamstring exercise is a mini-band and this alternative to hamstring curls.

A. Place a mini-band around left ankle and underneath the arch of right foot. Lie facedown on floor, legs extended, arms cushioning head.

B. Keeping left leg anchored down, drive right heel in toward glutes, stopping when right ankle is directly above right knee at a 90-degree angle.

C. With control, lower right heel back down toward ground and tap right toes to ground. That's one rep.