Hamstring Exercises

The hamstrings do two things: extend the hip and bend the knee. That's why hinges — Romanian deadlifts, stiff-leg deadlifts, good mornings — and knee-flexion work like leg curls and Nordic curls both belong in a program; neither covers the whole muscle. Hinges train the hamstrings under a long stretch with heavy load, while curls train them through knee movement and reach the short head of the biceps femoris that hinges barely touch.

Ten to twenty sets a week over two sessions, one exercise from each category, is the simple version. Hinge with a soft knee and a flat back and let the hips travel backwards rather than squatting the weight down — the stretch belongs behind the thigh, not in your lower back. Reps do well slightly higher here, 8–12 on hinges and 10–15 on curls, and a slow lowering matters more than in most muscles: eccentric work is what makes hamstrings resistant to strains.