Regardless of your gender or your fitness level, you need to focus on strengthening your hamstrings. However, women may need to give their hammies a little more attention than the guys. Why might this be? Women are at higher risk of developing an ACL injury relative to men. An ACL injury is a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, the most important ligament that keeps the knee stable. An ACL tear can be a career ender for an athlete and it’s inconvenient for anyone, regardless of whether they play sports. In fact, research shows that women have between 2 and 10 times the risk of developing an ACL injury relative to men.
Why are ACL injuries so common in women? Women tend to have a strength imbalance between the muscles in the front of the thighs and those in the back. In the front of the thighs are the quads and in the back are the three muscles that make up the hamstrings. Women typically have greater strength in their quads than they do their hamstrings. Another factor is the diameter of a woman’s pelvis is wider and this places more stress on the ACL.
Women who play sports are at particularly high risk of ACL injuries due to this imbalance, So, it’s important to avoid strength imbalances and try to correct ones that already exist. When you have strong hamstrings, it helps to stabilize your knees, especially when you play sports where you have to jump or turn your body quickly. Those are the types of moves that can damage your ACL.
You Use Your Hamstring A Lot!
Your hamstrings are particularly important for deceleration. When you run down a hill, for example, you lengthen your hamstring to control your speed. Balance between the quads and hamstrings also help to create stable body alignment. If your hamstrings are weak relative to your quads, your hips will push too far forward.
Now that we know WHY hamstring strength matters, what are the best exercise to strengthen them and correct muscle imbalances? The American Council on Exercise asked the same question and they put the question to the test by doing a study. The study recruited 16 young adults to perform a variety of hamstring exercises while they used EMG to measure muscle activation.
The hamstrings are made up of three muscles: the large biceps femoris, semi-membranous, and semi-tendinous. When they looked at activation of the biceps femoris, the largest of the three muscles, they compared a variety of exercises to the prone leg curl. The exercises included seated leg curls on a machine, glute-ham raise on a machine, Romanian deadlift, hamstring curls on a stability ball, kettlebell swings, reverse hip raise and glute-ham raise without equipment. Of these exercises, only kettlebell swings activated the biceps femoris muscle more than the prone leg curl.
When they switched the focus to the semi-tendinous muscle and compared muscle activation for the various exercises, four exercises activated this muscle more than the prone leg curl. These were reverse hip raises, glute-ham raises without equipment, single arm-leg Romanian deadlift, and stability ball hamstring curls. In the study, they didn’t measure the activation of the semi-membranous muscle as it’s too deep to support the electrodes.
What Did the Study Conclude?
In the study, the prone leg curl was the standard by which other hamstring exercises were compared. So, you might conclude that prone leg curls do a pretty good job of activating the hamstrings and should be part of hamstring strengthening. A few sets of prone leg curls are an excellent addition to your hamstring routine. Of the other exercises, the single arm-leg Romanian deadlifts and kettlebell swings activated both the biceps femoris and the semi-tendinous equally well.
Looking at the data as a whole, kettlebell swings are a good exercise to include as they activate the biceps femoris muscle quite well, slightly more than the prone leg curl. Plus, swinging a kettlebell is a dynamic exercise that works the core muscles and builds power. To target the semi-tendinous muscle, the study suggests that single arm-leg Romanian deadlifts, stability ball hamstring curls, hip raises, and glute-hamstring raises are better than the prone leg curl. So, these, too, are good additions to a hamstring routine.
Based on a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Romanian deadlifts, in general, are a good hamstring exercise as is the glute-hamstring raise. They compared hamstring activation with four exercises: glute-hamstring raises, leg curls, good mornings, and the Romanian deadlift. The glute-hamstring raises and Romanian deadlift activated the hammies more than the other two. So, include these two exercises in your hamstring routine.
What about the old standby – squats? Squats are more of a quad centric exercise and they activate the quads more than the hamstrings. However, you can shift the focus more toward your hamstring by doing back squats rather than front squats. Back squats hit the hamstrings harder while front squats target the quads more. Also, place your feet wider than shoulder width to target the hamstrings more. As you squat, keep your weight back in your heels. These subtle changes will force your hamstring to work harder.
The Bottom Line
Now you know why strong hamstrings are important and why women, in particular, should focus on hamstring work. You also have a better idea, based on EMG, which exercises target your hamstrings the most. But, don’t just focus on those exercises. Do a variety of hamstring exercises. You’ll get more growth if you vary the hamstring exercise you do rather than doing the same few over and over. Don’t forget that you can also build your hamstrings by sprinting, especially if you sprint uphill. You’ll also get quite an intense cardiovascular workout too!
References:
ACEFitness.org. “ACE-SPONSORED RESEARCH: What Is the Best Exercise for the Hamstrings?”
NIH MedLine Plus. “An Athlete’s Nightmare: Tearing the ACL”
SemanticScholar.org. “Exercises That Facilitate Optimal Hamstring and Quadriceps Co-activation to Help Decrease ACL Injury Risk in Healthy Females: a Systematic Review of the Literature.”
Related Articles By Cathe:
Are Squats a Good Exercise for Your Hamstrings?
4 Factors That Boost the Risk of Hamstring Injuries
Are You a Female? Then You Need to Work on Hamstring Strength
Strengthen Your Hamstrings to Prevent Injuries: Here Are the Best Ways
Why Hamstring Strength is Vital & the Best Exercises to Strengthen Them
Sports Injuries in Women: Why Women Are at Greater Risk for ACL Injuries
All About Hamstring Injuries & How to Prevent Them
