Some muscle groups are easier to train at home than others. Chest and quads? Easy, push-ups and squats all day. Abs? Even easier. Most great core exercises are bodyweight movements anyway. But what about hamstrings? At-home hamstring training can be a bit tricky, but with some creativity you can get the job done.
Let’s assume you can’t do heavy deadlifts AND you don’t have access to a glute ham raise, back extension or leg curl machine during the pandemic. If you do, you’re incredibly lucky (and probably have a year’s supply of toilet paper in your basement). For the rest of us, here are three exercises to help with your at-home hamstring training.
Nordic Leg Curl
Training at home is the perfect time to focus on hypertrophy rather than maximal strength. You likely don’t have access to heavy weights, so you’re probably not going to set any 1-rep max PRs right now. But you CAN use movements that target specific muscles using:
- Exercises that can be progressed/overloaded
- A full range of motion
- An emphasis on eccentric stress (the lowering portion)
Nordic leg curls fit the bill here. While at first glance they may not seem loadable (it’s a bodyweight movement, after all) or a full range of motion for the hamstrings (you don’t get your heels to your butt like a leg curl), you DO get a TON of mechanical tension in the lengthened position (legs straight in the fully-lowered position), and as you get better at them, you’re essentially overloading them because you’ll use less of a push from your arms to get back up. You could theoretically hold a weight at your chest as you get REALLY good at them, too.
“But why not just do band leg curls?” you might ask. Sure, you can do band leg curls at home, but they’re kind of a pain to set up (it’s hard to keep the band hooked around your feet) and can’t be overloaded the same way as Nordic leg curls. You can blast away for REALLY high reps (more on this later), but they’re no replacement for an exercise where you can hit muscular failure between 5-10 reps, which is likely going to have greater carryover to strength and muscle gains.
TL;DR: You can do band leg curls if you want, but I like Nordic leg curls better.
Band Pull-Throughs
It’s hard to imagine life without heavy deadlifts. But if you don’t have a barbell at home, band pull-throughs are a decent substitute. You can still train the glutes and hamstrings via a hip hinge motion similar to an RDL. Anchor the band to an immovable object such as a doorframe, fence or staircase and you’re good to go.
However, pull-throughs essentially have no eccentric component. You can’t focus on torturing your muscles during the lowering portion like you can during push-ups or squats because with pull-throughs, than band tension DECREASES as you sit back into the movement. For this reason, it’s best to focus on metabolic stress: VERY high reps, getting a massive pump, and only stopping once you’re a rep or two shy of failure.
That’s an important lesson many of us are learning by training at home: if we can’t use heavy weights, we’d better be using extremely high reps with our bodyweight and lightly-loaded exercises if we want to build any strength or muscle. Choosing an arbitrary number of reps per set and stopping before the set gets difficult is probably a waste of time.
1-Leg Hip Thrusts
I am not a fan of bilateral (i.e., two-legged) hip thrusts because squats and deadlifts exist. However, I do like the 1-leg hip thrust for at-home hamstring training because 1) everyone has a couch, and 2) it takes far less coordination than a 1-leg RDL. You can focus on training the muscle to failure without worrying about falling on your face, even though only your pets will see you fall on your face if you’re training at home so I guess it’s not that embarrassing…
Also, you can go pretty far into knee flexion (i.e., get your calves close to your butt) similar to the finish position of a leg curl. No, it’s not the same as a leg curl, but range of motion is important for hypertrophy AND you can really control the eccentric all the way to the bottom position.
Bonus points here if you loop a band around your hips or lay a loaded backpack/duffel bag across your lap to increase the difficulty.
Honorable Mentions
If you’re living in luxury and have access to the following, here are a couple more exercises I’d add to the arsenal:
That should keep you busy! Remember, deadlifts will be back someday. But for now, try these movements for your at-home hamstring training.
Strength 101 Online
If you or someone you know needs more guidance with your at-home workouts, check out Strength 101 Online, our 8-week at-home workout program. For less than $1 a day, you get fully-guided workouts with minimal equipment to hold you over during the pandemic. Click here to learn more.
