If you’re in the pursuit of stronger leg muscles, chances are you’ll begin by working on your quadriceps and then follow-up shortly after by strengthening you hamstrings.
Hamstring muscle strains and injuries are quite common, so it’s a smart idea to keep these muscles on the back of your legs strong and toned if you’re physically active.
If it’s nice beach legs you’re after, the hamstrings are also a good muscle to target. They contribute to that firm thigh/buttock look that many women (and men) want- particularly in the summer months when they’re in beach/outdoors clothes.
When it comes to weight loss, the hamstrings also figure into the picture pretty solidly. They are large muscles in the legs and if your goal is to increase overall muscle mass to increase your metabolism and hence your fat burn.
In this video, we demonstrate how to use a Total Gym XLS (a great all-in-one home gym system we like made famous by Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley in late night infomercials) to grow your hamstring muscles.
Among the exercises you can use a Total Gym XLS to execute for the hamstrings are:
Standing Lunge- this actually works both the quadriceps and the hamstrings, so we included it in our hamstrings video.
Hamstring Leg Curl- This may be the mother off all hamstring exercises. You’ve no doubt seen a variation of this at the health club. Usually there are several machines dedicated to this exercise. On the Total Gym you do it with the Wing Attachment and then you curl your own body weight on the Total Gym glide board. It’s actually pretty fun to do, and will give you a serious burn on the hamstrings.
Sprinter Start- Another exercise that works both the quadriceps and the hamstrings. Imagine you’re a sprinter starting a sprint race and you’ll get an idea of what this looks like.
Comments