Hamstring exercises

Which hamstring exercises should you start with?

For general strength work, start with a movement you can control at a manageable effort. After an injury, a clinician can help determine which movement and resistance fit the injury and what you can currently do.

Your hamstrings help bend your knee and extend your hip. A curl works knee bending; a hip hinge works hip extension. That gives you different ways to train the muscle group. AAOS hamstring muscle injuries

| Exercise | What you do | What you can adjust | |---|---|---| | Bridge | Lift your hips while your feet stay on the floor | Lift height and repetitions | | Standing hamstring curl | Bend your knee to bring your heel behind you | Knee movement and resistance | | Hip hinge | Move your hips backward while your torso tips forward | Depth and external weight | | Sliding leg curl | Let your heels slide away, then draw them back | Sliding distance and repetitions |

AAOS conditioning guides describe bridges and standing hamstring curls. Hickey and colleagues’ rehabilitation review describes hip extension exercises, including Romanian deadlifts, and hamstring sliders. These sources support the exercise choices, but they do not establish this list as a tested rehabilitation sequence. AAOS spine conditioning program · AAOS knee conditioning program · Hamstring strain injury rehabilitation, 2022

The table isn’t a recovery ladder. Someone with a recent strain and someone adding strength work to a gym routine may need different starting points. Progression during rehabilitation depends on the injury, healing, symptoms and activity demands. 2023 London international consensus

How do you do a bridge?

To do a bridge, lie on your back with your knees bent and lift your hips while keeping both feet on the floor. The AAOS spine conditioning program includes this exercise for the hip and back muscles, including the hamstrings. AAOS spine conditioning program

1. Rest your arms beside you and place your feet flat on the floor.
2. Tighten your abdominal muscles and slowly lift your pelvis.
3. Keep your shoulders on the floor. Lift toward a straight line from your shoulders to your knees without forcing your back into an arch.
4. Lower your hips under control.

You don’t need to reach the full height on your first attempt or immediately switch to one leg. These instructions describe the movement; the AAOS conditioning guide is not a prescription for treating a fresh hamstring tear.

If the bridge causes sharp or increasing pain, or your walking is worse afterward, stop and discuss the exercise with a clinician. After a strain, range and effort should change with symptoms and function. 2022 clinical practice guideline

How do you do a standing hamstring curl?

To do a standing hamstring curl, hold a stable support and bend one knee so your heel moves toward your buttock. AAOS includes standing curls in its knee conditioning program and identifies the hamstrings as the main muscles worked. AAOS knee conditioning program

1. Stand holding a chair or another support that won’t move.
2. Keep your knees close together.
3. Slowly raise one heel behind you, keeping the supporting leg slightly bent.
4. Lower your foot under control.

Keep your hips steady and avoid arching your back to lift your heel farther. You don’t have to touch your buttock.

An unweighted curl lets you practice the movement. Adding resistance changes the demand, so don’t assume that finishing a few easy repetitions means you’re ready for an ankle weight. After a strain, the load and range should increase according to what you tolerate and how you function afterward. 2022 clinical practice guideline

How do you do a hip hinge?

To do a hip hinge, move your hips backward while allowing your torso to tip forward, then return to standing. A loaded version is used in the Romanian deadlift, one of the hip extension exercises described in Hickey and colleagues’ hamstring rehabilitation review. Hamstring strain injury rehabilitation, 2022

The following is an unweighted way to practice that movement pattern:

1. Stand with your feet about hip width apart and your knees slightly bent.
2. Move your hips backward as if you’re reaching for a chair behind you.
3. Let your torso tip forward while keeping your back position steady.
4. Stop at a depth you can control, then bring your hips forward to stand.

Try the movement without weight first. You don’t need to reach the floor.

This isn’t a recommendation to start heavy deadlifts after a fresh strain. During rehabilitation, how much weight you use and how far you move depend on the injury, your symptoms and your strength. The review supports progressing hip extension work, but it doesn’t make a loaded Romanian deadlift suitable for every stage of recovery. Hamstring strain injury rehabilitation, 2022

How do you do a sliding hamstring curl?

A sliding hamstring curl uses your heels on sliders to move your feet away from your body and back. Hickey and colleagues describe hamstring sliders as an option for eccentric strengthening, with progression from two legs to one as tolerated. Eccentric work means the muscles produce force while lengthening. Hamstring strain injury rehabilitation, 2022

For a short range, two leg version:

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your heels on exercise sliders.
2. Lift your hips to a height you can control.
3. Slowly slide both heels away a short distance.
4. Draw your heels back toward you, then lower your hips.

Use a clear floor area and a surface where the sliders move predictably. Keep the first attempts short. Don’t force your legs straight because a demonstration shows the full movement.

The outward slide loads the hamstrings as they lengthen. Pulling your heels back adds a shortening phase. A full out and back curl may be too demanding after an injury; a clinician may choose a shorter range or an outward only variation with a separate reset. The exercise’s place in rehabilitation depends on your ability to control it and tolerate the load. Hamstring strain injury rehabilitation, 2022

How many repetitions should you do, and how often?

There is no single repetition count or weekly schedule that is right for everyone doing hamstring exercises.

After an injury, the starting dose should account for the exercise, resistance and symptoms, along with what you can currently do. The international consensus acknowledges uncertainty about the best load and speed of progression. A universal “three sets of ten” would hide that uncertainty. 2023 London international consensus

If you’re uninjured and simply learning these movements, you could try five slow, unweighted standing curls on each side, then pause to check your technique. That is a movement practice example, not a researched rehabilitation dose or a complete strength workout.

Once you have an appropriate starting dose, keep a simple record:

• Which exercise you did, including resistance and range.
• How many repetitions you completed.
• What you felt during the session.
• Whether walking, stiffness or pain changed later and the next morning.

Those observations help inform adjustments. They don’t prove that an injured hamstring has recovered. Clinical rehabilitation can also involve strength testing and assessment of walking, running and other relevant tasks. 2022 clinical practice guideline

Should hamstring exercises hurt?

Sharp or escalating pain is a reason to stop or modify a hamstring exercise. Worsening symptoms or function afterward also need attention.

Some supervised rehabilitation programs allow exercise within a person’s pain tolerance. That is different from a general instruction to push through pain. The appropriate limits depend on the injury and assessment. 2022 clinical practice guideline

Suppose you complete a set of sliding curls and feel fine at the time, but you’re limping the next morning. Hold back and reassess the dose. Completing every repetition doesn’t make the session appropriate.

Check what happens during the movement, later that day and the next day. Increasing pain, swelling, stiffness or difficulty walking should prompt you to stop progressing. Seek clinical advice if symptoms are severe, worsening or failing to improve. These checks help monitor your response; they aren’t a self clearance test for recovery. NHS hamstring injury guidance · 2022 clinical practice guideline

Should you stretch tight hamstrings?

Stretching may be part of hamstring rehabilitation, but a feeling of tightness alone doesn’t tell you how much stretching you need.

The hamstring strain guideline includes stretching within a broader rehabilitation program that also involves strengthening and functional exercise. It doesn’t support treating every hamstring problem with stretching alone. 2022 clinical practice guideline

If your thigh feels tight after an injury, don’t keep reaching farther to make the sensation disappear. Exercise range and intensity need to match your symptoms and function. Persistent pain, or pain high near the buttock after an injury, needs assessment before you treat it as simple tightness. Tendon injuries may need a different approach from a muscle strain. AAOS hamstring muscle injuries · 2022 clinical practice guideline

Are Nordic hamstring exercises worth doing?

Nordic hamstring exercises can be useful within athletic injury risk reduction programs, but they aren’t a universal starting exercise or a guarantee against injury.

In a Nordic exercise, you kneel with your ankles securely supported and resist falling forward as your knees straighten. The 2022 guideline recommends Nordic exercise as part of a broader prevention program that also includes other strengthening, movement and running work. Hamstring strain injury rehabilitation, 2022 · 2022 clinical practice guideline

If you’re recovering from a strain, ask your clinician whether you’re ready for that loading demand before adding it.

When can you return to running or sport?

Return to running or sport should depend on your symptoms, strength and ability to handle the activity’s demands, not a fixed number of days.

Walking comfortably is useful progress. Sprinting asks something different of your hamstrings. Athletes may need a gradual return to faster running, acceleration and deceleration as part of rehabilitation. 2023 London international consensus

There also isn’t a universally validated checklist that reliably predicts whether you’ll avoid another injury. A systematic review found that return decisions commonly used pain, clinical assessment and performance tests, with gaps in the evidence supporting clearance criteria. Return to play criteria systematic review

If your goal is football, sprinting or another demanding sport, a few comfortable home exercises are insufficient to establish readiness. Get help testing the tasks you actually need to return to.

When should you get medical help instead of exercising?

Get prompt medical assessment if you have any of the following:

• Severe or worsening pain, substantial swelling or bruising, or marked loss of movement.
• A pop or snapping sensation followed by weakness, bruising or difficulty walking.
• Difficulty standing, walking normally or bearing weight.
• A visible deformity, a gap you can feel in the muscle, or a muscle that looks bunched into a ball.
• Fever or feeling hot and shivery.
• Pain high in the buttock after a forceful stretch or injury, especially with substantial weakness or difficulty sitting.

These signs can need assessment beyond a routine exercise appointment. Severe tears and injuries where a tendon pulls away from the bone may require specialist treatment, imaging or surgery. Don’t use an exercise list to test how much you can tolerate. NHS hamstring injury guidance · AAOS hamstring muscle injuries

Seek urgent medical care for unexplained swelling, warmth, redness or discoloration, and tenderness in one leg, particularly when the symptoms seem out of proportion to the injury. These can be signs of a blood clot. CDC blood clot guidance

Sudden shortness of breath, chest pain, coughing blood, fainting, or a very fast or irregular heartbeat can be symptoms of a pulmonary embolism. Seek emergency help immediately if these occur. CDC blood clot guidance

Persistent or recurring pain also deserves assessment. An exercise article can’t determine whether pain comes from a muscle strain, a tendon injury, a nerve problem or another cause.

How does GoodMetal structure its guided exercise programs?

GoodMetal’s programs are built by licensed physical therapists with 10+ years of experience each. They designed the exercises, weekly sessions and phase progression that each plan follows.

That structure gives you a plan for what to work on and how the work changes over time. It makes progression and pacing easier to follow, including when to hold back, so you aren’t left choosing a harder exercise simply because you finished today’s list.

GoodMetal also provides a large guided exercise video library, proactive plan adjustments, care coordination and text access to a care team. Videos help you follow the movements; the program structure gives those movements a place in the week.

These are general program features. This article does not confirm that GoodMetal currently offers a hamstring specific program. Its programs are general templates, not individualized medical care.

The rehabilitation evidence cited here supports assessed, monitored progression. It does not establish that GoodMetal or any app can replace an examination for a hamstring problem. 2022 clinical practice guideline

For your next step, decide whether you’re building strength in a comfortable leg or trying to manage an injury. For general strength work, practice a manageable movement before adding load. For a recent or persistent injury, get assessed and agree on a starting exercise and dose before attempting the harder options. If any of the warning signs above apply, seek medical care first.

Sources

[1] Hamstring Strain Injury in Athletes - PubMed; [2] JOSPT PERSPECTIVES FOR PRACTICE; [3] Clinical and Morphological Changes Following 2 Rehabilitation Programs for Acute Hamstring Strain Injuries: A Randomized Clinical Trial - PMC; [4] Rehabilitation and return to sport after hamstring strain injury - PMC; [5] Criteria for Progressing Rehabilitation and Determining Return-to-Play Clearance Following Hamstring Strain Injury: A Systematic Review.; [6] London International Consensus and Delphi study on hamstring injuries part 3: rehabilitation, running and return to sport | British Journal of Sports Medicine; [7] Hamstring injury; [8] About Venous Thromboembolism (Blood Clots) | Venous Thromboembolism (Blood Clots) | CDC.