These articles explore the body, the mind, the environment, and the systems that shape human health. Each piece is written to make complex ideas easier to understand, whether the topic is training, nutrition, sleep, stress, digestion, symptoms, physiology, disease, or the way modern life affects how we feel and function.
Strength, Health, & the Art of Living Well
Hamstrings Development
The evidence is mounting that a range of exercises are necessary, if athletes want to achieve complete hamstrings development.
This new study shows that 4 different exercises produced very different responses in each of the 4 hamstrings muscles and 3 main regions (proximal, middle, and distal) when measured using MRI from pre- to post-exercise.
This suggests that both hip extension exercises (e.g. Russian belt deadlift and hip extension conic pulley, as in this study) as well as knee flexion exercises (e.g. Nordic curl and flywheel leg curl, as in this study) are necessary to achieve increases in muscular strength and size of all hamstrings muscles and regions.