Nathanael M.: What's up everybody.
Nathanael Morton here with nathanaelmorton.com helping you get bigger, stronger, faster and
more explosive.
As always, before I get into this video, I want to let you know that if you comment "jump",
J-U-M-P, down below in the comment section and you like this video, I will send you a
free body weight vertical jump training program that you can use to increase your vertical
and become more explosive.
Okay.
Today's video is on the 10 best hamstring exercises for athletes.
If your goals are to get stronger, get faster, get more explosive, or jump higher, then this
is the video for you.
Also, this video is brought to you by the question asked from Karthik Sara.
He says, "Nate, I have strong quads but seemingly underdeveloped hamstrings.
Could you hook me up with a video about the best hamstring exercises?"
Nathanael M.: Well, Karthik, I can do exactly that and I can give you 10 of them so that
we can get bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive.
Let's kick it off with number one.
Number one are one leg Romanian deadlifts.
Also, I want to let you know that these are in no particular order and also some of these
hit a little bit of glue.
We got a little bit of booty action as well as hamstring action in these, but there are
a couple that are strictly hamstring exercises so I'll point those out as I go along.
But number one, one leg RDLs.
When you are doing one leg RDLs, you are going to stand on one leg obviously.
You are going to either use two dumbbells or you're going to put one dumbbell in the
opposite hand of the leg that you are using.
Nathanael M.: You are going to kick your other leg... not kick it, you're going to raise
your other leg up in the air behind you.
You're going to drop the dumbbell down to the ground, focusing your mind on your hamstring.
Once you get the dumbbell down to the ground, you are going to return back to the starting
position by squeezing your glute.
That's very important.
On the way down, focus on your hamstring.
On the way back to the starting position, focus on your glute.
Those are one leg Romanian deadlifts and that is a great hamstring/glute exercise for you
to become bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive.
If I were you, I'd start off with three sets of six to eight reps.
Nathanael M.: Moving on, the band pull-through.
For this one, you are going to need a resistance band.
If you do not have a resistance band and you want one, I will link one down below in the
description for you.
You can click that link, it'll take you to Amazon and you can buy these resistance bands
for yourself.
It is a great tool to have if you are a serious athlete.
With these band pull-throughs, you're going to wrap your resistance band around a pole
or railing, a squat rack, a barbell, whatever you can.
You are going to spread your legs into a Kettlebell swing position, about the same position, a
little bit farther than shorter with a pat.
Nathanael M.: You are going to grab the band through your legs and you are going to use
explosive hip extension to do a hip thrust through the range of motion.
This is really good to work on your hamstring, but just like the one leg RDLs, this also
works on your glute.
Little bit of booty action with this one as well.
When you are lowering the band down, you are going to focus on your hamstrings.
When you are doing the hip extension, you want to hip extend and squeeze your butt.
Okay, squeeze your glutes.
After you squeeze your glutes, go back down, focusing on your hamstring and then explode
back through the motion, focusing on your glutes.
Those are band pull-throughs and our second hamstring/glute exercise that you can do to
get bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive.
Nathanael M.: Number three are band good mornings.
Once again, you're going to use the same resistance band.
You're going to put the resistance band under your feet, you're going to bring it up over
your head and put it onto your shoulders, onto your trap area.
You're going to keep your leg straight, you want a slight bend in your knee, but you want
to hinge at the hip.
So hinge at the hip...
I'm sorry, hints at the waist and lower your torso down focusing all of your focus...
Focusing all of your focus.
Good one, Nate.
Focusing all of your attention, focusing your mind on your hamstring.
Okay.
This is a great hamstring exercise.
I would do this one for about three sets of 15 reps.
I forgot the other one, band pull-throughs.
I would also do those for three sets of 15 reps.
Nathanael M.: Moving on to number four.
We have glute bridge walkouts.
For the glute bridge walkout, you're going to lay on the floor, you're going to put your
heels as close to your butt as you can.
You're going to do a glute bridge and thrust your hips into the air, and then you are going
to walk all the way out on your heels and all the way back in.
Repeat that walking all the way out and all the way back in.
I would do this one and all of your attention for this one is focused on your hamstrings.
This is strict.
There is a little bit of glute action in there, but this is mainly a hamstring exercise.
You're going to do this one for three sets, 10 reps.
Nathanael M.: I do also want to let you know, don't do all of these exercises in the same
workout.
I'm sure you know that, but just because I'm giving all of these treats today, and I'm
telling you the rep ranges, don't do all of these in the same exact workout.
Choose three or four.
Maybe... no, not five.
Choose two or three, maybe four of these exercises and do them...
No, not even four.
Okay guys, choose two.
Okay.
Choose two of these exercises and do them in a workout, but then put in some quad exercises,
put in some calf exercises, put in some lower backs and posterior chain, some more hip extension
exercises.
Do two of these guys.
We don't need to annihilate our hamstrings.
We just need to touch on them, crush them a little bit, and then move on.
Nathanael M.: But anyways, moving on to number five, deadlifts.
I had to put deadlifts in here.
Deadlifts is a full body movement.
In your deadlifts, you're going to work your calves, you're going to work your posterior
chain, you're going to work your hamstrings, you're going to work your glutes, you're going
to work your lower back, you're going to work your core, you're going to work your traps.
You're holding the bar, you're going to be working your arms.
You are literally working every muscle in your body with the deadlift.
That's why it's called the king of all exercises.
But it is a very good hamstring exercise.
For athletes, if your goal is to get bigger, faster, stronger and more explosive, and you
are not doing the deadlift, what are you doing?
Nathanael M.: You got to be doing deadlifts.
If you want to do deadlifts, if you want to work on getting stronger, I would stay in
the one to five rep range.
If you want to do a little bit higher reps, like five to 10 reps and lower the weight
a little bit, about 50% of your one rep max and focus on moving the weight faster for
explosiveness, then I would go to the five to 10 rep range.
One to five for strength, five to 10 for explosiveness, with 50% of your one rep max.
But you got to be doing deadlifts for your hamstrings and for your hip extension, for
your posterior chain, for your full body.
If you're an athlete, you got to do deadlifts.
Nathanael M.: Moving on.
Kettlebell swings.
Once again, this isn't a strictly hamstring dominant exercise.
You do work on your hamstrings.
However, if you're an athlete, you want to get bigger, faster, stronger, more explosive.
You want to be strong, you want to be fast, you want to jump high, you want to be explosive
with everything you do.
You got to be doing kettlebell swings.
This is just like the deadlift.
It's another full body exercise.
For the kettlebell swings, you're going to put your feet a little farther than shoulder
with a pat.
One main thing about the kettlebell swing is you do not want to swing the kettlebell
or the dumbbell.
You can use a dumbbell if you don't have a kettlebell.
You don't want to swing it with your arms.
Nathanael M.: You want to let your hips, let hip extension swing the dumbbell for you.
We are focusing on a powerful hip extension, just like we do in a vertical jump.
A kettlebell swing is a great exercise for jumping higher because in a vertical jump,
you do a hip extension and then you jump up.
In a kettlebell swing, you are literally mimicking, you're mimicking that same exact movement,
so it transfers really well to a vertical jump.
So kettlebell swings, they do focus on the hamstrings, they focus on your posterior chain,
on your hip extension.
You got to be doing those.
I would do those for three sets of 15 reps.
Could even do those four sets of 15 reps.
You can do any of these four sets, 50.
Nathanael M.: Next, barbell hip thrust.
This one is very glute dominant.
It's very glute dominant.
However, it's a great exercise for athletes.
Once again, to get bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive, you got to be doing glutes
bridges or barbell hip thrusts.
They go hand in hand.
You're going to lay on the ground, you're going to put a barbell over you and you're
going to use your hip thrust, you're going to thrust it up in the air with your hips
and you're going to squeeze your butt, but it is also going to work on your hamstrings.
If I was you, I would load this up a little bit heavier.
I would do three sets of 10 for this one, focusing your mind on your butt and on your
hamstrings.
Those are barbell hip thrusts.
Nathanael M.: This next one is a very hard exercise.
Doesn't use any equipment except that you need something to put your feet under.
These are called Nordic curls.
These focus strictly on your hamstrings and they're fairly hard.
What you going to do is you're going to put your feet on... you can even have somebody
hold your feet if you have a partner, if not, put them under a barbell, put them somewhere
that they can be stable while you do these, and you're going to lower the top half of
your body down, down, down, down until you can't anymore and then you're going to bring
it back up.
There's a few ways that you could do these.
Nathanael M.: You can either lower down until you can't, and then go back up focusing your
mind on your hamstrings, pulling yourself back up using your hamstrings.
Or you can lower all the way to the floor, use your hands a little bit to slow yourself
down and push yourself back up and do them that way.
I like to do both.
If I were you, I would do three sets to failure.
Some people are going to fail very quickly on those.
Some people can do them for a little bit longer, but I'll do three sets to failure with the
Nordic curls.
Nathanael M.: The next one is a ballistic band hamstring curl.
I really like this one because we can focus on speed and explosiveness.
You can either do this with one leg or you can do this with two legs.
You're going to anchor your band to, once again, a railing, a dumbbell or a squat rack,
a dumbbell, a barbell, whatever you need to anchor it to.
You're going to walk out a little bit, you're going to lie on your stomach, you're going
to put the band around your heel and you are going to focus on doing a one leg or a two
leg hamstring curl.
Nathanael M.: You can go slow if you want to work on that eccentric portion of the movement,
or you can do this fast and explosive so that you build those fast twitch muscle fibers
that help us be faster and more explosive.
If I were you, I would do those three sets to failure.
You should fail on these as well.
If you're not failing, then you need to move out a little bit.
Walk out even more so that there's more resistance on the band or get a stronger, heavier resistance
band and do those for three sets to failure.
Nathanael M.: The last one, physio-ball hamstring curls.
Physio-ball hamstring curls are really good.
If you don't have a physio-ball, you could try a medicine ball.
If you don't have a medicine ball, you could put your feet up on a box and you can do hamstring
curls like that on a box.
It doesn't work as well.
A physio-ball works the best, but you're going to put your heels up on a physio-ball and
you're basically just going to do a hamstring curl, bringing the ball into your butt and
then back out.
If you don't have a physio-ball, do not fear because you can do all these other exercises.
I've given you exercises, some using weights, some using resistance bands, some using just
body weight.
I literally gave you all...
I gave you different...
I gave you things that you could do if you have no equipment.
Nathanael M.: I gave you exercises that you could do if you do have equipment, if you
have a resistance band, if you have weights, if you don't have access to any weights.
I literally gave you everything across the board.
Things for your glutes, things for your hamstrings, things that are going to work on your hip
extension, things that are going to work on your posterior chain.
I gave you everything that you need to get bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive
and increase your vertical jumps so that you're dunking on all the haters.
For the physio-ball hamstring curls, I would do those for three sets to failure because
those... you want to fail on those as well.
But yeah, those are the 10 best exercises, 10 best hamstring exercises that you could
do to become bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive as an athlete.
Nathanael M.: Once again, if you want the body weight vertical jump training program
that I will send you for free, then comment "jump", J-U-M-P, down below in the comment
section and like this video and I will send that right over to you.
Subscribe to the channel and click the bell if you want to see more videos just like this
one.
Ladies and gentlemen, the most important part of every video, take action, because action
is everything.
Knowledge is not power.
It is only potential power until you take action on what you know.
Now that you may know about 10 of the best hamstring/glute exercises for athletes to
get bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive, you actually have to go out and do them because
knowledge, just knowing them isn't going to get you anywhere.
You have to act, you have to go out, you have to do.
Like Nike, just do it.
Go apply these to your workout program, do them for yourself, and increase your own vertical
jump, get bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive for yourself.
But I will see you guys in the next video.