- Ah.
All right, Bob.
- Take it away, Brad.
- Hamstrings is a topic.
Strengthening those hamstrings,
because when you have stronger hamstrings
less potential--
- Less injury.
- Less injuries.
You're gonna have better mobility, climbing steps,
whatever the activity.
- You're gonna be happier.
- It's a good one to know.
We're gonna show you five options,
but wait 9.3 seconds and we'll get at it.
(upbeat music)
- [Singer] Bob and Brad,
the two most famous physical therapists,
on the internet.
- All right, we're gonna show you five different exercises.
All can be done at home.
Go through all of 'em, see which ones work best for you,
and then pick out probably one
or two that work and stick with those,
and then maybe you can vary.
- Yeah, most are really low cost.
- Yeah, low cost and a high--
- Or no cost.
- High productivity though, Bob.
- Right.
- Yeah, it's all about strict progress, right back.
All right.
The first one, I call is a beginner's one,
or if you're recovering from an injury
you simply lie on your back.
Best on the floor.
You can do it on the bed.
And you do like a hook line position,
like Bob is in
and he is doing a bridge right now.
This isn't the exercise, that's working the glutes.
However, if you take your feet and step out
about a foot further out, now the hamstrings are doing most
of the work and not the glutes.
You feel that Bob?
- Absolutely.
- Ah, Bob is feeling it.
We're gonna work--
- Absotively.
- work 10 of those.
Once these get too easy,
then you'll be able to progress
to one of the other four.
Hold on.
Okie doke, the next one.
If you happen to have a large exercise ball like this,
or if you want to get one,
this is how I strengthen my hamstrings
for a maintenance exercise program.
You simply lay on the floor.
Lie--
- Lie, very good.
- Lie on the floor.
Yeah, our English majors are very proud.
Lie like this, up like this.
You're gonna get some glutes here as well.
Core as well.
So it's multifaceted and curl
up like this and back down slow.
And that is primarily--
- If you are a beginner Brad--
- Yes.
- You could keep your butt down, right?
- Yep. Yeah, good point.
You could start here and just roll it.
- And push down, right.
- Squish the ball in.
- Right.
- And there.
Good point, Bob.
I kinda forgot about that.
It's really a nice way to start out
and then get out to here.
- And then go up.
- And then if you are more advanced,
lift one leg up and that really does a nice job.
- Ah, very good. So you have a ball.
- Yeah, have a ball with the ball.
It's the beauty of the ball.
- It's the beauty of the ball.
- The beauty of the ball.
- Right.
- Next.
And the next one.
Bob, I don't know about you, but I learned this one
in therapy school 30 years ago or whatever it was.
- Sure.
- But if you use this one, you need
a stool or something with some good wheels.
- Yeah. Maybe a office chair.
- Office chair.
- Right.
- But you have to be careful with this one
because if you get off
to the edge and you pull you--
- Down you go.
- Yeah, I've had--
I've seen people fall off of these.
- Yeah.
- So make sure you're careful.
Get a good, I like to grab here and I do it this way.
Good posture and scoot across.
Make sure you got a smooth floor.
Not one of those,
if you got tile floors that are a little rough.
Here we got quadriceps,
and here this is harder than you think.
- Yes. A struggle.
- You know, if you're doing really well
this one may be too easy.
Again, this is above starter, but not for advanced.
- Right, kinda in between.
- All right, next.
Okay, there's gonna be some variations to this one,
but this is a nice one.
It's weight bearing.
It's a little more functional, although it doesn't seem
like your hamstrings are doing a lot of work,
they actually are.
So it's called, I call it the golfer's lift.
You may need something to hold your balance.
- Right.
- You know, I'm gonna use a stick,
you can use a cane or--
- Now Brad, am I mistaken?
This is eccentric, right?
- Well, yeah, it is.
- Yeah.
- Well actually it does both,
'cause when you go down this hamstring is controlling
eccentrically,
but then with my knee relatively straight
it has to work--
- Or concentrically.
Right. So actually it does both.
It's a good point.
This back leg, we go out straight like this,
and--
- I like this one because
you're stretching and straightening.
- Yeah, it really is a nice functional lift.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- This is one of the exercises
they do recommend for rehabbing.
- Right.
Injured ham string.
- You can put a little weight.
I got three pounds in here,
and that may be a good weight to increase.
Again, repetitions of 10.
I feel those hamstrings working.
Don't overdo these.
Especially the first day.
- Yeah, start slow.
- The other option for resistance is if you have,
so a stretch band or a loop band,
you have to anchor it to a leg of a chair or something.
I'm using the wall anchor,
and then you simply put your arm
out straight
and use that for resistance,
and it can step out this way to get more.
This is another,
this is the way I personally do it at home.
- Again, it's deceptive.
- Yeah, it works.
Really works those hamstrings,
much more than you imagine.
You gotta do it.
You can use a loop and put it around something
and of course do it in the same manner.
- Sure.
- All right.
Now we've got the next and the last exciting
episode of hamstring strengthening exercise.
- Okay. Lastly, but not leastly we're going to use,
you can either use a band or a loop band.
Again, you do need a chair.
You don't have to have one with wheels,
but it works out nice.
You'll see why in just a second.
So take your band, anchor it
to something
on the wall or the table,
you know the leg of a table or solid piece of furniture.
And then
use one of these.
You always get these.
- A cuff.
- A cup?
- Cup or cuff?
- Cuff.
- Cuff, cuff.
There we go.
Put that around your ankle,
or attach the band around your ankle.
You could just wrap it around with the,
with the carabiner clip.
Put it on there
and simply we're gonna do hamstring curls with resistance.
I'll probably get outta reach of the camera,
but the farther you go back, obviously the more resistance
or simply get a more resistive band.
- Or go to a gym, right?
- Yeah, go to a gym.
Again, if you have the large loops,
they actually work really nice with this.
Put that around your, or whatever it is
and it just goes there and--
- Off you go.
- Yep. Good posture while you do these.
And--
- Always good posture.
A very nice one to do.
Works well.
If you use a chair without wheels,
you just pick the chair up manually and move it.
- Your hamstrings look great, Brad.
- Oh, these hamstrings are starting to feel like,
they're strong like bull, Bob.
- Very good.
Enjoy the day and watch those hamstrings--
- Peace.
- just do amazing--
- Enlarge.
- Enlarge, yeah.
(outro music)