How does your hamstring strength compare to your quads (e.g. leg curl vs leg extension)?

[yttrium]

And follow-up question, how can I improve strength in my hamstrings?

My PT pointed out today that my hamstrings are considerably weaker than my quads. I do around 65kg on leg extensions vs 40kg on leg curls. I feel I am quite quad dominant in general, and my hamstrings are definitely restricting in yoga (cannot keep my legs straight in seated or standing forward fold).

Can anyone relate to this, and will amping up the RDLs etc help address the balance?

 

[dawn16]

@yttrium Sounds about right

 

[bc8486]

@yttrium I’m maxing out the extension machine at 245lb and only doing about 180lb in curls. But machines vary in mechanics which really don’t tell you all that much.

However, the quads are inherently larger than your hamstrings anyway, so it can be normal for one to be stronger. Remember, your glutes and posterior chain as a whole work together as well. This also helps balance out the strength discrepancies.

 

[patsy_cline_fan]

@yttrium Muscle imbalances interest me, as I'm middle aged and more interested in lifelong fitness and injury prevention. My understanding for hams/quads is that a ratio around 70-75% is considered ideal (I'm still trying to figure out how they arrived at these numbers, and how they translate to related muscles, e.g. calves, glutes, and hip flexors). At 61.5% you're in the normal range, but could do with some RDLs as you and others mentioned.

 

[auna]

@yttrium Just a note, Leg Curl vs Leg Extension isn't the best way to compare the strength of the two muscles. There's going to be substantial differences purely based on how the pulleys in the machines are arranged.

In actual practise, your PT would use a dynamometer to make measurements of your hamstring/quad strength.

BUT even if we are just going to rely on those tools, your H/Q ratio works out to 61%. Ratios between 50-80% are completely normal. Heck NFL players have 65% on average!

Basically, it's not actually a problem that your hams are weaker than your quads, because they're supposed to be. The flexibility issue is a different matter.

 

[neontetra]

@yttrium I doubt very much that's something worth worrying about.

 

[all4hisglory]

@yttrium 10 reps 3 sets roughky 45kg on leg extension and 27 kg on hamstring curls. Quads are defo much stronger.

 

[steve1225]

@yttrium I'm the opposite (glutes/hams stronger than quads), but based on the responses here, it seems I'm in the minority! I have knee issues, so I'm hoping to get them more in balance.

 

[lllgt]

@steve1225 This is me! We are rare! And yes, I learned my quads were so weak when I had my first actual knee injury (a MCL sprain when I bashed my knee on a step in a pool) and went to PT. I'm mostly a runner, so coming back from that was important to me (I did, I've run multiple marathons post injury) so it became a mission of quad strength to keep my knees happy.

 

[alxspntral]

@yttrium I had very weak tight hamstrings after a few years of being sedentary, I personally had almost immediate results after doing RDLs, like literally within two weeks they were more flexible and stronger.

In the past I always just stretched them out and then would get back pain the next day so I noticed right away when that didn't happen after the RDLs.

I still am pretty tight, can barely touch my toes but the tightness has moved to my calves, which I'm not sure what I'm supposed to train for those but anyway, I personally had immediate results with hamstring strength and flexibility. Granted, all my muscles were super weak so it didn't that's much for my hamstrings to catch up to my quads. I didn't go very far down into them (I'm very inflexible) and I only used 8lb weights and that was enough to do it for me.

I suspect it's different for everyone, I actually tried a bunch of different exercises before I settled on RDLs, those were the ones I could feel my hamstrings working so I preferred that exercise.

 

[aristocatt]

@alxspntral Try Good Mornings. They are the best exercise for hams. Look it up and make sure you watch a video demonstrating proper form.

 

[yttrium]

@alxspntral This is very cheering news, thank you

 

[teatimebabe28]

@alxspntral I'll 2nd the RDL recommendation.

They've not only made me stronger, over the years I went from straining to touch my toes to putting my palms flat on the floor with my knees locked and elbows slightly bent. No stretching has ever given me such improvement.

As my RDLs get heavier, besides the strength gaims, they feel more effective for improving my flexibility. Stiff leg deadlifts are also good, once I developed enough flexibility to get into the start position, until then they just felt awkward.

 

[yttrium]

@teatimebabe28 Ahh amazing, I would LOVE to be able get palms flat on the floor. Funnily enough I tried stiff-leg deadlifts for the first time yesterday and enjoyed them a lot!

 

[jordana]

@yttrium I'm hamstring dominant which is not as common for women.

Since you have a PT they can tell you which exercises to do to strengthen the hamstrings.

 

[alicefive]

@yttrium Most people have hamstring weakness — but don’t sleep on strengthening external hip rotators (clamshells, leg circles, leg lifts…etc.). This will help prevent injury and improve activation as you work to improve the imbalance. Do these stabilizing at the end of your workout.

 

[yttrium]

@alicefive Very good advice thank you! I definitely focus on the heavy lifts more so a good reminder to work more stabilisation exercises in.

 

[gwwhaley]

@alicefive This is such good advice! I'm surprised to learn you need to do them at the end though, because my PT told me to start with them so I could "wake up" my muscles and know what it felt like to have them activated.

 

[alicefive]

@gwwhaley Sorry, should have said why
Some activation pre-workout is fine, but taking stabilizing muscles to fatigue/failure before they need to perform as designed (support/stabilize) on a heavy lift can lead to injury.
Same goes for a quick warmup of shoulder vs. truly strengthening with internal/external rotations to failure
after workout.
Source: Former personal trainer and multiple conversations with my physical therapist.

 

[sloliver]

@yttrium I would say my hamstring is 60% of my quad strength. I have been focusing more on my hamstrings these days especially as I sit down all day. So, I've been doing more one-legged hamstring exercise which has surprised me at how weak they are. However, I've noticed that tight/week lower back tends to result in weaker hamstrings so I make sure to incorporate those exercises and they often help reduce the pressure on my hamstrings allowing me to activate them more.