Are you a wrestler trying to get a toned body to smash your opponent to the ground? Or a gym freak who wants to work on muscles to get in shape? Are you a patient undergoing physiotherapy trying to work on your lower back and thighs muscles?
In either of these cases, you would need a hamstring workout.
Hamstrings are a set of muscles in our body, and keeping them fit is crucial to the normal functioning of your lower body. Mainly, the movement of knees, legs, hips, and back is dependent on this set of three critical muscles. Weakened hamstrings can make these parts more susceptible to injuries that are complicated and can result in serious secondary health issues.
Therefore, it is paramount to keep your muscles toned and your health in check. In this article, we bring you some of the simplest steps to hamstring at-home workouts. So, let's not put it off and get to it straight!
What are Hamstrings?
Hamstrings are a set of three muscles located at the back of your thigh. They include semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris muscles.
As we know, muscles are responsible for movement. Basic actions like walking, sitting, lying down won't be possible without functioning muscles. They run from the back of the thighs to the back of the knee. Thus, they play a key role in the flexibility of the knees and hips.
Why Are Hamstring At-Home Workouts Important?
Since hamstrings are located at the back of your thighs, their functions with respect to movement include:
- Tilting of pelvis
- Movement of hip and knees in walking
- Squatting
- Bending knees
- Extending hips
- Walking and running
Therefore, hamstring-related exercises are essential for the easy and smooth functioning of the body. A hamstring workout is necessary to treat and improve leg strength, as well as lower back and hip flexibility.
These three large muscles, when tightened, cause severe lower back pain. Stretching exercises related to them can significantly reduce back pain. By releasing tension from the tight muscles, they also contribute to increasing flexibility and easing movement.
Their role in agility is why their exercises are an important part of the regular workout routine recommended to sports players.
In not-so-active individuals, too, due to improper motion, an imbalance occurs between the movement and tightness of front thigh muscles, the quadriceps, and the hamstring muscles. The normal ratio between quads and hamstrings is 50 to 80%, as per the Journal of Athletic Training.
However, the problem arises if this normal balance is not maintained because these muscles work together. So say the quads are stronger than hamstrings. This would force hamstring muscles to respond to movements faster and with intense force.
Therefore, be it someone with a sedentary lifestyle or sports players, everyone is advised to regularly perform hamstring at-home workouts.
5 Simple Exercises For Your Hamstring At-Home Workouts And Their Benefits
It is a little daunting for people to get on board with home workouts. You usually don't know which exercises to start with, and the fear of straining muscles and pain also keeps you from doing them.
So, the following are some of the easy hamstring exercises you should incorporate into your daily exercise routine.
1. Dumbbell Deadlift
Dumbbells are one of the most popular exercising equipment—a beginner-friendly, easy yet strenuous, and effective workout contraption that helps with muscle imbalances and strength.
For a dumbbell deadlift, you are supposed to stand with slightly bent knees. Hold the dumbbell to the front of your sides and lower your torso to bring it parallel to the floor. Hang your arm down in front of your knees and shin, then quickly pull the dumbbells back to the sides of your chest.
Reverse the movement to the original position. This completes one rep.
There are many amazing benefits to dumbbells deadlift.
Fixing Muscle Imbalances
Muscular imbalance implies that one side of the body is stronger than the other. This is not good because, in clean and jerk moves of weightlifting, you need to balance the weight on both sides as the stronger one can't take the stride for the other.
Improves Posture
Deadlift trains the core by targeting muscles that define our posture. Erector Spinae lies responsible for keeping the spine straight. Dumbbell deadlift works on it, which eventually betters the posture.
Makes Muscles Stable and Increases Strength
Our muscles tend to tighten over time. This reduces flexibility and makes movement hard. Workout stretches these muscles and so helps impart strength and stability to them.
2. Dumbbell Single-Leg Deadlift
If you want to work on your legs and back particularly, give single-leg deadlift a shot. Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs. Afterward, lift one leg straight behind you and then lean forward slightly, bending the other one. Stay as is for a second and then return to the original standing position. This exercise offers a myriad of advantages:
Posture Alignment
Single leg dumbbell deadlift does wonders for your posture. It focuses on your hamstrings, and applying equal strain on both sides guarantees muscle balance and alignment.
Flexibility
All workouts bring your muscles to use and hence improve flexibility. Single-leg dumbbell deadlift works on hamstrings which often are less used than the muscles of the front leg. Therefore, it reduces tension and increases flexibility.
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3. Weight Glute Bridge
The weight glute bridge is usually done at the end of training sessions with a barbell. Bend the knees and position your feet flat, close to your glutes. Hold the bar with straight arms and push the heels through the floor. Keeping the abs tight, try to lift your hips high. This would contract the glutes and improve their flexibility.
Gluteal Toning
Weight glute bridge focuses on glute contraction and helps tone the muscles, which eventually impacts the hamstrings as well. It also acts as a warm-up workout before other lower body exercises.
4.Single-Leg Glute Bridge
Lie on your back for a single-leg glute bridge. Place your hands on the floor and bend your knees. Make sure that your feet are shoulder-width apart and placed at approx. 12-16 inches from your glutes.
Afterward, lift your right leg, close to 90 degrees from the ground. Using your left heel, lift your hip and upper back until the knees, hips, and shoulders get aligned at one tangent.
Squeeze your glutes once or twice in the air and then slowly lower the back down.
Works on Two Sets of MusclesSingle leg bridge works on two sets of muscles: the gluteal muscles and hamstrings. This makes it much more effective than the regular bilateral variety of glute bridges.
5. Squat Jumps
You might know of squats as exercises that define your buttocks. However, they are much more than that. They perform extremely crucial functions that hamstrings require for you to stay fit.
Stand straight with your feet apart at shoulder distance. Bend and place your knees behind your toes, bring your thighs parallel to the floor. Lift your chest and keep the arms straight in front, parallel to the ground, to maintain balance. Jump and swing arms over the head. Return back to the position and mark a rep.
Here are squat jump benefits:
Strengthens Thighs
Squat jumps focus on butt and thigh muscles. If done correctly, paying adequate attention to the core movements gives you toned, strengthened muscles in no time.
Weight Loss
Squats are a calorie-burning exercise. Being a hard workout that involves a lot of muscles helps you lose weight fast.
Easy Hamstring At-Home Workouts and Cardio
You don't need to head outside in scorching heat and icy winters to maintain health. Squats can be easily done within the vicinity of the home. Therefore, we advise you to incorporate them into your daily workout routine.
Post-Workout Deep Tissue Massage Therapy
Since our body has layers of muscles, it is important to care for deep muscles as they are often not engaged efficiently in exercises. Investing in a good muscle massager can solve the problem.
It improves blood circulation to the tissues and is a remedial therapy for post-workout soreness and pain.
ExoGun’s muscle massager is a device designed with all the advanced technologies that make it one of the best machines for deep tissue massage therapy. The ExoGun Dream Pro Massager is a handheld massager that has multiple control options for low-impact deep tissue massage and high-impact recovery.
By purchasing it, you don't need to bother about discomfort after intense hamstring at-home workouts. Simply lie down and give your body a relaxing massage whenever you want.
Conclusion
So this was our guide on hamstring at-home workouts. Amidst the hustle and bustle of our extremely busy lives, we tend to ignore our health.
Most people don't engage in a lot of activities that engage hamstrings. This leads to tension and eventual muscle wastage.
Even for athletes training at a small scale, choosing suitable and effective hamstring at-home workouts out of a long list of varieties is quite a task. This article discussed most of the basic, essential exercises that will for sure help in improving muscle tone and maintaining a fit and healthy body.
So start on these exercises and see the change in posture and hamstrings strength for yourself!
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