There may be no better way to welcome the summer months than dialing in your physique to show off all the labor you’ve put in during the offseason. I’m officially declaring June to be “Hamstring and Glute Month.” All throughout the next few weeks, I’ll be providing you some wicked techniques to help you create the backside of stallion, or for the ladies, the Brazilian butt of a goddess.
Despite popular belief, I wasn’t born with big legs. I didn’t have enormous calves through childhood, and there certainly wasn’t any speculation of having the world’s greatest legs someday in my youthful thought processes. Eventually I realized that is what I wanted, but it was never a goal due to a great genetic predisposition. My training, especially legs, has ALWAYS been centered on two important MUSTS – intensity and an intelligent approach. I can’t do much for you in terms of the former. That’s up to you. As for the latter, however, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that can set you straight on the path to a world-class lower body.
Here’s a little tidbit that you can implement into your hamstring training today and begin to see results:
I’m a big advocate of taking muscles through their full range of motion. This means maximal muscle shortening and lengthening. It may seem like you’re going ‘all the way’ through the movements, but there are countless little body tweaks that can make a WORLD of difference over time in your training. Next time you’re training hamstrings with any type of hamstring curl (standing, kneeling, or lying), try keeping your ankle joint in dorsiflexion. Dorsiflexion is simply the process of pulling your toes upward. This simple manipulation works to fully lengthen and weaken the gastrocnemius (your calves). Since the calves are fully lengthened, they are optimally taken out of the movement, thus there is greater tension and emphasis on the hamstring. This is just one of nearly a dozen small corrections for this movement alone. Plantarflexion, which points the toes, will ALSO allow for a different hamstring firing pattern. Little changes such as this can go a long way. Regardless of what lower body exercise you’re doing, it’s important to be mindful of foot placement in order to achieve maximum results. Check out MI40 to get a comprehensive list of manipulations for ALL body parts that will give you the gains you’ve been searching for.
Make sure to drop some comments below after you try this wicked fix. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Keep killin’ it folks!
BPak
Ya that’s a good movement you also don’t involve the tends straight muscle hits the Hamstring hard when you don’t involve the parts I also do this movement with a dumbell between my feet it to is a great way to hit the Hamstring and glute
you rock ben thanks for mi40 it’s really helping on my journey of building a better body i’m 60 years young .
Awesome tip Ben, its amazing the difference the manipulation of the calves makes to these exercises, illustrated very well in MI40 Hamstrings video with Emily
Thanks
Mick
The contraction feels completely different with those changes. I’ve always worked leg curl in dorsiflexion, but when I change to plantarflexion I was unable to lift the same weight so I have to reduce by almost half of it. Also, my calves hurt when I do the movement. Is that normal?
Thanks.