Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Hamstring ANNIHILATOR

Whats the one movement to cause my hamstrings to blow up like no other?

Its not what you're thinkin, either.

Movements like glute ham raises, romanian deadlifts, and single leg romanian deadlifts are great, but the one movement that kicks my ass (err...hamstrings) everytime is the snatch grip deadlift from a defecit.

Snatch grip deads by themselves are awesome, but from a 3-4" defecit can be absoulte MURDER on the posterior chain. The range of motion and the amount of muscle used in this movement is massive and Charles Poliquin (as crazy as he is sometimes) even goes as far to say that if someone was ever forced to do just ONE movement to gain strength and size, the snatch grip deadlift from a defecit would it be it.

These can done by themselves as a max effort or sub max effort movement, or if you're like me and like to get in and out of the gym as quick as possible, you can even superset them with something like pull ups or even do them as part of a circuit with dips, chins, and maybe a single leg movement like heavy dumbbell step ups. Its your call! Have fun with it and don't forget to pile on the weight!

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