Hamstring Stretching Exercise

[IronLion]

A lot of people have asked how to get their hamstrings more flexible and I told them to do what I call strict Romanian DL's. This means that the hips should break backward, and rotate forward just like the squat at the beginning of the movement. This allows the hamstrings to be pre-stretched. Then lower the bar with the chest out and arch tight. The bar should scrape along the thighs and even the most flexible of people won't get past their knees with good form. The back should be arched hard throughout the move. The side benefits are that it will help with olympic pulls and deadlift lockout while it is stretching the hamstrings. Do not try to do too much weight at first and focus on sets of 8-12 with perfect form. Your hamstrings should feel stretch as soon as you lower the bar, if not you are doing something wrong.

Here is a video of me doing these, disregard my huge ass please.

RDL My Way

hope this helps

 

[Seashell]

Hey thanks IronLion, I have THE most inflexible hams (my chiropractor tells me I'm 1 step from rigormortis), so I'm going to start adding these in as part of my stretching.

 

[TheProject]

I'll have to check this out when I'm not at work...really need to get more flexible.

 

[t3c]

NICE!

i will start these tomorrow


also, that shaved head\beard combo looks pretty badass. i hope i can pull that off some day

 

[Backlash]

Those look like the SLDL I was trying to do this morning... I did feel a good stretch in my hams. How would a SLDL be different than those (i.e. what am I doing wrong)?

 

[d3track]

Those look like the SLDL I was trying to do this morning... I did feel a good stretch in my hams. How would a SLDL be different than those (i.e. what am I doing wrong)?

yeah bro- that looks like an sdl
i thought russians were more like a barbell hack squat

 

[spatts]

They're Romanians. His legs aren't straight.

I have noticed a lot of improvement since I started doing mine this way a few months ago. Before he showed me these I was basically using the same form as him, but wasn't focusing on flexing my hamstrings from the very start. It makes a big difference.

 

[Backlash]

I thought SLDL was Stiff-Legged as opposed to straight-legged and it was ok to bend the knees a bit (his aren't bent much). As long as you don't use your kness to do the movement (i.e. they stay bent at the same angle and are thus stiff, even though bent).

 

[from zero]

Great exercise. Nice vid broly.

 

[Backlash]

Ok, I just watched the vid again and his knees do bend and then straighten again. Nevermind