Strong hamstrings are essential in sport. They improve your hinge pattern which is heavily featured in Olympic lifting and field based athletics. Strong hamstrings are also important for protecting the knee. ACL injuries seem to go hand in hand with weak hamstrings.
How do we determine the strength of the hamstrings?
Quadriceps to Hamstring Percentage
Everybody should look towards developing hamstring strength that matches 60%-80% of their quadriceps strength. This can be analysed by measuring their one repetition maximum on two machines. The leg extension machine measured quadriceps strength and the leg curl measures hamstring strength. If you divide your leg curl by your leg extension you can understand how your hamstrings measure up to your quadriceps. Here is a quick example:
A man measures his 1 repetition maximum on the leg extension and achieves a score of 70kg. He then tests his 1 repetition maximum on the leg curl and achieves a score of 55kg.
55 / 70 = 0.78
Take the 0. out of 0.78 and it leaves you with just 78. This indicates that your hamstrings are 78% the strength of your quadriceps. This, as you know is an expectable score. This means that your chances of developing a knee injury is low.
Body Weight to Deadlift Percentage
From an athletic standpoint we can measure our hamstring strength along with other skeletal muscles in the form of a compound movement. The compound movement should be hinge orientated so deadlifts are the most popular exercise of choice. When concluding wherever the deadlift is strong or not completely depends on the individuals bodyweight. An who participates in a sport where strength is of massive importance such as rugby, national football league or 100m, should find that their deadlift is the equivalent of 200% of their body weight. This is measured as part of a one repetition maximum.
If you are unsure of how to measure a 1 repetition maximum, tomorrow we will cover the correct protocol on completing a 1 repetition maximum safely and efficiently. I also need to clarify that 1 repetition maximum testing is not suitable for everyone as this type of testing may aggravate the most smallest of injuries. 1 repetition maximum testing is definitely not advised for individuals who suffer from cardiovascular issues such as high blood pressure, morbid obesity or high cholesterol. Therefore we will provide an alternative method of measuring your strength.
Meanwhile you may wish to brows through these posts:
Lower Leg Development
Hamstring Development for Sprinting
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