Lacking Glutes/Hamstrings

Hello everybody.

Been following a HIT style regime with heavy compound lifts every know and then to measure strength.
In terms of leg development, I have noticed that my quads overpower my hamstrings and glutes massively. Even when I squat ATG I feel my quads much much more than my glutes/hamstrings.

Currently I do the following for hamstring/glute development:

Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Leg Curls (lying, sitting)
Hip Bridges
Hyperextensions (more of a lower back, but I still feel some hamstring/glutes going on there)


Would incorporating a leg day where I focus solely on hamstrings and glutes be better? For example, Monday I do the regular routine then on Thursday I go ahead and focus on my hamstrings/glutes rather than my quads. Or is that 'too much' for the legs.

It can't hurt to try.

Also consider training them first in your leg workouts so they'll get the most emphasis. Ham's to a lot of guys are like calves, they do them at the end of their workouts just to "get them over with" and then wonder why they aren't as good. Prioritize any weak body part. It'll pay off big time with results.

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Originally Posted by kelkel

It can't hurt to try.

Also consider training them first in your leg workouts so they'll get the most emphasis. Ham's to a lot of guys are like calves, they do them at the end of their workouts just to "get them over with" and then wonder why they aren't as good. Prioritize any weak body part. It'll pay off big time with results.

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Understood, thanks kelkel.

I'll start off mondays routine with good mornings and some stiff leg deadlifts before doing my squats. Hopefully it won't hurt my squat performance too much

Quote:

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Originally Posted by uhit

Hello everybody.

Been following a HIT style regime with heavy compound lifts every know and then to measure strength.
In terms of leg development, I have noticed that my quads overpower my hamstrings and glutes massively. Even when I squat ATG I feel my quads much much more than my glutes/hamstrings.

Currently I do the following for hamstring/glute development:

Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Leg Curls (lying, sitting)
Hip Bridges
Hyperextensions (more of a lower back, but I still feel some hamstring/glutes going on there)


Would incorporating a leg day where I focus solely on hamstrings and glutes be better? For example, Monday I do the regular routine then on Thursday I go ahead and focus on my hamstrings/glutes rather than my quads. Or is that 'too much' for the legs.

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My recommendation is that if you really feel that you must fix this, put your squatting-strength at maintenance mode while getting your deadlift up. Stiff-leg it if you are good at keeping a tight back.

The problem with doing ass to grass squats is that most ppl lack the requisite flexibility to get that low correctly. What ends up happening for the vast majority of people is they must relax the hamstrings to get that depth which effectively takes them out of the lift for the most part. Sure they'll still be working to some degree but you have lost the stretch reflex at the bottom and that tight contraction that helps keep them engaged throughout.

Some other lifts to help target your hams: GHR, SLDL, RDL, deficit deads, snatch grip deads, good mornings, box squats, paused squats....

Try doing leg presses with your feet high on the platform. Better yet, keep your toes off the platform so you're forced to push through your heels. I recommend doing one leg at a time because you can go deeper without having to round your lower back as much.

Also try rounded-back hyper extensions for your glutes. By keeping your upper and lower back rounded throughtout the movement, your hamstrings and lower back muscles are inactive and you are forced to use your glutes.

For hamstrings, you can do GHRs on a standard 45-degree hyperextension bench. Just set the thigh pad to the lowest setting possible and put your knees on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7X121zY4DE

Cable pullthroughs and cable kickbacks are also great for finishing off your glutes.

For legs in general i like hack squats. I follow a pyramid for warm up. Generally another plate on each side. When i get to working weight i do drop sets taking a plate off each side until just 1 plate is left on each side. Take a break load all plates back on bar and i repeat twice more. Thats my whole leg work out. Well except for calves. This works awesome for me, idk about you

I had similar problem and resolved it by starting over. My squat was never as low as it should have been so I lowered the pins on the rack to where parallel was for me. Of course my quads could handle it but my glutes and hams just weren't there. So I began my first round of PL training to start to get them caught up. First routine looked like this:
1) dbl step ups. 5*4
2) Hatfield squats 8,6,5,3,3,3
3) Zercher squats 8,6,5,4,4
4) Stiff legged deadlifts 10*4
5) single leg curls 10*4
6) Reverses hypertensions 10*4
7) Standing calf raises 20*3
This is one of the routines I used for 8 weeks and then I switched it up. You have gotten some good feedback and if you take a little bit of what's being offered you will be on the right track.

Pretty common to be quad dominant. Good suggestions for exercises. The way I've focused on hamstring / glute strength is adding 2-3 exercises at the end of a leg day. For deadlifts, they already focus so heavily on hamstring that I feel it is overdoing it by adding compound hamstring exercises.

Some ideas to add:

Romanian deadlifts** probably the best

Single leg kettlebell deadlifts

Glute ham raise

Goodmornings

ATG squats are essential for glute development.