# Hamstrings Before Quads



## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

Hey guys,

Do any of you fellas train hamstrings before quads?

My hamstrings and glutes are extremely tight so I'm considering training my hamstrings before quads. My theory is that if I train hamstrings before quads, they won't be as tight which will allow for a better quad workout.

I know people tend to do this when their hamstrings are lagging but would this work for my purpose?


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## FlunkyTurtle (Aug 5, 2013)

Contest said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Do any of you fellas train hamstrings before quads?
> 
> ...


I start from the ground up

Calves, Hamstrings, quads.

Something Kai greene suggested on a video and it seems to work.

I get lower lifts on my quads but they feel more worked than before.


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

FlunkyTurtle said:


> I start from the ground up
> 
> Calves, Hamstrings, quads.
> 
> ...


I'm not overly concerned with what weight is being lifted. As long as the muscle is receiving a full stimulation and is growing, that's all I want.

When you hit quads after hams, would you say your hams feel more loose and flexible... and have you a link to that video mate?


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## FlunkyTurtle (Aug 5, 2013)

Contest said:


> I'm not overly concerned with what weight is being lifted. As long as the muscle is receiving a full stimulation and is growing, that's all I want.
> 
> When you hit quads after hams, would you say your hams feel more loose and flexible... and have you a link to that video mate?


Yes definitely - i didnt really work my hams on their own before so it's a big difference for me.

Sorry couldnt find the video for you mate!


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

FlunkyTurtle said:


> Yes definitely - i didnt really work my hams on their own before so it's a big difference for me.
> 
> Sorry couldnt find the video for you mate!


No problem mate. Cheers for your input


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## FlunkyTurtle (Aug 5, 2013)

Contest said:


> No problem mate. Cheers for your input


Np - Everyone of the olympia guys seems to have their own opinions but i would say i've felt more in my legs by that method than anything else!


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

FlunkyTurtle said:


> Np - Everyone of the olympia guys seems to have their own opinions but i would say i've felt more in my legs by that method than anything else!


I know a lot of guys who train hams before quads but only because their legs are so quad dominant. My legs are quite well rounded and all I really want to do is loosen my hams before I hit the leg press for example.


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## ConP (Aug 18, 2013)

I train my calfs then hams followed by quads.

If I did quads first I would have no energy left plus the hamstring pump helps with my quad movements.


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

ConP said:


> I train my calfs then hams followed by quads.
> 
> If I did quads first I would have no energy left plus the hamstring pump helps with my quad movements.


Same questions to you as well mate... do you feel slightly more flexible when you train quads after hams?


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

Just seen this interesting video regarding this...


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## ConP (Aug 18, 2013)

Contest said:


> Same questions to you as well mate... do you feel slightly more flexible when you train quads after hams?


Absalutely!

But I do mobility work between sets because otherwise my leg mobility is poor.


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

ConP said:


> Absalutely!
> 
> But I do mobility work between sets because otherwise my leg mobility is poor.


What kind of mobility work mate?


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## Thunderstruck (Sep 20, 2010)

OP if your feeling the tightness in your hams and glutes are holding you back why dont you increase your flexibility? What warm up and mobility work do you do for your hams and glutes and what stretches do you do at the end of your sessions?


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## Chelsea (Sep 19, 2009)

I do calves, hamstrings then finish with quads, its pretty fcking tough but good, also it warms up my knees doing all those sets prior to squats.


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

Thunderstruck said:


> OP if your feeling the tightness in your hams and glutes are holding you back why dont you increase your flexibility? What warm up and mobility work do you do for your hams and glutes and what stretches do you do at the end of your sessions?


I've only now began stretching my muscles mate. My hip extensors, hams and glutes are especially bad. Warm used to b 5mins on the stationary bike followed by extensions and then going straight into the leg press.

Now I've incorporated stretches but it still doesn't feel enough and my hams and glutes feel very disconnected and cold when I'm on the leg press. It's hard to explain but when my quads burn out, my erectors start to kick in to assist as opposed to the hams and glutes.



Chelsea said:


> I do calves, hamstrings then finish with quads, its pretty fcking tough but good, also it warms up my knees doing all those sets prior to squats.


It seems a lot of you guys are hitting your quads after hams and having good workouts. What difference do you feel @Chelsea when you hit hams before quads besides your knees feeling more warmed up. Do you find you can get a better mind-muscle connection this way and hit a deeper ROM on quad exercises?


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## Chelsea (Sep 19, 2009)

Contest said:


> It seems a lot of you guys are hitting your quads after hams and having good workouts. What difference do you feel @Chelsea when you hit hams before quads besides your knees feeling more warmed up. Do you find you can get a better mind-muscle connection this way and hit a deeper ROM on quad exercises?


Yea to be honest I feel warmer and that I do have a better range of motion but really the whole point of it for me is to bring up my weak areas mate, hammies and calves need more work than my quads hence why they get hit first.

Its quite mentally tough as you have the heaviest and most taxing reps at the end of the session but you gotta do what you gotta do.


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## JR8908 (Aug 17, 2012)

I don't like training hams before squats as I feel very unstable squatting with tired hams.

Edit - I love doing extensions before squats however, feel very warmed up, knees feel better and seem to be stronger in the squat.


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

My hams are playing catch up with my quads atm, so I always do hamstrings first.


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

I trained legs yesterday and did hams before quads.

The workout had positives and negatives.

*Positives*

- Training hams before quads did not effect my pressing movements at all which surprised me.

- Legs definitely felt looser when leg pressing.

- My hams got a much better workout and are on fire today.

*Negatives*

- I started from stiff legged deadlifts. I was very strict with form and performed this exercises nice and slowly but it still fried my lower back. I've suffered from lower back pain for ages now and really don't think my form was bad on this exercise as my hamstrings today are feeling a pain they have never felt before so they were definitely hit.

As a side question... How long do you guys rest between sets when doing heavy leg presses and heavy SLDL's?


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

Contest said:


> *Negatives*
> 
> - I started from stiff legged deadlifts. I was very strict with form and performed this exercises nice and slowly but it still fried my lower back. I've suffered from lower back pain for ages now and really don't think my form was bad on this exercise as my hamstrings today are feeling a pain they have never felt before so they were definitely hit.
> 
> As a side question... How long do you guys rest between sets when doing heavy leg presses and heavy SLDL's?


I always do leg curls before SLDLs, basically pre-exhausting my hams. Then I have to use a much lower weight on the SLDLs, meaning my hams get fried long before my lower back starts to fatigue. I work my lower back on a different day with rack pulls whilst training my back, no need to work them again with legs.

As for rest periods, I stopped timing really. Some days you seem to catch your breath back a lot quicker than others. As a ballpark figure though, after a working set beyond failure with an intensity technique I rest 3-5 minutes after a big compound, 1-2 minutes after a less demanding lift. Generally 1-2 minutes after a warmup set.


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## The doog (Aug 6, 2013)

You spring out the bottom of squats with pumped up hamstrings!


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

> I always do leg curls before SLDLs, basically pre-exhausting my hams. Then I have to use a much lower weight on the SLDLs, meaning my hams get fried long before my lower back starts to fatigue. I work my lower back on a different day with rack pulls whilst training my back, no need to work them again with legs.
> 
> As for rest periods, I stopped timing really. Some days you seem to catch your breath back a lot quicker than others. As a ballpark figure though, after a working set beyond failure with an intensity technique I rest 3-5 minutes after a big compound, 1-2 minutes after a less demanding lift. Generally 1-2 minutes after a warmup set.


Cheers for the tip mate. I did SLDL's from fresh so was shifting a good amount of weight but pre-exhausting the hams prior to SLDL's seems like a good idea.

I think another flaw with my leg workout is that I only rest 1 minute between my big compound exercises and this is timed on a stopwatch. I'm still out of breathe before I start my next set. I've become accustomed to this now but I think the problem is that these short rest periods keep pumping up my lower back which is what is causing that pain. Think I need to rest longer on the bigger exercises.

On a side note, have you ever tried SLDL's using dumbbells? I've read they're more more lower back friendly.


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

Contest said:


> Cheers for the tip mate. I did SLDL's from fresh so was shifting a good amount of weight but pre-exhausting the hams prior to SLDL's seems like a good idea.
> 
> I think another flaw with my leg workout is that I only rest 1 minute between my big compound exercises and this is timed on a stopwatch. I'm still out of breathe before I start my next set. I've become accustomed to this now but I think the problem is that these short rest periods keep pumping up my lower back which is what is causing that pain. Think I need to rest longer on the bigger exercises.
> 
> On a side note, have you ever tried SLDL's using dumbbells? I've read they're more more lower back friendly.


I do my SLDLs with dumbbells already actually, just seem to be able to maintain better form with them. I think it's where your arms can move on a more natural plane, so you can forget about them a bit and just focus on the hip movement rather than feeling like you're just raising and lowering the bar.


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## Contest (Oct 4, 2011)

I said:


> I do my SLDLs with dumbbells already actually' date=' just seem to be able to maintain better form with them. I think it's where your arms can move on a more natural plane, so you can forget about them a bit and just focus on the hip movement rather than feeling like you're just raising and lowering the bar.[/quote']
> 
> Cheers for the info mate.
> 
> One last question... When doing SLDL's do you keep your legs completely straight or is there a slight bend in them? I keep mine straight as I feel a better stretch. When I bend my legs and lower down, I find it difficult to maintain the bend throughout the exercise.


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## Mark2021 (Apr 13, 2012)

I have the same problem. My hammys are extremely tight!


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## troponin (Apr 2, 2014)

Did hamstrings before quads today - just a light set to get them warmed up and it did make a significant difference. Normally I squat 120KG for 1 set of 6 but I managed to bang out 120KG for 2 sets of 5. The motion was just so much smoother and I felt as if I could go much deeper. Definitely sticking to a light set of hamstrings before quads now.


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

Contest said:


> Cheers for the info mate.
> 
> One last question... When doing SLDL's do you keep your legs completely straight or is there a slight bend in them? I keep mine straight as I feel a better stretch. When I bend my legs and lower down, I find it difficult to maintain the bend throughout the exercise.


I do both actually mate lol. I bend my knees slightly on the way down, still get a good stretch by going low enough. Then I squeeze my hams and glutes on the way back up and I'm locked out at the top of the movement.


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## DarthMaulscle (Dec 26, 2012)

I began training hamstrings before quads last January, and have seen awesome development in them.

MY hamstrings were lagging, which is probably common among a lot of trainee's. Putting everything into quads with squats, leg presses etc will likely have you half arsing your ham's (even if unintentional).

I find that you can train Ham's with 100%, and still put 100% into quads after.

This works for me, but we're all different of course!


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

Contest said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Do any of you fellas train hamstrings before quads?
> 
> ...


so if you flood your all ready tight hamstring with blood they won't be as tight??? you sure on that logic?

if you have tight hamstrings then the better douse of action would be to follow a stretching program before you train legs like the Active8 program combined with some deep tissue work


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## LeVzi (Nov 18, 2013)

I go on the leg press to get warmed up before doing all my squatting. After that I do isolation on the hams, quads, calfs etc.


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## dtlv (Jul 24, 2009)

Is what I've been doing recently after reading some stuff by Bret Contreras - my hams have long time been my weakest body part and doing things this way is definitely helping slowly redress the imbalance.

My lower body sequence atm is core, then calves, then hams, quads then glutes. Obviously some exercises overlap but I try to sequence things so that the emphasis shifts that way.


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## Wallace86 (Jan 20, 2013)

FlunkyTurtle said:


> I start from the ground up
> 
> Calves, Hamstrings, quads.
> 
> ...


I also train legs this way after seeing Kai train like this! And by **** time you get to squats ouch haha not even full weight no need tbh!!


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## theBEAST1990 (Aug 4, 2012)

If you've got tightness in your hamstrings then it is more likely to be a flexibility issue. Try some dynamic stretching before and static stretching after your w/o. Soft tissue release at home everyday as well as static stretching.


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