1/28/2020 Hamstring - ATG Online Coaching

Select b
U Page
b

Home » MEMBERS » Ability » Hamstring

HAMSTRING ABILITY PROGRAM

I started using this routine 4 years ago to help others after hamstring injury, and I have kept sharpening it since.

A hamstring strain can be very frustrating because once you’ve had one, it’s so much more likely to keep giving you problems.

Unlike an injury such as tendinitis, which usually builds up gradually, a hamstring strain can come out of nowhere. But this program works for
both acute hamstring injury, and chronic hamstring tendinitis alike!

Without further ado, here’s the strategy I’ve used to not only get athletes out of pain, but to progress them to enough protection so as to never
have issue again. Bonus: you’ll get even more athletic in the process, because it will be bringing up the very areas someone with hamstring
injury is likely to be weak or imbalanced in!

The magic is in the details, so please watch the videos below, most of which I newly shot yesterday in order to give you my best coaching tips.
Each exercise below is hyperlinked to video, just click!

The simplest step you can take to get out of pain is to start doing daily Hamstring Sled Drags. This exercise is actually not mandatory, and
you thus do not have to have a sled to achieve the gains of the Hamstring Ability Program. However, I would be doing you a disservice if I did
not mention how helpful this can be in the beginning stages of hamstring recovery. I also think this exercise may be able to be mimicked by
using a Deadmill (unplugged treadmill, so that you have to overcome its resistance), just as we use Reverse Deadmill to mimic Reverse Sled
for our knees.

So, “Step 0” is optional daily Hamstring Sled Drags. 3 sets of 100 meters per set.

Step 1 is very specific in its execution, so please watch this video: Eccentric Single-Leg Nordic. 3 sets of 10 per leg should be done 3 times
per week.

Step 2 should be done right after the Nordics: ATG-style Romanian Deadlift. In this case, your sets and reps are monitored by your ability:

Level 1: 3 sets of 50 reps with up to 25% of your bodyweight in load

Level 2: 4 sets of 25 reps with up to 50% of your bodyweight in load
Level 3: 5 sets of 10 reps with up to 100% of your bodyweight in load
Level 4: 6 sets of 5 reps with up to 150% of your bodyweight in load

It is very important to note that for Levels 3 & 4, the weight only “counts” if your lower back is below parallel with arch. In the video above, you
can see me demonstrate these exact Standards.

It is also important to note that for Levels 2, 3 and 4, you are using the prescribed sets merely to work up to a top set. It is very important that
you send video clip of this top set to us through the app so that we can coach your form, every session.

Step 3 is stretching out the antagonist muscles to the hamstrings through the Couch Quad & Couch Hip Flexor Stretches. I happen to have a
30 second video which quickly illustrates the “why” behind this. 2 sets of 60 seconds should be done on each version, alternating legs and
alternating versions, for example:

right leg quad

left leg quad
right leg hip flexor
left leg hip flexor
repeat

The above steps would represent the main workout, done Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

Then ideally Tuesday-Thursday, you would work on the following secondary factors. However, there would be nothing wrong at all if you
continued right onto these in one workout. Use whichever schedule suits your schedule the best.

https://atgonlinecoaching.com/training/ability/hamstring/ 1/3
1/28/2020 Hamstring - ATG Online Coaching
Step 4 is how I train the hip flexors to help prevent future hamstring strain: Single Leg Reverse Cable Crunch. 5 sets of 20 reps per leg
ensures you adequately trash your hip flexors in order to create real muscle and strength increases, so as to rebalance your hip flexor to quad
ratio.

Step 5 is all about improving your knee strength as it relates to your hamstrings. Watch this video to see how to progress your Reverse Step
Up in a way that will reduce strain on your hamstrings, while making you a better athlete. 5 sets of 10 per leg, starting with bodyweight and
gradually building up in weight, ensures enough work is given to push strength forward in this area.

When performing any Reverse Step Up workout, your approach is:

first establish the pain-free range

then establish the pain-free strength
if you cannot go to strength failure, go to rep failure

For example, you are doing the Patrick Step Up and find 4 inches to be comfortable, but 5 inches causes some knee strain. So in this session,
you will use 4 inches. You then use the bar, then add a little more, a little more. But you find that at 100 pounds there is more pain than there
was at 80 pounds. That is fine. Go back to 80 pounds. Now perform a set until you fail!

So even though I would like you to perform 10 reps per set, if it’s not the weight that stops you but rather it’s pain that stops you, you can still
take your muscles to failure by going to rep failure at a pain-free weight at a pain-free height. I’ve seen results in Reverse Step Ups with up to
100 reps in row, using bodyweight alone, at low height.

The above strategy applies to any and all Reverse Step Up workouts.

Eventually you will get to where 6 inches is pain-free, and even to where your bodyweight on your back with no warm-up is pain-free! But the
patient strategy above is precisely how to make such a transformation.

That is nearly the end of the Hamstring Ability Program, but one final tool is needed: Piriformis Stretching! Stretching the piriformis not only
helps you unwind from the Reverse Step Ups (because the Reverse Step Ups work the outside of your glutes very hard!), it also ensures that
being tight through the outside of your hip and thigh does not pull your hamstring excessively outward when you run, thus causing uneven
mechanics and potential strain.

My personal favorite is 2 sets of 3 minutes per side in a Standing Piriformis Stretch (aka the Kadour Ziani) whereby the surface is about as
high as your hips.

So, the whole program looks like this:

M/W/F
A. Optional Hamstring Sled Drag 3 x 100m
B. SL Eccentric Nordic 3 x 10 per
C. ATG-style RDL 3 x 50 or 4 x 25 or 5 x 10 or 6 x 5
D1. Couch Quad 2 x 60 per
D2. Couch Hip Flexor 2 x 60 per

TU/TH
A. Optional Hamstring Sled Drag 3 x 100m
B. SL Reverse Low Cable Crunch 5 x 20 per
C. Reverse Step Up Progression 5 x 10 per
D. Standing Piriformis 2 x 180 per

I hope you enjoyed this article!

If you happen to need this program, you can request it through Messages in the app.

But even if you don’t need it, feel free to use it help others who do!

Yours in Gains,
Ben and the ATG Team

https://atgonlinecoaching.com/training/ability/hamstring/ 2/3
1/28/2020 Hamstring - ATG Online Coaching
The ATG System
Superhuman 
Anti-Gravity 
Ability 
Adam Bighill Program 
Your Coaches 
The ATG Exercise Library 
My Account 
Archives 

ATHLETIC TRUTH GROU

Find out what you're made of

Terms of Service Privacy Policy

  
ATG Online Coaching
Copyright © 2020 ATG Online Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

https://atgonlinecoaching.com/training/ability/hamstring/ 3/3