Why do it if we know better?

Why is everyone so infatuated with the ham/glute raise and
the Russian/Nordic hamstring curls? These are both exercises that I threw out
of my toolbox years ago, because I found that they were ineffective and
predisposed the athletes to injury. I am not sure what people trying to accomplish
with them? They are both training muscles. I prefer to train movements that
stress muscles in an appropriate manner for the desired training objective. No
doubt the hamstring muscle group are very important in movement, but they do
not work in isolation, nor do they act in slow eccentric moments and they work
both at the knee and the hip. I hear another buzzword as justification, they
work the posterior chain – so what? How about the total kinetic chain and
fitting the hamstring in that context? The hamstrings must be integrated and
coordinated to be effective in doing their job.

To help understand exercise selection lets look at the three
movement constants. Start with the body,
which is what we are trying to change and get to adapt through training. The second
constant is gravity, an ever-present
force that constantly loads the system. Last but not least, the ground where we live work and play.
Without applying force to the ground we cannot move. Lets look deeper into the
body and look at hamstring function and its architecture that helps to
determine its function. In running linear and multi directionally, the
hamstrings main job is to decelerate the foreleg and in stance extend the hip,
in addition along with gravity it also helps to flex the knee (not it’s primary
job). Based on its architecture (the pennation angles within the muscle) it is
designed for speed and large amplitude movements. They work in all three planes
of motion, not just the sagittal plane. The hamstrings work synergistically
with all the muscle of the hip and the leg to produce the required efficient
movement. They are like any good team player; they can’t do their job without
help.

Now lets look at the specific exercises. The ham/glute raise
isolates the hamstrings through a limited range of motion. It works in a
horizontal orientation against gravity. No use of the ground and slow speed of
movement. The Russian/Nordic hamstring curl basically isolates the hamstring at
one joint, the knee through a very limited range of motion. Very slow, almost
grinding eccentric movement that places tremendous abnormal stress on the
distal hamstring. No use of the ground. Based on basic exercise selection
criteria both these exercises fail on all counts.

What should you do? It is very simple, no fancy names,
minimal equipment needs, just manipulation of the three movement constants.
Lunges and lunge and reach in all three planes of motion with appropriate
resistance. Step-ups with both a low and a high box, simple, no frills,
integration into he total chain. These exercises train force reduction, force
production and have high proprioceptive demand. They involve triple extension
and triple flexion at a relatively high speed. Simple, get all the parts working
together to produce efficient flowing movement that will transfer into the
competitive arena.