Advice on Hitting Hamstrings Hard

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[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

As a beginner, how do you know what your weak spots are?

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I’m a beginner in terms of strength but I know enough to recognise my weak spots. Mine are common - quad dominant and weak hamstrings, weak hip flexors, weak lats, small delts etc. I’m aiming for symmetry and functional strength so I focus first and work hardest my hamstrings not my quads and I’m more concerned with lower body and overall strength right now and bringing weak spots like delts, lats and hamstrings up.

Seems like a more sensible plan would be to train everything as generally as possible. Like most beginners, you probably don’t have any particular “weak spots” because you have so many.

That’s true. But all beginners have to work hard on their lats and the others mentioned are particularly common. But yes, lots of weak spots.

What’s your height, weight, general fat level, and specific goal? “Reasonable strength” isn’t a goal. Be concrete and specific.

6’2"
190 lbs
BF 15%

Goal is aesthetic symmetry and useful, functional strength. I’d like to be able to do muscle ups on the rings and have a good strength to weight ratio.

Also, what does your entire current training plan look like - the days, exercises, sets, and reps?

It’s a split week with(usually) three leg days, two upper body days and sometimes more.

What specific injuries are you working around and what movements, specifically, are you unable to do? Yes, I’m asking a lot of questions so far, but the info will help us give you better input.

Back injuries(discs) and sore joints - shoulders, hips and knees. I do shoulder dislocations and built up my shoulder mobility for pull ups but they still hurt and crack doing push ups, dips, pull ups etc.

Unless “ATG” has taken on a new meaning that I’ve never heard before, the human body is physically unable to do an “ATG” Bulgarian split squat. So I have no idea how you’re mangling that exercise.

I just mean deep to the point where the backs of my thigh is resting on my calves almost - ie, physically can’t go lower without my ass on the ground.

Again, if you’re going “well below parallel” on Bulgarian split squats, your back leg is setup way high and you’re actually increasing the potential risk.

Maybe I’m using the wrong name. I do one legged squats below parallel and hold my other leg up straight in front and squat down low.

So you can do moderate to higher rep squats?

Yes, but I can’t do them too often and I get pelvic pain when I go deep. I need to work on my hip flexors as my pelvis stability isn’t great under load and shear forces.

There’s significant benefit to those. Not everything in the gym should be heavy/low rep, and certainly not every body should be lifting that way. An open mind will bring greater progress.

I hope so.

Depending on your actual goal, this isn’t really a bad thing.

It’s worked well so far for building up a bit of strength and balance / stability.

… because you’re a beginner, and an injured beginner at that. Again, this is why “targeting weak spots” makes little sense. Sure, work around your injuries as needed, but keep to a general training plan, not some overly-specific hyper-targeted routine for imaginary deficiencies.

Yes, I know beginners should focus on full body but I just think my time is better spent focusing more on lower body and the common weaknesses like lats. I’m better off doing more work on lats than triceps because my triceps are a lot stronger than my lats. But I do work my whole body - just with more attention on the weakest spots.

Have you been trying to get bigger by increasing your daily calories and focusing on ample high-quality protein?

Yes, I think it’s actually the rep range that the single leg work I do happens to be in for me. All the stuff was really hard at first so I could only do one or two one legged squats for example and now I can do sets of 5 or so. So I’m in a low rep range for hypertrophy. But as I work my way up towards higher one leg reps I’ll gain more mass.

You don’t need shock, you need consistency with a good plan.

I thought some of the stuff I’ve been doing might be getting a bit repetitive. Now that I’ve got bodyweight, one legged squats down pat I was thinking maybe adding something new and difficult might force my body to adapt. But yes, I know consistency is important. I don’t miss training even when I’m sick like now with the flu.

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Dude, you’re all over the place. Take a breath and focus. Your current stats and specific goal will inform us on how to approach nutrition.

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I want to gain mass and strength, lower body in particular, lat strength, core strength and just work towards symmetry and size. My diet is roughly 3000 calories daily at 190lbs of which about 45% is protein, 40% fats and 15% or less carbs. Carbs from vegetables and a few slow carb cereals or grains in the morning. I’m losing bodyfat and gaining strength but not as much mass / size as I expected. But I think part of it is too low a rep range for unilateral legwork I’ve based my training around so far.

Total opposite. Fat loss and strength gains are two of the easiest things to objectively notice. Photographs, measurements, and performance in the gym don’t lie.

Okay. I don’t really talk to anyone at the gym though. I’m just in and working then out the door.

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What You Don't Know About Workout Supplements

What, exactly, did you eat yesterday?

1st Eggs and a little cereal(muesli - unsweetened but with a little dried fruit in it)

2nd protein shake 30 grams protein 8 grams carbs

3rd chicken breast crumbed and fried crispy x 2 and bacon x 2 and some greens

4th protein shake with egg in it

5th and 6th - salmon with greens and carrot for dinner and some olives and nuts later + fish oil

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Stop that. Follow a well-designed plan.[/quote]

Okay. I was just curious about the idea of double days on the same muscle group to hit it hard then giving it enough time to rest / recover.