When it comes to cycling, your quads and calves receive a lot of credit for powering your pedal stroke, but lets not for get about the importance of your hamstrings.
After all, your hamstring muscles play a vital role in knee flexion and hip extension, which means they too play an important role in your pedal stroke. Without enough hamstring strength—and without hamstring-strengthening exercises on your schedule—you may not max out your power potential.
The Benefits of Hamstring-Strengthening Exercises for Cyclists
Your hamstrings are made up of three muscles: the biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus. And they work hardest when you pull your leg up from the bottom of the pedal stroke.
They’re responsible for “flexing your knee and extending your hip joint during the entire pedal stroke,” says Paul Warloski, a USA Cycling level 3 coach with Simple Endurance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you don’t have enough strength to facilitate that push-and-pull motion, you’re never going to get the power you need for efficient riding.
Your hamstrings also engage during the downstroke to provide some power and stabilize and guide the knee and foot back to the starting point, says Warloski. Stabilizing the knee, especially when your leg is extended at the end of the pedal stroke, is crucial: This joint helps transfer power from the large muscles in your hips and thighs to your lower legs and feet, and often bears the brunt of the repetitive nature of cycling.
The problem? When you’re sitting on a bike for hours (or sitting too long in any scenario, really) it puts your hips into a flexed position, which keeps your glutes and hamstrings in a stretched state.
Over time, this can lead to something called gluteal amnesia, or dead butt syndrome—where the glutes, which should be the most powerful muscles in your lower body, don’t fire adequately (or at all), explains Seamus Sullivan, C.S.C.S., a certified strength and conditioning specialist and performance health coach in Los Angeles. Then the hamstrings get overstressed, because they’re picking up the slack for the glutes. All of that can manifest in perennially tight hamstrings for cyclists.
Stretching can help—but strength training is equally important in staving off soreness. “Having strong hamstrings is key for cyclists during the pedal stroke,” says Sullivan. “It also helps with overall work capacity and mitigation of overuse injuries.”
To build your hamstring strength, Warloski recommends strength training at least two times per week, until about a month before your first big event or race season starts (then, once a week using heavier weights is good for maintenance). These hamstring strengthening exercises will prime you for your time in the saddle, diffusing tightness and building killer leg strength.
The Best Hamstring-Strengthening Exercises
When starting strength training, be careful with the weight you choose and the number of repetitions you do (don’t be afraid to start with bodyweight until you nail the proper form). “We don’t normally stress the hamstrings like this, and they will get sore!” says Warloski. “Fatigue the next day is good, extreme soreness is not and a sign that recovery will take longer and you’ll lose adaptation.”
You should do this workout after a cycling session. “I usually tell clients to do their interval session in the morning and the strength training in the evening,” says Warloski. “Our legs will already be a bit tired from the morning session. But we don’t care how much weight we lift, just that the lifting builds the stress and fatigue.”
How to use this list: Shoot for two sets of eight to 12 repetitions of these exercises. “Your goal is to build some fatigue in the hamstrings so that you finish the set with the sense you could do three or four more repetitions by the end of the second set. The first set allows you to figure out what weight you should use, the second set should end with fatigue,” Warloski says.
Kristine Zabala, Philadelphia-based fitness instructor at Barry’s and regional training manager at Solidcore, demonstrates each exercise so you can learn proper form. You will need a set of gliders (or towels), a stability ball, a mini band, and a set of dumbbells. An exercise mat is optional.
1. Slider Curls
- Lie faceup, knees bent, and heels planted on sliders underneath feet.
- Drive through heels, contract the glutes, and lift hips up toward the ceiling. Body should form a straight line from shoulders to knees. This is the starting position.
- Slowly extend one leg out straight, then pressing heel into the floor, pull heel back toward glutes. Keep hips high.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Continue alternating. If this is too easy, do both legs at one time.
2. Hamstring Roll-Outs
- Lie faceup with heels on an exercise ball.
- Raise hips off the ground, knees in the air and directly over hips. This is the starting position.
- Push the ball away from glutes, straightening legs but keeping knees soft.
- Pull heels back toward glutes, rolling the ball in and returning to starting position. Keep hips lifted and core engaged.
- Repeat.
3. Nordic Curls
- Start kneeling with feet secured by a partner or under a weight. Maintain a straight line from head to knees (you can have a slight bend in hips).
- Lower torso towards the ground as far as you can using only upper legs, then use hands to catch yourself on the floor.
- Squeeze glutes and hamstrings to pull body back, shoulders over hips (use hands to help initiate the upward movement if needed).
- Repeat.
4. Single-Leg Band Kickbacks
- Loop one end of a resistance band around a low anchor point or opposite ankle.
- Loop the other end around opposite leg below knee or right above ankle (the lower it is, the more difficult the move will be).
- Bend slightly at the waist and use a chair or wall for balance. This is the starting position.
- Extend one leg backward in a sweeping motion then pause and squeeze glutes at the top. Lower leg to starting position.
- Repeat. Then switch sides.
5. Split-Stance Romanian Deadlift
- Stand with feet hip-with apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and step into a split stance with left foot forward and right foot back.
- With a slight bend in knees, hinge at hips by sending butt straight back and lower the dumbbells down to mid-shin. Maintain a flat back and engaged core.
- Push through feet to extend hips and stand back up.
- Repeat. Then switch sides.
6. Weighted Good Mornings
- Stand with feet hip-width apart. Hold a bar or dumbbell on shoulders, hands holding it behind head.
- Hinge at hips by sending butt straight back and slowly lower torso until hamstrings tighten.
- Pause, then squeeze glutes and push through feet to stand back up.
- Repeat.
7. Single-Leg Glute Bridge
- Lie faceup, knees bent, feet planted, arms down by sides on the floor. Lift right leg up toward the ceiling, keeping both knees aligned.
- Engage glutes and drive through left foot to lift hips up.
- Slowly lower hips back to the floor.
- Repeat. Then switch sides.
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