Hamstrings
Musculi ischiocrurales
// Structure & location
The group includes the biceps femoris on the outside and the semitendinosus and semimembranosus on the inside. Except for the short head of the biceps, all arise from the ischial tuberosity, the bone you sit on. They cross the knee and insert on the fibula and tibia. You can feel their tendons on either side of the back of the knee.
// Function
Because they cross two joints they have two jobs: they bend the knee and extend the hip, according to OpenStax as when kneeling or moving the thigh down and back. In sprinting they brake the forward-swinging lower leg at the end of every stride.
// For training & sport
- Romanian deadlifts train hip extension in the stretched position.
- Lying or seated leg curls train knee flexion.
- Nordic curls: kneeling with the feet held down, you slowly lower the upper body forward.
// Good to know
Hamstring strains are the most common muscle injury in sprint sports. In a meta-analysis of more than 8,000 athletes, prevention programmes including Nordic curls roughly halved the injury rate (van Dyk et al., 2019).
// Sources
- LehrbuchOpenStax – Anatomy and Physiology 2e, 11.6 Appendicular Muscles of the Pelvic Girdle and Lower Limbs ↗
- Meta-Analyse 2019van Dyk et al. – Including the Nordic hamstring exercise halves the rate of hamstring injuries (Br J Sports Med) ↗