Hamstring Stretch
How to do the hamstring stretch
- Lie on your back with one leg extended above you, with the hip at ninety degrees. Keep the other leg flat on the floor.
- Loop a belt, band, or rope over the ball of your foot. This will be your starting position.
- Pull on the belt to create tension in the calves and hamstrings. Hold this stretch for 10-30 seconds, and repeat with the other leg.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the hamstrings, which extend the hip and bend the knee, frequently at both joints in the same repetition.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Every exercise for:Hamstrings
How this movement works
You get into position and hold. One joint sets the angle and one muscle group takes the tension, so the load stays exactly where you put it. Hold for time, breathe normally, and come out the moment the position drifts: a shape that has quietly shifted is no longer training what you set it up to train.
It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
What you need
These train the hamstrings too, using equipment this one does not:
- Hamstring-SMRfoam roll
- Hang Snatchbarbell
- Inchwormbody only
- Kettlebell Dead Cleankettlebell
- Lying Leg Curl Machinemachine
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 86 hamstrings exercises in this database, 37 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.