The Best Hamstring Exercises, Ranked
Seven exercises for the back of your thighs, both hip hinges and leg curls, in the order worth trying them, plus every other hamstring exercise in the library.
By Jobri Fitness
The short answer
Your hamstrings bend the knee and extend the hip, so train both jobs: a leg curl for the knee and a hinge such as the Romanian deadlift for the hip. Squats alone don't cover them.
The 7 best hamstring exercises
Romanian Deadlift
BarbellThe main hip hinge for the hamstrings: you lower the bar along your legs with a slight knee bend until you feel a strong pull in the back of your thighs.
How to do it: Romanian DeadliftAlso with: Dumbbell, Smith machine, Kettlebell
Seated Leg Curl
MachineBends the knee against resistance, the hamstrings' other job. Seated, your hips are bent, so the hamstrings start each rep from a longer position than in the lying curl.
How to do it: Seated Leg CurlMachine only
Prone Leg Curl
MachineThe lying version of the leg curl. A good choice if your gym has no seated machine, or as a second curl.
How to do it: Prone Leg CurlMachine only
Deadlift
BarbellTrains the hamstrings along with the glutes and back, and lets you lift more weight than any other exercise here.
How to do it: DeadliftAlso with: Dumbbell, Smith machine, Kettlebell
Good Morning
BarbellA hinge with the bar on your back that loads the hamstrings hard with fairly light weights. Learn it light.
How to do it: Good MorningAlso with: Smith machine
Nordic Hamstring Curls
BodyweightLowering your body forward from a kneeling position with your feet anchored is one of the hardest hamstring exercises; the band-assisted version builds up to it.
How to do it: Nordic Hamstring CurlsBodyweight only
Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
DumbbellOne leg at a time trains balance along with the hamstrings, and it needs only one dumbbell.
How to do it: Single-Leg Romanian DeadliftAlso with: Kettlebell, Bodyweight
How these are ranked
The order alternates hinges and curls so the top picks already cover both things the hamstrings do. Within each, exercises that are easy to load in small steps and easy to track come first. Nordic curls are near the bottom only because they're hard to scale; if you have the strength for them, they're a strong pick.
How much hamstring work you need
The number of hard sets you do each week matters more than which exercise you pick. How many sets per week to build muscle covers the numbers, and how to get bigger legs puts them into a plan. The training volume calculator counts your weekly sets per muscle, and the workout plan generator builds a week around them.
All 31 hamstring exercises
- Band Leg Curl
- Band Pull-Through
- Band Romanian Deadlift
- Band-Assisted Nordic Hamstring Curl
- Cable Pull-Through
- Clean
- Clean and Jerk
- Clean and Press
- Clean Pull
- Deadlift
- Deficit Deadlift
- Glute Ham Raise
- Good Morning
- Hang Clean
- Kettlebell Swing
- Nordic Hamstring Curls
- Power Clean
- Prone Leg Curl
- Prone Single-Leg Curl
- Rack Pulls
- Romanian Deadlift
- Seated Good Morning
- Seated Leg Curl
- Seated Single-Leg Curl
- Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
- Sliding Leg Curl
- Snatch
- Standing Leg Curl
- Stiff-Leg Deadlift
- Sumo Deadlift
- Trap Bar Deadlift
Log your sets in GymEvo
Log every set, see what you lifted last time, and follow your estimated one-rep max on the free progress chart.