If you have weak hamstrings, then there’s a strong chance you’re not maxing out on your strength potential for squats and deadlifts. Plus, lack of hamstring eccentric strength is a known cause of hamstring strains. Paying attention to them is great for performance, aesthetics, and injury prevention.
Since the hamstrings are extensors at the hip and flexors at the knees, they play an important role in your performance, so it pays to train both ways.
With some help from multi-powerlifting world record holder Dr. Stefi Cohen, DPT, we break down the best hamstring exercises below for performance, strength, and hypertrophy.
15 Best Hamstring Exercises
- Lying Leg Curl
- Hamstring Slide
- Toes-Elevated Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
- Dumbbell Good Morning
- Razor Curl
- Single-Leg Stability Ball Curl
- Nordic Hamstring Curl
- Eccentric Hip Extension Hamstring Curl With Sliders
- Kettlebell Swing
- Glute-Hamstring Raise
- Barbell Good Morning
- Romanian Deadlift
- Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
- Cable Pull-Through
- Banded Hamstring Curl
Meet Our Expert
In the video below, former BarBend Editor Jake Boly demonstrates five of the following moves as Dr. Cohen walks you through how and why to do them.
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1. Lying Leg Curl
The lying leg curl is underappreciated, and it’s often done with poor form. But when performed correctly and with a full range of motion, this exercise strengthens your hamstring and calf muscles. Keep your hips and upper body steady to ensure that you’re only moving from your hamstrings.
Benefits of the lying leg curl include improving your hamstring flexibility and isolating your hammies altogether without relying on supportive muscles like the glutes or lower back.
How To Do It
- Lie face down on the leg curl machine. Slip the backs of your ankles under the pad and keep your hips down. Draw the belly button inwards to avoid movement compensations.
- Curl the weight towards your glutes.
- Lower slowly to maximize time under tension during the eccentric portion. Rinse and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Actively press your pelvis into the pad.
Sets and Reps: Try 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.
2. Hamstring Slide
The hamstring slide makes use of your hamstrings in their function as a hip extender and a knee flexor. This hamstring exercise is easier than the razor curl (see below).
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You may opt to start with this one to boost your eccentric hamstring strength to help prevent hamstring strains. Another benefit is that it requires no weight to load the muscle, so it’s joint-friendly.
How To Do It
- Lie down on your back with your legs bent at 90 degrees and your heels underneath your knees. The heels should be on a pair of workout sliders. If you’re doing this at home, you can place your heels on a pair of socks on a hardwood floor.
- Squeeze your glutes to raise your hips and lower your heels away from your body until your legs are almost fully extended.
- Flex your hamstrings to bring your heels back underneath your knees and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: If you’re doing this at home, you can place your heels on a pair of socks on a hardwood floor.
Sets and Reps: Go for 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions.
3. Toes-Elevated Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Romanian deadlifts are a great accessory exercise for deadlifts and add strength and mass to your glutes and hamstrings. The toes-elevated variation takes this to a new level.
Elevating the toes shifts the weight back on your heels, further isolating and strengthening your hamstrings. And when performed with a slow eccentric, it’ll help reinforce strength in a lengthened position to ward off unwanted strains.
How To Do It
- Find a 25-pound bumper plate or low platform to elevate the toes and bring the feet close together.
- As you hinge, reach the dumbbells out so they’re tracking over the toes instead of keeping them close to the body.
- Control the eccentric tempo to feel the stretch properly.
- Pause for a second in the bottom position, then hinge back up.
Coach’s Tip: You needn’t elevate your toes too high. Half an inch to an inch of height should do the trick.
Sets and Reps: Try out 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.
4. Dumbbell Good Morning
The barbell good morning exercise is a great movement to load the hamstrings, but not everyone has the shoulder mobility to reach behind them to stabilize the barbell. Or, after all the compressive/shear load on the spine from squatting and deadlifting, your spine needs a break.
Enter the dumbbell good morning, which engages the anterior core, trains the same muscles as the barbell version but without the load on your spine. Having the weight anteriorly makes you more aware of upper body positioning too.
How To Do It
- Hold a heavy dumbbell against your chest, keeping your shoulders down and chest up.
- Maintaining a soft bend in your knees, hinge at your hips until your torso is almost parallel to the ground, keeping your back in neutral.
- Pause for a second and return to the starting position. Repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Squeeze your lats to help keep the dumbbell firmly against your torso.
Sets and Reps: Bang out 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions.
5. Razor Curl
The razor curl is a slight twist on the Nordic curl that has you maintain flex hips. Flexing the hip allows for a more intense contraction of the hamstring at the hip and a more forceful contraction of the hamstrings at the knee.
Plus, it’s been shown to decrease the susceptibility of anterior cruciate ligament injury. But be warned, this exercise is advanced and should be performed when you have built up your eccentric hamstring strength. (1)
How To Do It
- Have a training partner hold your feet or use a barbell/piece of equipment to anchor your lower body.
- Slightly flex your hips and hold this position for the entire exercise.
- Fall forward while controlling the eccentric and lightly touch the ground.
Coach’s Tip: Use your hands to assist on the concentric if you’re starting to help make it easier.
Sets and Reps: 1 to 2 sets of 3 to 5 repetitions is more than enough.
6. Single-Leg Stability Ball Curl
The single-leg hip extension hamstring curl also helps work your hamstrings are both extensors and flexors (for your hips and knees respectively). The unstable element added by working with a stability ball forces you to be more disciplined with your technique and makes your stabilizer muscles work harder.
When you emphasize the eccentric with this exercise, you’ll go a long way to bulletproofing your hamstrings. (2) This drill is also a great exercise for runners as the stability ball mimics the unevenness of road running.
How To Do It
- Lie on your back, place both feet on a stability ball with one leg bent, and engage your glutes.
- Raise your hips and lift one leg off of the ball. Now, curl the ball toward your butt with the working leg.
- Slowly reverse the movements and lower your hips to the floor. Repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Go extra slow to prevent the ball from sliding around.
Sets and Reps: Try 2 to 3 sets of up to 10 repetitions on this one.
7. Nordic Hamstring Curl
Similar to the razor curl and a little easier to do — but not by much — the Nordic hamstring curl is the real deal. The eccentric strength of your hamstrings is the only thing stopping you from crashing face-first on the floor.
This hamstring exercise has been shown to decrease the risk of hamstring injuries by 51 percent compared with those who didn’t do it. (3) That’s a hefty improvement, especially if your hamstrings are prone to strains.
How To Do It
- Kneel on both knees.
- Engage your hamstrings, glutes, and abs. Keep your back neutral.
- Slowly lean forward, using only your hamstrings until you catch yourself with your hands or gently reach the ground.
- Push yourself back up. Repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Secure your ankles with equipment or have a partner hold them for you.
Sets and Reps: 1 to 3 sets of up to 5 repetitions is plenty.
8. Eccentric Hip Extension Hamstring Curl With Sliders
There is no concentric contraction with this hamstring curl variation, which means you’re focusing exclusively on the lengthening of your hamstrings. That’s crucial for deadlifting strength and control.
It also means that this hamstring exercise is a great starting point when you’re looking to improve your eccentric hamstring strength.
How To Do It
- Lie down on your back. Keep a neutral spine. Bend your knees. Place sliders underneath your heels. Point your toes toward the ceiling.
- Squeeze your glutes to raise your hips. With control, slowly press your heels down and out. Straighten your legs until they’re on the ground.
- Slide your heels back. Repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your glutes contracted throughout the entire range of motion.
Sets and Reps: You should see results from 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions.
9. Kettlebell Swing
Kettlebell swings train your hamstrings to be powerful hip extensors, which you definitely need for a strong deadlift lockout. Plus, swinging a kettlebell trains stability and stabilizer muscles across your entire body. That’s because you’re constantly adjusting to the shifting center of mass with each repetition.
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The kettlebell swing trains your hamstrings for power, strength, and endurance at all once. It also improves hip extension strength and power, which can help improve your deadlift lockout.
How To Do It
- Stand with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Place the kettlebell just in front of you.
- Hinge down to grip the kettlebell. Squeeze your armpits. Raise your chest.
- Hike the kettlebell behind you. Thrust your hips forward. Use this momentum to swing the kettlebell.
- Finish by squeezing your glutes and quads as the kettlebell reaches chest height. Repeat in a continuous loop for reps.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your arms relaxed and don’t lift the kettlebell with your shoulders at the top.
Sets and Reps: Work up to 3 to 5 sets of as many as 25 unbroken swings at a time.
10. Glute-Hamstring Raise
The glute-hamstring raise (GHR) develops eccentric strength in your hamstrings and builds killer hamstrings and glutes. The lower back, hamstrings, and glutes are working together as a unit which is often the case for a lot of exercises that involve the hamstrings.
The GHR is a great hamstring exercise that can be performed for high rep sets with body weight to increase glute, hamstring, and lower back hypertrophy. It also develops eccentric strength in your hamstring to help make you more resilient against hamstring strains.
How To Do It
- Adjust the GHR so your feet are secured, and your quads are resting on the middle of the pad, making sure you have enough space to lower your torso. Keep your knees bent at 90 degrees and your body straight.
- Push your toes into the pad and extend your knees. With your arms folded across your body slowly lower your torso forward until you are horizontal.
- Return to the starting position by contracting your hamstrings. Reset and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Brace your core to maintain a consistent spinal position.
Sets and Reps: Try 1 to 3 sets of up to 8 repetitions with good form and a slow tempo.
11. Barbell Good Morning
The barbell good morning exercise trains your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings as a unit. You’ll put your glutes and hamstrings through a big range of motion to increase your muscle-building potential while boosting your posterior strength.
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This move requires a lot of shoulder mobility to keep the bar in place. If that’s an issue for you, feel free to switch it up to dumbbell good mornings. In either case, the good morning is a phenomenal way to tax your hamstrings without relying on ultra-heavy weights.
How To Do It
- Set up a loaded barbell in a power rack. Position and unrack the bar as though you were going to perform a back squat.
- Walk the bar out.
- With a slight bend in your knees, hinge at your hips. Keep your chest up and shoulders down. Hinge until your torso is almost parallel to the floor.
- Contract your glutes and hamstrings to bring you back to standing. Reset and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Isometrically contract your upper back to pull the bar into your body as you hinge over.
Sets and Reps: Try 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions.
12. Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is a close cousin of the standard deadlift. But instead of going all the way to the floor between reps, RDLs will have you stop the bar at mid-shin level.
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This tweak keeps constant tension on your hamstring and glute muscles. That tension makes RDLs a better option for adding mass to these muscles.
How To Do It
- Stand tall with your feet hip-distance apart. Grip the barbell with an overhand grip in front of the thighs. Keep your chest up and shoulders down.
- Take a deep breath in. Hinge until the barbell is just below your knees. Keep your lats engaged.
- Squeeze your glutes to hinge back to a standing position. Reset and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Always keep the barbell close to your body without dragging it up your legs.
Sets and Reps: 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 repetitions will work wonders here.
13. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
The single-leg RDL is quite a tricky lower-body movement, but it’s worth it if you can pull it off. Working with one leg at a time forces you to slow down the eccentric.
That builds all-important eccentric hamstring strength to bulletproof your hamstrings. Master this move with bodyweight exercises first before adding load — because falling flat on your face will not be your finest moment.
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How To Do It
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Pick one foot up off the floor. Find balance on your grounded foot.
- Soften your working knee. Keep your chest up and shoulders down. Hinge your hips back.
- Hinge until your belly button is facing the floor. Stabilize and return to the starting position.
Coach’s Tip: Try not to rotate your working hip upwards.
Sets and Reps: 2 or 3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions per leg is a great place to start.
14. Cable Pull-Through
The cable pull-through is a pure hip hinge exercise that trains your glutes and hamstrings. You’ll have constant tension throughout the range of motion since you’re working with cables.
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The cable pull-through forces you to sit back in your hips and will strengthen glute lockout strength. Since you won’t be loading your lower back, this is also a helpful exercise for athletes wanting to add glute and hamstring volume while taking it easy on their lumbar spine.
How To Do It
- Attach a rope to the cable set on its lowest setting. Turn around and face away from the machines with the rope attachment between your legs. Face your palms toward each other.
- Take a few steps away from the machine until you feel the tension in the cable.
- Set your feet hip-width apart. Hinge down while keeping a neutral spine.
- Squeeze your glutes to reverse the movement. Reset and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your arms relaxed and perform this movement solely with your posterior chain.
Sets and Reps: Try 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps.
15. Banded Hamstring Curl
One major advantage of the banded hamstring curl is the ascending resistance of the band. The further the band stretches, the harder your hamstrings have to work.
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With a regular machine or weighted variation, the move gets easier toward the top. Conversely, this move will get harder. That way, you’re training a more complete range of motion, seriously boosting muscle growth potential.
How To Do It
- Anchor a looped resistance band to a sturdy object. Lie on your stomach with your feet hip-width apart.
- Face away from the anchor. Put your feet on either side of the band, looping them securely around your heels.
- Squeeze your glutes to flatten your lower back. Pull your heels towards your glutes.
- Stop when you cannot pull any further. Slowly lower to the starting position and repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your hips and quads on the ground.
Sets and Reps: 2 or 3 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions should do nicely.
4 Hamstring Workouts to Incorporate
Wondering how to string your hamstring exercises together into hamstring workouts that can help take your deadlift to the next level? These sessions can help elevate the backs of your legs to the front of your program.
Hamstring Workout for Strength
While you probably won’t be performing Romanian deadlifts to test your max strength, training your hamstrings can still make you a lot stronger. Even if your primary training goal is to test your 1RM, isolating your hamstrings has a lot of carryover potential into your big lifts.
Implement this hamstring workout after squatting if you want to keep it to one leg day per week. Or, if you’re emphasizing your quads on your first leg day of the week, you can program these moves on your lower body pull day. If that’s the case, consider these accessory moves after deadlifting.
On the other hand, if you want this workout to stand alone, you can go a little heavier on Romanian deadlifts and treat it like your primary lift of the day.
- Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 6 – 8
- Dumbbell Good Morning: 3 x 8
- Lying Leg Curl: 3 x 10
- Single-Leg Stability Ball Curl: 3 x 12 per side
For dialing in your hamstring strength, focus on a tight and controlled eccentric portion with a rapid, explosive change of direction at the end of your range of motion.
Best Hamstring Workout For Mass
They might not be as glamorous as teardrop quads, but having big hamstrings can be an important part of lower body muscle hypertrophy. If your goal is to build a big lower body, keeping your strength and muscle balance as even as possible will help ensure healthy development.
You can perform this workout after you hit the big barbell lifts, or on its own dedicated day. Your choice will depend on what kind of workout split you’re working with and how exclusively you want to focus on your hamstrings.
- Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 12 per side
- Glute-Ham Raise: 3 x 12
- Lying Leg Curl: 3 x 15
- Kettlebell Swing: 3 x 30 seconds
Rest for shorter periods between sets than you do when you’re training for strength — at least 60 seconds, but no longer than two minutes.
Hamstring Workout for Beginners
Even if you’re just starting out in strength sports, you can still train your hamstrings specifically. As long as you’re prioritizing your recovery and warming up well before training, hamstring workouts can help form the habit of focusing on your posterior chain.
Folks new to the gym tend to make the mistake of focusing on the muscles they can see in the front of their bodies rather than the back. Intentionally working on your hamstrings, especially when you’re new to strength training, can help you ensure that you develop a balanced, aesthetically-pleasing physique long-term.
Perform this workout once or twice a week, depending on how well your body is responding to the training. If you’re finding it difficult to recover after sessions, it’s okay to keep this to once per week. Rest between 90 seconds and three minutes between sets, and make sure you’re thoroughly warmed up before starting.
- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 10
- Reverse Hyperextension: 3 x 10 – 12
- Machine Leg Curl: 3 x 15
- Hamstring Slide: 3 x 15
Bodyweight Hamstring Workout
It might feel a little awkward to train your hamstring workout with just your bodyweight, especially if balance isn’t your strong suit. That can actually be a good incentive to try something new and introduce a novel stimulus to your body. Working with your bodyweight will improve your kinesthetic awareness and get you better at balance while also strengthening your hamstrings.
Start by performing this workout once or twice a week, depending on your goals and the quality of your recovery. If these moves don’t feel too taxing, you can integrate this workout into your program up to three times a week. Making it part of your warmup can be especially beneficial.
- Glute-Ham Raise: 3 x 15
- Nordic Ham Curl: 3 x 15
- Single-Leg Stability Ball Curl: 3 x 12 per side
- Hamstring Slide: 3 x 15
- Hip Airplane: 3 x 15 per side
To keep the intensity high and create as much of a stimulus as possible, going extra slow on the eccentric portion is wise. The extra time under tension from slowing down your reps can help make up for the lack of external load.
Hamstrings Warm-Up
It is important to warm up the hamstrings for the work ahead to improve performance and prevent injury. You’ll improve circulation to the hamstrings, zone in mentally, and prime your body to lift heavier weights. You need to pay special attention to your hamstring if you’re performing exercises that demand eccentric strength like hinges and sprinting.
Stretching them will not cut it. Instead, perform exercises that gradually lengthen your hamstrings as part of your warm-up. Your hamstrings will thank you:
- 5 to 10 minutes of low-intensity steady state cardio.
- Dynamic hamstring stretches or soft-tissue mobilizations.
- 2 to 3 sets of lightly loaded hip hinging movements such as kettlebell deadlifts or the prone leg curl.
How to Train Your Hamstrings
Your hamstrings are more complex than you might think. In fact, their biarticular — that is, they cross two joints — nature enables everything from your deadlift workouts to your gait cycle when you walk, jog, or sprint. To make the most out of your hamstrings training, you need the right movements in the right dosages.
Hamstrings Exercise Selection
Your hamstrings cross both the knee and hip joints. To train them thoroughly, you should select exercises that load motion at both of those joints. Make sure you choose both a knee-focused and hip-focused hamstrings exercise to perform during your workouts.
For instance, the prone leg curl machine fixes your hips in place while your knee joint opens and closes. Check. You could also perform any hinge movement before or after, which involves bending at the hips while your knees remain largely motionless. This guarantees that you’re training both of your hamstrings’ principal functions.
Hamstrings Sets and Reps
Your hamstrings are like any other muscle group in your body. If you want to strengthen them, drop your rep count and work with heavier loads. Need more endurance for your sport or daily living? Ante up on reps and trim your rest times accordingly.
- To Increase Strength: Select 1-2 exercises and perform 3 to 5 sets of 4 to 8 repetitions with heavy weights and good form.
- To Build Muscle: Go for 2 to 3 exercises that tax your hamstrings thoroughly, performing 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 repetitions.
- To Gain Endurance: 1 to 3 exercises with high rep counts in the 10 to 20 realm should do the trick; perform 2 to 4 sets.
Hamstrings Training Tips
Your hamstrings should make up roughly half of your overall leg training. That’s a lot to get done on a weekly basis; the last thing you want is for that work to go to waste due to subpar technique. Keep these hamstrings tips in mind to ensure you’re squeezing every drop of value from your workouts.
Emphasize the Stretch
Emerging research indicates that some muscles, particularly your hammies, appear to respond quite well when you emphasize the eccentric portion under load. (4) When possible and within the parameters of good form, take a few extra seconds to pause at the bottom of your hamstrings exercises when the tissues are at their greatest point of stretch.
Don’t Squat (for Your Hamstrings)
Contrary to popular belief, most squatting exercises are downright subpar for hamstrings growth and development. Why? Because of their biarticular nature.
Consider your hamstrings a rubber band that fastens across two hinges; your knee and hip joints. If you move one but keep the other locked, the band stretches. However, flex both joints simultaneously, and you put slack on the band and, consequently, your hamstrings.
This is why most squatting movements that involve both knee and hip flexion won’t do much for your hamstrings in the first place. If you want to beef up your posterior chain, don’t fill your workouts with a bunch of squats.
Use Straps
During hinge movements like the Romanian deadlift in particular, the last thing you’ll want to do is short-change your hamstrings stimulation because you can’t hold onto the barbell or dumbbell you’re working with any longer.
Your hamstrings are much larger and more powerful than the small muscles in your hand and forearm; don’t let those tiny tissues limit the potential in your hammies. Strap up for heavy deadlift movements and train your grip separately.
Benefits of Training Your Hamstrings
Training your hamstrings will go a long way in keeping your knees healthy. As the hamstrings attach to the pelvis, their length and strength play a role in hip/torso positioning and good posture. Here are a few other important benefits of training your hamstrings.
Injury Prevention
Hamstrings strains don’t happen when the knee is flexing concentrically. They happen when they extend eccentrically. It’s been shown that eccentric knee flexor exercises reduce the risk of hamstring strains because of improvements in eccentric knee flexor strength and the length of the biceps femoris. (1)
Without sufficient hamstring strength, you can develop strength and size imbalances between the quadriceps and hamstrings, which increases injury risk to the knee and hamstring.
Run Faster and More Efficiently
Strength training the hamstrings helps you run faster by improving your neuromuscular coördination, power, and VO2 max. It also improves your running economy through better movement coördination and stride efficiency. (5)
Improved Deadlift and Squat Technique
If you have a strength imbalance between your hamstring and quads, strengthening your hamstrings will improve your eccentric control on hinges and squats and your lockout strength on deadlifts.
What Muscles Make Up the Hamstrings
Your hamstrings consist of three muscles, and understanding what they are and how they work is important in obtaining a stronger posterior. The hamstrings are a group of three muscles on the backs of your thigh: the biceps femoris (long and short head), semitendinosus, and semimembranosus.
- Biceps Femoris: Connects from your shin to your pelvis and is responsible primarily for bending, or flexing, the knee.
- Semitendinosus & Semimembranosus: Also connect from shin to pelvis and assist the biceps femoris in both hip extension and knee flexion.
Level Up Your Leg Day
When it comes to finding the best bodybuilding leg workouts out there, you can’t get away with skimping on hamstring exercises. If you want a strong pair of tree trunks, you simply have to hop on board the hamstring train. Whether you’re doing isolated hamstring workouts or just adding more emphasis on your hammies to your regularly-scheduled leg day, don’t forget to pay attention to the backs of your thighs. Your deadlift numbers will thank you.
References
- Gretchen D Oliver 1, Christopher P Dougherty The razor curl: a functional approach to hamstring training. J Strength Cond Res 2009 Mar;23(2):401-5.
- Matthew N Bourne et al. An Evidence-Based Framework for Strengthening Exercises to Prevent Hamstring Injury. Sports Med. 2018 Feb;48(2):251-267.
- Wesam Saleh A Al-Attar et al. Effect of Injury Prevention Programs that Include the Nordic Hamstring Exercise on Hamstring Injury Rates in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2017 May;47(5):907-916.
- Pedrosa, G. F., Lima, F. V., Schoenfeld, B. J., Lacerda, L. T., Simões, M. G., Pereira, M. R., Diniz, R. C. R., & Chagas, M. H. (2022). Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths. European journal of sport science, 22(8), 1250–1260.
- M Chtara et al. Effects of intra-session concurrent endurance and strength training sequence on aerobic performance and capacity. Br J Sports Med. 2005 Aug; 39(8): 555–560.
