Dear Chris,
I am writing to you because we are always too busy in the gym to talk. Which I guess is a good thing. I enjoyed your first two articles in the Cape Gazette and am glad you will be writing for the paper. I will do as I did with Dave’s articles and get all my ladies to read them weekly.
Lastly, I have a question. One of my clients asked me about the ratio between the quad and the hamstring. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but I thought you might. She said something like the quad should be around 60% and the hamstring should be 40%. How do you measure that? Do you know anything about these ratios? I’ve never read anything about this anywhere.
Beth
Dear Beth,
It’s great to hear from you. You are right; it seems that we are always too busy training people to get a chance to share ideas.
As far as your question goes, your client is talking about the difference in strength between the quadriceps- the four muscles in the front of the thigh- and the hamstrings-the muscles in the back of the thigh. There are many opinions on this issue but most experts believe that the hamstrings should be at least 55-60% as strong as the quadriceps. The problem is that it is difficult to measure this. One way to measure it would be if a person can do 100 pounds on the leg extension, they should be able to do at least 55-60 pounds on the leg curl. This test would show that the hamstring – the back of the thigh- is around 55-60% as strong as the quadriceps-the front of the thigh. It’s ok if the hamstrings are stronger than 60% because it makes the body more even. However, if the muscles in the back of the thigh are only 20% as strong as the muscles in the front of the thigh there is a much greater chance for injury. This is particularly true for athletes because of the stress they put on the knees while running. If your hamstrings are weak your knees will pay the price.
Most people don’t like to work their weaknesses. However I have found that these weaknesses can be turned into strengths if we target the areas that need the most help. If the hamstrings are weak, maybe they should be worked at the beginning of the work out when we have the most energy instead of the end when we are tired. You could even add different exercises to make sure that the hamstrings get enough work. My favorite hamstring exercises are seated leg curls, lunges, stiff leg dead lifts and lying leg curls. Running back words is also a great way for athletes to add hamstring work into their training.