Weak Hamstrings, Weak Pulls: Still Chasing the Wrong Muscles

Weak Hamstrings, Weak Pulls: Still Chasing the Wrong Muscles

Every lifter wants a stronger deadlift. Every coach wants to fix your posterior chain. And every algorithm wants you doing more glute bridges.

You’ve seen the trend: Glute bias. Hip thrust worship. Hip Banded everything.

And yet… For all the glute bridges, cable kickbacks, and high-rep RDLs out there, most lifters are still stuck.

No PR. No carryover. No real improvement.

Because here’s the hard truth nobody wants to say out loud:

It’s not your glutes that are holding you back. It’s your hamstrings.

Most lifters today are chasing the pump, not performance. They’re chasing what looks good on Instagram—not what actually drives results on the platform.

And what they’re ignoring—what they’re barely even training—is the muscle group that forms the foundation of any serious hinge:

The hamstrings.

Not just for curling. Not just for flexing. But for anchoring the hips, stabilising the spine, and snapping the body open when it matters most.

If you’re deadlifting without dominant hamstrings, you’re already capped. If your posterior chain work doesn’t start with hamstring development, your pull has a ceiling.

And if you’re still chasing glute pumps instead of hinge strength— It’s time to stop lying to yourself about why your numbers haven’t moved.

You Pull with Your Hamstrings: The Real Role of This Forgotten Muscle Group

Everyone talks about glutes. Everyone loves to cue “hip drive.” But when it comes to pulling serious weight off the floor, most lifters have it backwards.

If you want a deadlift that actually moves, stop thinking about the glutes as the engine—and start thinking about the hamstrings as the drivetrain.

💡 The Hamstring’s Real Role in Strength

Let’s get this straight right now:

The hamstring isn’t just a leg curl muscle. It’s not just the thing that cramps when you sit too long. And it’s not a decorative muscle for sweatpants season.

The hamstrings are a biarticular muscle group. That means they cross two joints—the hip and the knee. Which makes them functional linchpins in nearly every compound movement that matters.

They don’t just contribute. They coordinate, stabilise, and drive some of the most important positions in strength sport.

Here’s what they actually do:

✅ Hip Extension Work with the glutes to drive the hips forward—but with different leverage, angles, and timing. They don’t just “help”—they initiate the hinge.

✅ Deadlift Posture and Tension At the start of the deadlift, it’s your hamstrings that create the stiffness behind the knee and up into the glute. Weak hamstrings? You’ll fold, your hips will shoot, and your spine will take over.

✅ Braking Force in the Eccentric In both the squat and deadlift, hamstrings act as the brakes. They control descent, prevent collapse, and stop you from crashing through sticking points on the way down.

✅ Snapping Force in the Concentric The glutes don’t start the pull. The hamstrings do. Think of it like a whip—your hamstrings are the first crack, initiating the motion and transferring force through the chain.

✅ Timing and Coordination Hamstrings don’t work in isolation. They sequence with glutes, erectors, and core to create real power. And when they’re weak or out of sync, nothing else fires right.

🧠 Why This Matters for Deadlift Performance

If your hamstrings aren’t tight, braced, and ready to pull at the bottom of a deadlift, the rest of your setup is just noise.

You’ll either:

• Get pulled out of position by the bar

• Shoot your hips and round your spine

• Or try to “squat” the pull and stall at the knee

Your glutes can’t fix this. Your lats can’t save it. Your fancy belt or shiny knee sleeves won’t mean shit.

“You pull with your hamstrings. Your glutes just finish it.”

This is the missing link in 90% of stuck deadlifts—and it’s the muscle group most lifters forget to actually train, isolate, and build with purpose.

If your program isn’t hamstring-dominant yet, it’s time to fix that. Because you don’t just train with your hamstrings. You pull with them.

Absolutely—here’s the next standalone article written in your voice, ready for publishing as part of the series:

What Most Lifters Get Wrong About Hamstring Training

There’s a reason your hamstrings are still weak—and it’s not just because you skip leg day.

It’s because most lifters—and most programs—treat the hamstrings as an afterthought.

Everyone loves to squat. Everyone’s doing glute bridges, RDLs, and hip thrusts. But when it comes to developing real posterior chain dominance—the kind that moves weight and prevents injury—almost everyone is leaving the hamstrings behind.

Let’s break down where the average program goes wrong.

❌ Hamstrings as a Finisher, Not a Priority

This is the first and biggest issue.

The average lower body session is quad- and glute-dominant by default. Think about it:

• Squats? Quads and glutes.

• Lunges? Quads and glutes.

• Hip thrusts? Pure glute drive.

• Step-ups, split squats, machines? You get the idea.

Hamstrings, if they’re trained at all, get tossed in at the end as a “finisher.” Maybe a few sets of high-rep curls if you’re feeling virtuous. Maybe some fast-tempo RDLs that are more about the pump than the pull.

That’s not development. That’s neglect.

❌ RDLs Done Too Light, Too Fast

Now let’s talk about the golden calf of posterior chain training: the Romanian Deadlift.

Yes—it’s a great hinge movement. Yes—it can build the hamstrings.

But most lifters butcher it.

• They go too light.

• They move too fast.

• They turn it into a glute-dominant swing with no eccentric control.

The result? No stretch, no tension, no actual hamstring recruitment.

RDLs only work if you train them heavy, slow, and with absolute positional control.

And even then, they’re just one piece of the puzzle—not the full solution.

❌ No Knee Flexion Work at All

Here’s the part no one talks about:

The hamstrings are responsible for both hip extension AND knee flexion.

If you’re only training the hip extension part (hinges, deadlifts, swings), you’re missing half the function of the muscle group. And that’s a problem—not just for strength, but for injury prevention.

Knee flexion movements like leg curls, Nordic curls, razor curls, and banded hamstring work are essential for bulletproofing the knees, hips, and back.

Yet most lifters abandon them completely. Why?

Because they’re hard. Because they burn. Because they don’t feel as “cool” as deadlifts.

Tough. Train them anyway.

❌ Zero Speed or Concentric Work

One of the biggest takeaways from Westside and EliteFTS is this:

You need to train your hamstrings dynamically—not just heavy and slow.

Most lifters never train their hamstrings with any kind of intent toward bar speed, force production, or concentric drive. That’s a huge miss, especially if you’re an athlete or a competitive lifter.

• Sled pushes and pulls

• Dynamic effort good mornings

• Reverse hypers with explosive intent

• Standing banded curls with speed and rhythm

These build real-world hamstring function—reactive, responsive, and explosive. The kind you need when the bar slows down or when your position breaks down during a heavy pull.

🧠 The Takeaway

If your hamstrings are weak, it’s probably not genetics. It’s probably not your deadlift setup. It’s your training.

You're not loading them. You're not isolating them. You're not challenging them where they’re actually responsible for force.

Hamstrings are not a finisher. They’re a foundation. And if they’re not a primary training target in your week, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Here’s your next standalone article in the series, written with your voice, purpose, and blunt clarity:

💪 What Strong Hamstrings Actually Do

Why They’re the Missing Link in Explosive, Resilient Strength

There’s a difference between having hamstrings and having strong hamstrings. The kind that pop off the bone. That carry the slack when your hips rise early. That stop you from folding under pressure—literally and metaphorically.

Most lifters treat hamstrings like a supporting actor. But if you train for powerlifting, strongman, or anything involving heavy pulls, you need to start treating them like the f***ing lead.

Here’s what strong hamstrings actually do—beyond just looking good in shorts.

🛡️ 1. Prevent Lumbar Collapse Under Load

That moment in a squat or deadlift when your spine turns into a question mark?

Yeah. That’s not a “weak core” issue. That’s usually a hamstring failure.

When your hamstrings can’t hold tension under load, your pelvis dumps forward, your glutes can’t fire, and your spinal erectors get overworked trying to hold everything together. Cue the low back pain, the ugly reps, and the eventual stall in progress.

Strong hamstrings anchor the posterior chain. They keep you locked into position when the bar wants to pull you forward.

💥 2. Build Explosive Hip Extension and Bar Speed

Everyone loves “hip drive” until they realise the glutes don’t work in isolation.

Your hamstrings—especially the long head of the biceps femoris—are key drivers of explosive hip extension, especially when coming out of the hole or pulling from the floor.

Strong hamstrings don’t just help you stand up. They help you snap. That’s what gives you bar speed. That’s what gets you through sticking points. That’s what keeps a near-maximal lift from turning into a grindfest.

🔑 3. Act as Prime Movers, Not Just Stabilisers

The modern trend is to treat hamstrings like stabilisers—something you warm up, isolate, and “activate” before the real work.

That’s backwards.

The hamstrings are prime movers. They’re the muscle that does the hinge—not just supports it.

When you get serious about pulling weight, flipping stones, or moving under load, the hamstrings aren’t passively hanging out. They’re driving the movement, resisting collapse, and coordinating with glutes and spinal erectors to make shit move fast and safe.

🦾 4. Reduce Injury Risk in Sprinting, Jumping, and Strongman

Want to stay uninjured?

Train your hamstrings like they matter.

• Sprinting? They absorb and produce force every stride.

• Strongman medleys? They’re what keep you from folding halfway through a yoke carry.

• Deadlift for reps? They’re your injury buffer and your endurance engine.

Every explosive or high-speed movement that loads the posterior chain depends on hamstring strength and fatigue-resistance.

Weak hams = high-risk hips, knees, and low backs. It’s that simple.

🚀 5. Provide the “Pop” Off the Floor and Out of the Hole

When you see someone blast out of the hole in a squat or rip a deadlift off the floor like it’s glued to them, you’re watching hamstring power in action.

It’s the first responder of heavy lifting.

That initial drive—the one that sets the tone for the rest of the rep—comes from the hamstrings loading and firing violently. If they’re soft, your hips shoot up and the bar doesn’t.

If they’re strong and fast? You explode out of bottom positions and control the eccentric like you’ve got brakes made of Kevlar.

🧱 6. Improve Trunk Rigidity Through Co-Contraction

Here’s a bonus for the nerds: Strong hamstrings co-contract with the glutes and erectors to stabilise the trunk.

This matters in real-world lifts, where posture isn’t just about the spine—it's about the whole chain resisting collapse or deviation under load.

That tightness you feel at the bottom of a clean good morning rep? That’s your hamstrings locking into your brace. It’s not just tension—it’s structural integration.

Hamstrings aren’t just movers. They’re scaffolding. They build the posture you need to finish a PR lift without shaking like a drunk giraffe.

🧠 Hamstrings and Lumbar/Trunk Stability

• McGill, S. (2007). Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation. 🔎 Repeatedly references hamstring control in preventing anterior pelvic tilt and shear forces on lumbar spine.

• Ebben, W. P., et al. (2008). "Hamstring activation during lower body resistance training exercises." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22(2), 465–473. 🔎 Demonstrates high hamstring engagement in exercises requiring trunk rigidity (e.g., good mornings).

• Schuermans, J., et al. (2014). "A conceptual framework for the role of hamstrings in running." Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 24(4), e1–e14. 🔎 Explores how hamstrings integrate into spinal alignment and propulsion during explosive movement.

🔁 Bonus: They Help You Repeat Maximal Output

This isn’t just about strength. It’s about repeatable strength.

In strongman, you don’t just pull once. You do it again. And again. And then you push a truck. And then you load a bag.

Fatigue-resilient hamstrings are the difference between being strong once and being strong all event.

They support your bracing, preserve your hinge mechanics, and keep you upright when the rest of your body is begging to quit. That’s how you dominate reps events and stay explosive in the final 30 seconds.

If your hamstrings aren’t your MVP, you’re training wrong.

They protect your spine. They power your hips. They make you faster, more explosive, and harder to break.

Train them like they matter—and you’ll find your whole body starts performing better.

Here’s the next standalone article in the Weak Hamstrings, Weak Pulls series—designed to educate, reframe common priorities, and set up your deadlift program and coaching offer with practical, blunt value:

🔄 Stop Glute Chasing. Start Hamstring Training.

The Movements You Actually Need if You Want a Stronger Pull

For the last 5 years, everyone’s been obsessed with glutes. Bridges. Thrusts. Band abductions. RDLs at 40% with a mirror pump.

Meanwhile? Deadlifts are stalling. Pulling form’s breaking down. Hamstrings are getting sidelined—and lifters are wondering why their posterior chain isn’t firing.

Let’s fix that.

If you actually want a stronger pull, bulletproof posture, and real posterior chain strength, you need to start training hamstrings like they’re your primary movers. Not a finisher. Not a rehab tool. Not an afterthought.

Here’s how.

🔹 Good Mornings

The Posterior Chain Builder Most Lifters Avoid

If you’ve followed any of my recent programs, you’ll know one thing: I’ve been programming good mornings everywhere—for a reason.

Why? Because they do everything glute bridges don’t. They’re top-down loaded. Eccentric-heavy. Demanding. And they build a posterior chain that doesn’t fold under pressure.

Done right, the good morning annihilates the hamstrings, erectors, and glutes in sequence, while reinforcing hinge mechanics and midline tension. You can’t fake them—and that’s why they work.

Key variations I use:

• SSB Good Mornings — crush the upper back and midline.

• Cambered Bar Good Mornings — more range, more hinge, more hamstring.

• Seated Good Mornings — pure erector and hamstring isolation.

• Banded Good Mornings — high rep, low load, incredible blood flow.

Rotate them. Load them. Respect them. They’re not just squat or deadlift accessories—they’re the foundation.

🔹 Reverse Hypers

The Westside Secret That Still Gets Slept On

Louie Simmons once called it the “best hamstring pump you’ll ever feel.” And he wasn’t wrong.

The reverse hyper—done properly—isn’t a low-back swing. It’s a controlled, explosive hip extension drill that loads the hamstrings under stretch while keeping the spine decompressed.

It doesn’t just build strength. It builds durability.

Keys to get it right:

• Don’t go ultra heavy. Keep the movement snappy and controlled.

• Focus on ROM and contraction. Let the legs swing back, not just up.

• Add volume. This is one of the few lifts that recovers fast and benefits from high frequency.

Use it for recovery. Use it for hypertrophy. Use it for force development. Just use it.

🔹 Sled Pulls & Drags

Low Fatigue. High Hamstring Reward.

Want to hammer your hamstrings without wrecking your spine?

Sled work is your answer—especially for strongman, GPP, and fatigue-resistant posterior chain training.

Why they work:

• Concentric-only = less soreness, faster recovery.

• Force production under posture = better deadlift starting position.

• Mimics event mechanics = especially heavy sled pushes and backward drags.

Try this combo:

• Heavy sled push → backward drag finisher. You’ll feel your hamstrings light up without needing to touch a barbell.

Don’t treat sleds as fluff. Treat them as force builders—especially for the pull.

🔹 Leg Curls and GHRs

Unsexy. Underrated. Absolutely Essential.

You don’t skip triceps if you want to press. So why are you skipping hamstring isolation if you want to pull?

The hamstrings are a biarticular muscle group. That means you need to train them at both joints:

• Hip extension (good mornings, hypers)

• Knee flexion (leg curls, GHRs)

If you’re not building knee flexion strength, you’re leaving a gaping hole in your posterior chain development—and your injury risk is creeping up with every pull.

My favourites:

• Seated leg curls for full range and hypertrophy

• Lying leg curls for peak contraction

• Glute-ham raises for dynamic control and eccentric strength

Westside logic is simple:

“The hamstrings should be the most trained muscle on the body.” And if you deadlift heavy? That goes double.

Glutes are great. But they’re not the main event.

Your hamstrings are the anchor. The driver. The real reason your pull succeeds—or fails.

It’s time to stop chasing glute pumps and start programming with purpose. If you want to build a deadlift that’s strong, fast, and doesn’t break your spine, you’ve got to make your hamstrings the MVP of your posterior chain.

Start with these movements. Stack them smart. And if you’re not sure how? You know where to find me.

Absolutely—here’s your next standalone article in the Weak Hamstrings, Weak Pulls series:

📈 Programming Hamstrings for Pull Progress

What to Do When You’re Serious About Getting Stronger

Let’s cut straight to it:

If you want your deadlift to go up, your hamstrings need to become a priority, not an afterthought.

Not a fluff finisher. Not “if there’s time after glutes.” Not a half-assed RDL before hopping on the pec deck.

Real hamstring training—programmed with intent—is what separates strong lifters from frustrated ones. Here’s how to do it properly.

🧠 Twice a Week. Minimum.

You’re not going to build meaningful strength hitting your hamstrings once a week with 3 sets of machine curls.

You need frequency, volume, and variation.

Minimum standard? ▶️ Two dedicated hamstring-dominant sessions per week.

That doesn’t mean full leg days. It means sessions—accessory segments or full lower body days—where the primary goal is posterior chain development, specifically targeting the hamstrings.

Strong pullers train their hamstrings like lifters train their bench—with a plan, progression, and clear weekly touch points.

🔄 Rotate by Function: Hip Extension + Knee Flexion

The hamstrings are biarticular—they cross both the hip and the knee. So if your programming only includes hip extension (e.g. RDLs, good mornings), you’re missing half the puzzle.

Split your weekly work like this:

🔹 Hinge-Based Movements (Hip Extension)

• Good Mornings

• Reverse Hypers

• Romanian Deadlifts (heavy + tempo)

• Kettlebell Swings

• Cambered Bar Pull-Throughs

These build power, hinge coordination, and that heavy posterior chain demand.

🔹 Flexion-Based Movements (Knee Flexion)

• Seated Leg Curls

• Lying Leg Curls

• Glute-Ham Raises

• Nordic Curls (advanced)

• Banded Hamstring Curls

These strengthen the part of the hamstring that most lifters completely ignore—and that gets injured most often.

Rotate between these functions across the week. One day hinge-dominant. One day flexion-dominant. Both days contributing to posterior chain integrity.

🔁 Include Concentric-Only Work (Low Fatigue, High Benefit)

Eccentric loading is great—but it comes with fatigue. To build volume without frying your nervous system, you need concentric-only tools.

This is where the magic happens.

Concentric-Only Staples:

• Sled Pushes and Drags

• Reverse Band Good Mornings

• Banded Standing GM Reps (High Rep)

• Prowler Pulls

• Sled Hamstring Curls

These drills build volume, blood flow, recovery, and tissue resilience—especially for strongman competitors or powerlifters in high-skill blocks.

Use them as:

• Finishers

• GPP tools

• Light recovery days

• Movement pattern reinforcement

No soreness. No recovery debt. All gain.

🥇 Prioritise Hamstrings First if Deadlift Is the Goal

This is where most people get it wrong:

They’ll train quads and glutes, blow themselves up with RDLs or step-ups… And then chuck in leg curls at the end like it’s 1998.

Stop that.

If your goal is deadlift progress—or posterior chain power in general—hamstrings come before glutes and quads in your accessory sequence.

That doesn’t mean don’t train those other groups. It means stop sacrificing the muscle group that has the most direct pull-specific carryover.

🔂 Example: Posterior Chain Accessory Setup (Twice Weekly)

Here’s how I often structure it in my programs:

Day 1 (Hinge-Focused)

1. Cambered Bar Good Morning – 4×5

2. Reverse Hyper – 3×20

3. Seated Leg Curl – 3×12 (controlled tempo)

4. Heavy Sled Drag – 4×30m

   
   

Day 2 (Flexion & Speed Focus)

1. Glute-Ham Raise – 3×8

2. Lying Leg Curl – 3×10

3. Banded Good Mornings – 4×25

4. Kettlebell Swings – 3×20 (light + fast)

You’ll notice:

• Hamstring isolation is high in the order.

• Volume is deliberate.

• There’s both tension and speed.

• Work capacity and blood flow are built in.

“Don’t just add leg curls at the end of your workout and call it hamstring training.”

Put them second in your rotation—right after your primary lift. Go heavy. Go slow. Hit 3–4 progressive sets. Track the weight. If you can’t feel them the next day, you didn’t work hard enough.

This Is How You Build Pull Strength That Lasts

Programming hamstrings isn’t complicated. But it is essential—and most people still aren’t doing it right.

Train them hard. Train them often. Train them like your deadlift depends on it.

Because it does.

Absolutely—here’s the next standalone article in the Weak Hamstrings, Weak Pulls series:

🧱 The Strength Athlete’s Hamstring Hierarchy

What to Prioritise, When, and Why

When people finally do decide to train their hamstrings properly, the next question is always the same:

“So… what exercises should I actually be doing?”

Here’s the honest answer: You need all of them—but not at the same time, and not with the same intent.

Building hamstrings that actually move the needle in your deadlift, squat, and strongman performance means understanding where each movement sits in your training structure.

That’s where the Hamstring Hierarchy comes in.

This is the framework I use to program for competitive strength athletes. It’s simple. It works. And you can apply it immediately.

🔺 Top Tier: Heavy + Intent-Based Strength Builders

These are the big guns. The movements that demand intent, tension, and control. They train the hamstrings in the context of full-body bracing, posterior chain integration, and hinge mechanics.

They should be trained with moderate-to-heavy loads, low-to-mid reps (5–8), and total focus. These are your main accessories—the lifts that build the base.

✅ Best Used For:

• Posterior chain overload

• Max effort or primary accessory

• Direct carryover to deadlift/squat

🧱 Top Tier Movements:

• Cambered Bar Good Mornings Massive hinge pattern under high tension. Built-in instability. Direct transfer to pulling mechanics.

• Reverse Hypers Louie’s favourite. Controlled ROM with violent hip extension. Pump, volume, and recovery rolled into one.

• Glute-Ham Raises (GHR) One of the only movements that trains both hip extension and knee flexion simultaneously.

• RDLs with Pause or Tempo Too many people rush these. Slow them down and you’ll light up hamstrings like never before.

◼️ Mid Tier: Volume + Coordination Work

This tier builds movement quality, coordination, and high-tension volume without frying your CNS. Think of these as the middle meat of your posterior chain sandwich—essential for durability and technique.

They’re perfect for medium rep ranges (8–12) and are ideal to cycle in once your top-tier work is done.

✅ Best Used For:

• Volume accumulation

• Eccentric control

• Coordinated hinge patterning

• Weakness targeting

🧱 Mid Tier Movements:

• Sled Drags (Backward or Diagonal) Low fatigue, high motor recruitment. Perfect for athletes and deadlifters alike.

• Seated Good Mornings Strips out the knees and ankles. Pure spinal erector + hamstring tension. Great for rehab and motor control.

• Nordic Drops (Controlled Eccentric) Brutal, effective, and brutally effective. Builds eccentric strength where most hamstrings fail.

🔗 Bonus Insight: Hamstrings Don’t Work Alone—Watch the Calves Too

There’s a missing link that most lifters (and coaches) ignore: your hamstrings and calves don’t just live next to each other—they co-contract to stabilise the knee and support trunk posture during loaded movement.

The gastrocnemius, one of your calf muscles, crosses the knee just like your hamstrings. When both are weak, you’re not just risking hamstring strain—you’re compromising knee integrity, ankle stiffness, and your ability to stay upright under awkward loads.

This matters most in:

• Yoke carries and stone loads (where foot pressure and posture meet tension)

• Deadlift lockouts (where co-contraction stabilises knee extension)

• Sprint or medley events (where the posterior chain must act like a spring)

Hamstring isolation is essential. But don’t forget the chain they're part of.

▪️ Base Tier: High-Rep Recovery & Reinforcement

This tier isn’t about load—it’s about longevity. These movements create blood flow, build structural resilience, and keep your hamstrings healthy under volume.

Use them for warm-ups, recovery days, post-comp fatigue cycles, or at the end of a high-effort session. They’re deceptively valuable—even when they’re light.

✅ Best Used For:

• High-rep finishers

• Warm-ups / prep

• Recovery & rehab

• Technical patterning

🧱 Base Tier Movements:

• Banded Good Mornings Posterior chain “spinal floss.” Do 100 of these and tell me it’s not real training.

• Leg Curl Variations (Seated, Standing, Lying) Machines don’t build grit—but they do build specific strength in knee flexion. Essential volume work.

• 45° Back Extensions (With Hamstring Focus) Slightly round, controlled movement focusing on hamstring tension—not spinal extension.

🧠 How to Use the Hierarchy

Use this framework to build your week:

1. Top Tier = Primary Accessory

   • Usually placed after your main lift (ME or DE).

   • Go heavy, controlled, and with full intent.

2. Mid Tier = Volume Builder

   • 2nd or 3rd accessory.

   • Focus on movement quality and controlled reps.

3. Base Tier = Pump & Pattern

   • Finishers, warm-ups, or GPP/recovery days.

   • High rep, high intent, low load.

By rotating across this hierarchy, you can train the hamstrings for:

• Strength

• Volume

• Fatigue resistance

• Recovery

• Injury prevention

That’s how you build deadlift-proof hamstrings—not just mirror muscles.

Absolutely—here’s the final article in the Weak Hamstrings, Weak Pulls series:

🔥 You Can’t Out-Glute Weak Hams

The Truth About What’s Really Holding Back Your Pull

Walk into any gym right now, scroll through TikTok, or flick through a glossy fitness mag, and what do you see?

Glute day. Booty bands. Hip thrust PRs. And yet… most of those people can’t deadlift 140kg without shaking like a leaf.

Here’s why:

The glutes aren’t your limiter. Your hamstrings are.

🧠 Everyone’s Training for the Mirror

The average lifter is chasing aesthetics—not performance. They’re following trends, not physics. And that’s fine—if you’re training for photos.

But if you’re training to compete, to build a back that doesn’t break, to actually get stronger?

That glute obsession is costing you kilos on the bar.

You’ve got a beautiful glute bridge and a set of banded kickbacks that would make an influencer blush—but your pull from the floor is soft, your hinge is lazy, and your spine folds as soon as things get heavy.

That’s not a glute problem. That’s a hamstring problem.

💀 The Deadlift Doesn’t Lie

When your hips shoot up too early, your chest drops, or your bar path goes to hell—it’s not because your glutes didn’t “activate.”

It’s because your hamstrings and erectors couldn’t maintain position.

It’s because your posterior chain isn’t integrated.

It’s because you’ve spent 18 months smashing out barbell glute bridges while skipping every single leg curl or tempo RDL your program told you to do.

You can’t fix bad posture with butt work. You fix it with strength—deep, coordinated, fatigue-resistant strength.

💥 Build Strength, Not Just Shape

Let’s be real: the internet’s definition of posterior chain training is a joke.

You don’t need:

• More 30-rep donkey kicks

• More mind-muscle connection “burnouts”

• More glute-focused circuits with a 6kg kettlebell

You need a program that trains the whole system—under load, under fatigue, and with intent. That means:

✅ Hamstring-dominant hinges 

✅ Reverse hypers, good mornings, GHRs 

✅ Sled pulls and eccentric tempo work 

✅ Posterior chain training that makes you stronger, not just sore

🧠 Bottom Line?

You don’t need more glute bridges—you need hamstrings that won’t fold under pressure.

Because if your pull isn’t aggressive, upright, and tight, it’s not your glutes—it’s your back and hams collapsing.

The difference between lifters who look strong and lifters who are strong?

Hamstrings that hold up under 300kg—on a platform, not a pink yoga mat.

👊 Ready to Actually Train Like a Lifter?

If you're tired of spinning your wheels with influencer workouts and want a real program built around your posterior chain, not just your pump…

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Reference List

1. Camara, K. D., Coburn, J. W., Dunnick, D. D., Brown, L. E., Galpin, A. J., & Costa, P. B. (2016). An examination of muscle activation and power characteristics while performing the deadlift exercise with straight and hexagonal barbells. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 30(5), 1183–1188. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001190 → Supports the role of hamstrings in hip and spinal stability during loaded lifts.

2. Physiopedia. (n.d.). Deadlift Exercise. Retrieved from https://www.physio-pedia.com/Deadlift_Exercise → Discusses how deadlifts challenge the posterior chain and emphasizes hamstring and erector synergy to maintain spinal alignment.

3. Squat University. (2018, June 21). The McGill Big 3 for Core Stability. Retrieved from https://squatuniversity.com/2018/06/21/the-mcgill-big-3-for-core-stability/ → Reinforces the need for trunk and posterior chain integration to avoid lumbar collapse under load.

4. Hanrahan, J. (n.d.). Hip Hinge Exercises – Romanian Deadlifts & Squats. Jack Hanrahan Fitness. Retrieved from https://jackhanrahanfitness.com/hip-hinge-exercises/ → Explains the hip hinge as a foundation for posterior chain strength, emphasizing hamstring control for lower back integrity.

5. Mitchell Holistic Health. (n.d.). Squats & Deadlifts Causing Back Pain? Find Out Why. Retrieved from https://mitchellholistichealth.com/back-pain-squats-deadlifts-causes-solutions/ → Identifies muscle imbalances and weak hamstrings as contributors to poor squat and deadlift posture and lumbar strain.

Reference List

1. Camara, K. D., Coburn, J. W., Dunnick, D. D., Brown, L. E., Galpin, A. J., & Costa, P. B. (2016). An examination of muscle activation and power characteristics while performing the deadlift exercise with straight and hexagonal barbells. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 30(5), 1183–1188. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001190 🔎 Supports the role of hamstrings in maintaining spinal alignment and generating force during deadlifts, especially under different bar conditions.

2. Ebben, W. P., Feldmann, C. R., Dayne, A. M., Mitsche, D., Alexander, P., & Knetzger, K. J. (2008). Hamstring activation during lower body resistance training exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22(2), 465–473. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e31816347b2 🔎 Demonstrates high levels of hamstring activation during good mornings and Romanian deadlifts—essential for developing trunk rigidity and posterior chain control.

3. Hanrahan, J. (n.d.). Hip Hinge Exercises – Romanian Deadlifts & Squats. Jack Hanrahan Fitness. Retrieved from https://jackhanrahanfitness.com/hip-hinge-exercises/ 🔎 Emphasises the importance of hamstring control in hip hinge execution and its impact on spinal integrity under load.

4. McGill, S. M. (2007). Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 🔎 Details the role of hamstring stiffness and strength in reducing anterior pelvic tilt, shear forces, and lumbar strain—especially under load.

5. Mitchell Holistic Health. (n.d.). Squats & Deadlifts Causing Back Pain? Find Out Why. Retrieved from https://mitchellholistichealth.com/back-pain-squats-deadlifts-causes-solutions/ 🔎 Identifies weak hamstrings as a common contributor to spinal collapse during compound lifts and outlines their role in injury prevention.

6. Physiopedia. (n.d.). Deadlift Exercise. Retrieved from https://www.physio-pedia.com/Deadlift_Exercise 🔎 Discusses posterior chain recruitment during deadlifts and the importance of hamstrings in trunk positioning and spinal support.

7. Schuermans, J., Van Tiggelen, D., Danneels, L., & Witvrouw, E. (2014). A conceptual framework for the role of hamstrings in running. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 24(4), e1–e14. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12175 🔎 Explores how hamstrings coordinate with the spine and pelvis to stabilise and propel the body during athletic tasks—highly relevant to trunk rigidity under dynamic load.

8. Squat University. (2018, June 21). The McGill Big 3 for Core Stability. Retrieved from https://squatuniversity.com/2018/06/21/the-mcgill-big-3-for-core-stability/ 🔎 Summarises McGill’s core stability methods, reinforcing the concept that spinal stiffness is achieved through coordination of posterior chain muscles, especially the hamstrings.