Big lifts don’t always require heavy weights for them to be effective. As you saw in my article for bodyweight moves for quads, the right lifting hacks can be game changers for the value they bring to your workout, especially if you’re a big lifter who carries a lot of muscle and weighs over 200 pounds.
The same rings true when it comes to your posterior chain musculature. In my work, many clients come to me for the first time thinking their glutes and hams are strong because they’ve got a heavy deadlift. It only takes a few biomechanical mods and exercise shifts to expose weak links they didn’t know they had — these bodyweight exercises for hamstrings and glutes among them.
Again, this article will contain Instagram videos showing you how to properly executive each move. Read along for helpful tips on how to properly do them before giving them a shot.
Pandemic or not, these moves belong in your arsenal for a healthy and strong backside.
Lee Boyce is a personal trainer, speaker, fitness writer and college professor based in Toronto, Canada. He is the owner and operator of leeboycetraining.com and works with clients and athletes for strength, conditioning, and sport performance. With a background as a varsity level sprinter and long jumper in university amid his kinesiology studies, he now brings plenty of that experience and anecdote to the lectures and workshops he delivers around North America to help make trainers and fitness professionals more effective at their jobs. Follow him on all social media @coachleeboyce .
This movement is probably the king of bodyweight posterior chain drills, and something many lifters are already familiar with but don’t program enough (or at all). The reason? Because they’re hard.
Securing your feet under something immovable and then performing slow eccentrics for the hamstrings absolutely blast the fast twitch muscle fibers that the hams are jam packed with. When doing these, just remember a few rules:
Use low reps. When we’re talking fast twitch fibers and eccentrics, they go hand in hand with single digits. Sets of 4-8 are perfect for a lift like this. If you want more volume, add more sets. Not more reps.
Focus on a 5 – 10 second eccentric on each rep. That’s how you’ll really build strength.
Protect your knees. Note my setup: I’ve got a platform and a thick mat for comfort. Doing this on the solid floor won’t feel pleasant, and nobody needs that.
Protect your Achilles tendon. This is something most people don’t talk about when coaching the GHR. The place that should be in contact with the support is the heel bone – not the Achilles (gastrocnemius) tendon. I’ve found that many lifters’ tendons are very sensitive and can easily be aggravated; mine included. Making this distinction can be a real X factor in making this movement only affect the target muscles.
If you’re stuck at home, or you don’t have joints that can tolerate barbell good mornings, using a band can be a great alternative. These work well as a primer or finisher for posterior chain work, and I like them for a few reasons. First, the tension increases as the band stretches. That means you don’t have to bear the same load and endure the same forces on the spine at the bottom, where it’s most vulnerable and susceptible to injury.
Second, it’s a terrific training tool to help master the hinge pattern. Seriously. When the band is back around your neck, it’s a great tactile cue to keep your posture, and very difficult to forfeit good technique. Third, for lifters with gummy shoulders or elbows, it’s a great bonus not to have to reach back behind the shoulder for yet another exercise. So that’s a win-win.
And by the way — if you think that this exercise is an N/A just because the band is around the neck, this is your chance to get stronger.
The L Bridge is a purely bodyweight exercise that takes two planes of force into account. It’s insanely effective at targeting both the glute maximus and medius due to the lateral shift the raised leg undergoes. The further it moves from the body, the more work the glute of the planted leg must do to keep the hips elevated while also remaining square and avoiding rotation. Most programs do very little to train the lateral plane of motion. Let this serve as a start.
This move doubles as a way to improve hip mobility; if you can’t get your raised thigh to be parallel with the floor, it may speak to poor hip mobility (especially if there’s a discrepancy between legs). You may be surprised at how humbling this movement is.
Focus on sets of 8 to 10 slow tempo reps (as seen), and feel free to use them as their own glute exercise, or as an activation tool before a lower body workout. You’ll be glad you did.
For a bionic posterior chain, you’ll want to incorporate these.
People don’t realize how difficult it is to maintain a bridge position on your back, especially once they’ve wasted plenty of time building up to a five-minute prone plank on the elbows and toes.
Adding a small movement with the extremities (like I am here with a controlled neutral grip DB chest press) makes for a true total body exercise that promotes very healthy movement and good posture. Focusing on sets for time rather than reps is a smart way to approach this, to keep emphasis on a solid bridge position, contracting the glutes and disallowing the hips from sagging. Start with 20-30 seconds.
If you want to spice it up, then try adding a pullover pattern to hit the core hard, or take things to the next level by making a unilateral effort with a march.
The 2-to-1 curl challenges beginners and fitness experts alike due to the unilateral aspect of the negative rep. Rolling the ball in to the body may be easy with two legs, but it’s a very different hit do to it one-legged, and proves to be an exercise that few people are “too strong” for.
In this case, all you’ll need is a stability ball, but if you don’t have one, doing them with a towel on a slippery floor could do the job too.
Speaking once more of lateral plane work, I’m including this even though it’s not purely a hamstring, glute, or lower-back exercise.
The inner thighs and obliques play a very large role in stabilizing the lower limbs and creating healthy biomechanics. As mentioned earlier, not enough is done in programs to address the lateral plane, and this isometric hold is one that can serve a workout routine well. You’ll notice how humbling it is as soon as your hips start to sag after the first 15 seconds of effort.
Quick tip: The goal should be to maintain 90-degree angles wherever possible. As you can see in my video, my knees are both at 90 degree, as are the angles at my elbow and shoulder joints. Don’t rest the foot of the front leg on the bench; it makes it way easier and defeats the purpose. Keep it free.
