Hams

Hamstrings, mine are killing me! I am sore from Friday, and I have been rolling and stretching but it just takes time for the soreness to subside.


After being so sore for so long I decided to look into it. It was those snatch-grip deadlifts on a platform that I was doing on Friday.


I chose Roy as my trainer because he is Poliquin certified. I guess he took his certification all too seriously! Well, according to Charles Poliquin, the snatch-grip deadlift, his #1 go-to lift, is also called The "deadlift from hell" according to T-Nation. 


Here is an excerpt from the interview several years ago:

"The snatch-grip deadlift, specifically a snatch deadlift on a four inch  platform. The idea here is to get a large range of motion by standing on the  platform and using the wide grip.

If you told me you were going to jail and only had a barbell and didn’t want to get raped in the showers and could only do one exercise to put mass and strength on, then I’d tell you to do the snatch deadlift on a platform.

This exercise alone makes people gain weight like crazy. Any time I have someone who needs to gain weight fast and doesn’t have a whole lot of time, I have them do snatch deadlifts. And with the snatch grip deadlift, straps are okay because you’ll be doing reps above three, but don’t use them until you get to your working weight.

If you think about it, this is the opposite of the sumo deadlift, which shortens the range of motion. Likewise, some powerlifters will lift in ballet shoes to shorten the ROM. What we want to do here is lengthen it. The snatch grip and platform will take care of that."

interview from tnation.com

Some people believe that you should never train quads and hamstrings together, others feel it's fine. 

I am of the camp that says go for it- train both quads and hams on the same day BUT, be sure to train the proper one first. Hamstrings.

Hamstrings are fast twitch muscle fibers, they contract best when the central nervous system is fresh. 

Fast twitch muscles fatigue quickly but they produce a lot of force in a short amount of time.

So for hamstrings you should be doing super heavy weights, low reps, several sets. Training hamstrings for 12 to 20 reps and light weights will not recruit these muscles and they will not grow. You really need to blast these muscles.

Also, saving your hams for after your quads is a bad idea, the muscles will be too fatigued to recruit- it's wasted time in the gym.

Calves? The gastrocnemius (upper calf) is mainly fast twitch muscle fibers so you want to train that before the soleus, so train the gastrocnemius first then do your seated calf raises.