I don’t know how to explain myself.
But I’ll try: What I would like to know, and can’t find anywhere, if there is a % that can estimate hamstring / quadriceps ratio.
For example if I can lift 20 kg on quadriceps what should I be able to lift on hamstrings in order to have my legs in balance.
If anybody understands and knows what I’m talking about, please don’t hesitate to answer.
Thank you in advance.
[quote]JuicyLucy wrote:
I don’t know how to explain myself.
But I’ll try: What I would like to know, and can’t find anywhere, if there is a % that can estimate hamstring / quadriceps ratio.
For example if I can lift 20 kg on quadriceps what should I be able to lift on hamstrings in order to have my legs in balance.
If anybody understands and knows what I’m talking about, please don’t hesitate to answer.
Thank you in advance.[/quote]
Once when i went to a(i don’t know the proper term) trainer/physical therapist because i was having knee flexibility problems where my knee would swell when i ran, I was told that it was a problem with my meniscus. She told me the it might be a strength imbalance and the proper balance should be 2/3 ratio. hamstring to quads
I don’t think there is a definate for sure answer but I have heard/read that a good ratio is 1/1. That may be tough to attain for most but in my experience the stronger you get the hamstrings the better your knees will be.
[quote]JuicyLucy wrote:
I don’t know how to explain myself.
But I’ll try: What I would like to know, and can’t find anywhere, if there is a % that can estimate hamstring / quadriceps ratio.
For example if I can lift 20 kg on quadriceps what should I be able to lift on hamstrings in order to have my legs in balance.
If anybody understands and knows what I’m talking about, please don’t hesitate to answer.
Thank you in advance.[/quote]
What makes you wonder this?
Ham : Quad should be a 2:3 ratio per all the stuff I have read but the real answer is stop doing leg machines and start doing some form of squats and deadlifts.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
JuicyLucy wrote:
I don’t know how to explain myself.
But I’ll try: What I would like to know, and can’t find anywhere, if there is a % that can estimate hamstring / quadriceps ratio.
For example if I can lift 20 kg on quadriceps what should I be able to lift on hamstrings in order to have my legs in balance.
If anybody understands and knows what I’m talking about, please don’t hesitate to answer.
Thank you in advance.
What makes you wonder this?[/quote]
Well as a tennis player we tend to have more strength in the quads. But I appear to have hamstrings stronger. For example I press 30 kg 6 reps. with quads and 35 kg 6 reps. with hams. But now thinking about it I lift into 3 positions with quads (the inside,outside and flat). So that could be the complication.
By the way is there a way how to safely measure the ratio. I’m not sure the machines in the gym are properly adjusted.
Cheers.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Ham : Quad should be a 2:3 ratio per all the stuff I have read but the real answer is stop doing leg machines and start doing some form of squats and deadlifts.[/quote]
Yes, I already do them, thank you.
Deadlift I started doing only recently.
[quote]JuicyLucy wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
What makes you wonder this?
Well as a tennis player we tend to have more strength in the quads. But I appear to have hamstrings stronger. For example I press 30 kg 6 reps. with quads and 35 kg 6 reps. with hams. But now thinking about it I lift into 3 positions with quads (the inside,outside and flat). So that could be the complication.
By the way is there a way how to safely measure the ratio. I’m not sure the machines in the gym are properly adjusted.
Cheers.[/quote]
I don’t mean this the way it may sound, but is this affecting you negatively somehow?
[quote]JuicyLucy wrote:
By the way is there a way how to safely measure the ratio. I’m not sure the machines in the gym are properly adjusted.[/quote]
Yes, if the machines don’t lift the weight stack the same distance – where range of motion is the same – then the relation between the weights may be deceptive.
E.g., say the leg extension machine lifts the weight 2 feet but the lying leg curl lifts the weight only 1 foot.
If so, the “same weight” on the leg curl machine would really represent only about half as much as on the leg extension, so instead of having equal strength the hams would be only half the strength.
The figures given above of 2:3 or preferably 1:1 seem widely agreed on. However, if able to do so I don’t at all see why it would be bad to get the hams past 1:1, so long as the best effort possible is being made with the quads too.
Don’t forget too that the angles and pulley systems on the machines also have a big influence. For example, when you use the leg press which you are seated in and push the weights up above you at an angle you are not using that full weight you have stacked on there. You are actually pushing the sin of that weight, which is only a portion of the total; the greater the angle you are pushing at, the greater the weight.
I personally like to judge from straight-leg deaddlifts and squats to see if my balance is pretty close.
I can deadlift much more than I can squat (about 1.5 times as much), but I’m doing full ATG squatting. Is that normal? (I’m a beginner.)
Here is one test I’ve heard about that you can use.
You need either a partner or a video camera to watch you.
Blindfold yourself, then try to jump as high as you can in the air. Your partner will watch if your feet pike forward, even a little, or you jump forward. This means you are pushing more with your quads and you are quad dominant. If you jump straight up and down, you are balanced. If your feet go back in the air, you are glute/ham dominant.
I think this is a better test for athletes than weight machines.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
JuicyLucy wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
What makes you wonder this?
Well as a tennis player we tend to have more strength in the quads. But I appear to have hamstrings stronger. For example I press 30 kg 6 reps. with quads and 35 kg 6 reps. with hams. But now thinking about it I lift into 3 positions with quads (the inside,outside and flat). So that could be the complication.
By the way is there a way how to safely measure the ratio. I’m not sure the machines in the gym are properly adjusted.
Cheers.
I don’t mean this the way it may sound, but is this affecting you negatively somehow?[/quote]
Sorry, I meant the leg extension machine for the exercises not the press. I press 160kg 6 reps.
And what do you mean by ‘this affecting you negatively’?!?
Thanks in advance.
[quote]Thanks I’ll try that. So how should the numbers look like? Still 2/3 hams/quats?
I personally like to judge from straight-leg deaddlifts and squats to see if my balance is pretty close.[/quote]