Why do hamstrings take so long to recover?

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I am one of those people who can train a muscle HARD and have it recovered within two days. This is true for every muscle except for my hamstrings, which seemingly take forever to recover from a lifting session. Most muscle groups I can train, if I want to, about once every three days. My hamstrings on the other hand always take about 5-7 days to recover completely. Is this because they are predominantly fast twitch fibers? Perhaps because I use them to walk so they are stressed outside of the gym? Who else has this problem?

 

[DreDay187]

I am one of those people who can train a muscle HARD and have it recovered within two days. This is true for every muscle except for my hamstrings, which seemingly take forever to recover from a lifting session. Most muscle groups I can train, if I want to, about once every three days. My hamstrings on the other hand always take about 5-7 days to recover completely. Is this because they are predominantly fast twitch fibers? Perhaps because I use them to walk so they are stressed outside of the gym? Who else has this problem?

What's your regimen for hamstrings look like? Do you do a lot of sets of heavy deads or multiple sessions of deadlifts per week? I don't think it has anything to do with them being primarily fast twitch fibers necessarily. I think it's more to do with hamstrings and glutes being the largest muscle group in the body and therefor require a much greater training stress to necessitate adaptation.

Take Chest for example, it's a much smaller group of muscles and therefor requires less of a stressor to disrupt homeostasis. Incidentally it's also why progress in bench press is slower than squats and deads. So less weight, less total stress on not only the body as a whole but that particular muscle group in general. Then you get to hamstrings and glutes, the largest muscle group in the human body. To disrupt homeostasis, you need a much larger stressor, more weight. It will take longer for the body to recover as a whole and that particular muscle group as well. Deads in general too are the single most stressful lift on the body. You can move such massive weights and utilize so many different muscle groups besides just hamstrings that no other exercise comes close besides squats (but squats are stil an easy 2nd not 1st) in total body stress, site specific stress, and the ability to hit overtraining with heavy deads is unmatched.

Another factor may be the intensity/volume in which you train them in relation to frequency. Many ppl say after let day they can't walk or limp or can't do legs again for a week. I do HEAVY squats 3x/wk and heavy deads 2x/wk every other wk (other week only 1x/wk for deads). I've built up to this conditioning steadily though and feel like I can still squat and deadlift on my off days if unwanted to but for obviously for recovery.

 

[DreDay187]

Of the top of my head and without knowing how you train them, I would say you can either lighten up the intensity and/or volume or slowly start working them more frequently. DOMS is often times a function of training frequency and the higher the frequency for a particular muscle group the less DOMS and more infrequent you'll experience it

 

[CptFKNplanet]

I've noticed this too and I think it's because they are used so much just throughout the day, as well as in many different lifts. I train legs on Mondays, and my hams are usually sore til Thursday or Friday. The only direct training I do for them is the prone curl machine. Heavy squats and deads work em hard too though.

 

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I lift with a 3 day split.

Mon- Legs
Tues- Back & Biceps
Wednesday- Chest, Triceps, Shoulders
Thurs- Legs
Fri- Back & Biceps
Saturday- Chest, Triceps, Shoulders
Sunday- Sprints one week, cardio the next.

On each of these days I do 6 sets per large muscle group and 3 for smaller ones. I believe that intensity and frequency are key, which is why I don't train with a typical split. I always start with the larger muscles and move to the smaller ones.

For hamstrings I typically do 3 sets of deads and 3 sets of leg curls. I alternate heavy weights low reps with high reps lighter weight, one of each per week. On high rep days I do my sets back to back to back, about 30 seconds in between, then take a five minute break and do the same for the other exercise I am using to work that muscle group. On my heavy days I wait about 2-3 minutes in between sets.

Some weeks I have had to either skip my second hamstring session entirely or cut it down to just a few sets. I don't think I am doing too much however I do exercise pretty intensely. My quads and glutes are always fine the next session and I work them with the same intensity so I don't believe it is a matter of focusing too much of my energy on my hams.

Doc, what does your hamstring routine look like and how would you change mine?

 

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Repeat post. Internet problems.

 

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Repeat Post. Internet problems.

 

[DreDay187]

The deads may be your problem. In Starting Strength, Mark Rippetoe advises that deadlifts are the single hardest lift to recover from. For beginner/intermediate lifters, 1 set of 5reps (with proper intensity) is enough to drive progress (meaning more weight on the bar next workout). If your doing 3 heavy sets with supplementary hamstring exercises one day and another day more hamstring exercises but slightly less weight and more volume, it may be enough to trigger that DOMS you're talking about.

Some ideas which MAY or may not help: always warm up properly. Get on the row machine, stationary etc for a few min and do just enough work (low intensity) to get your heart rate up for about 5min. DO NOT do static stretching BEFORE lifting (it can do more harm than good). Dynamic/active stretching is fine start with body weight squats than (load up 135lbs or some light weight) do a couple reps of DEEEP squats to activate hamstrings get them stretched and warmed up, when starting deads start at light weights and pyramid up to your work sets (you may even want to use the pyramiding scheme to add to your volume while peaking intensity on one set (if your max is 315x5 maybe do 135x8, 175x8, 210x6, 245x3, 275x 2, 315x5. So use the one max set as your intensity to drive progression and the pyramiding scheme to alter volume while lowering intensity for everything but the one top set. At the end of the workout you can add more Dynamic stretching also do some static stretching, I've never been a fan of hamstring curls so maybe try switching that out with hyperextensions, reverse hypers, glute ham raises etc. you may be completely opposite and need lightly higher volume or intensity to bypass DOMS try each way and see what helps. I'll also look around if I can find my copy of the book and see what Rippetoe recommends for hamstring DOMS.

My training is geared more towards strength so it may not apply to you as well as it would to me but i have two basic full body workouts that i do 3x/wk tues, thurs, sat

A) squats 3x5reps
Bench press 3x5
Power cleans 5x3 rep

B) squats 3x5
Overhead press 3x5
Deadlifts 1x5 reps (pyramiding up to that top set with warmups and reduced intensity and volume)

^^^to these I add accessory and supplemental lifts for lagging body parts and to address weaknesses in each main compound lift. So I'll add dips and CG bench to help tris and drive bench press progression, I'll do high jumps/weighted platform jumps to help with explosiveness and drive squat/deadlift progressions, ill do ab work and hyperextensions or SLDL to help core muscles with all lifts, explosiveness on my power cleans has helped translate to squats and deads, working on good hip drive also has helped all lifts.

I go A B A B A B fashion so I always squat 3x/wk and some weeks bench and power clean twice other weeks I deadlift and overhead press twice. I go 5lbs of linear progression every time i do a lift so 5lbs more than I did previous workout. It can be tough sustaining such progression but calories surplus, proper recovery, and intensity/volume accounted for helps sustain it for me. I doubt it's a form issue but its never a bad idea to post up a form check. I would work on good stretching, good warmups and start manipulating training variables (intensity, volume, exercise selection) one by one to see which helps you out the most.

 

[DreDay187]

Ps...Mike answered our question in the Q&A thread. Don't know if you saw it but that guy KNOWS HIS SHIT and gave a pretty detailed response. Check it out if you haven't already buddy.

 

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Thanks for both responses. I'm looking forward to seeing what he wrote. I am also going to try lowering my sets of deads by one set on each of my days to see how much that influences recovery. It's not a whole lot, but it'll still give me a better understanding of the recovery abilities of my hams. I'll base further changes to my program on how my body responds to this change..