Episode 263: The Top 21 Hamstring Exercises Ranked S to F Tier

0:00:12.1 Mike Vacanti: Hello, Jordan.

0:00:13.2 Jordan Syatt: What’s up, Michael?

0:00:13.7 Mike Vacanti: Top 20 hamstring exercises.

0:00:16.2 Jordan Syatt: Oh, this is my episode. I love this. Let’s go.

0:00:20.3 Mike Vacanti: We’re diving right. Well, do we have anything to talk about?

0:00:22.7 Jordan Syatt: Hamstrings.

0:00:23.5 Mike Vacanti: That’s right. Hamstrings. I may or may not have drank some bad beet juice right before this, so that could pose to be an issue. But we’ll find out in the hours to come. Could be a real problem.

0:00:35.1 Jordan Syatt: Could be a real threat.

0:00:36.2 Mike Vacanti: It’s in my pre/intra-workout and so I stopped when I was a third of the way in because something felt off, it tasted slightly different. And then my stomach started feeling a little weird. I was like, all right.

0:00:49.7 Jordan Syatt: Eesh.

0:00:50.5 Mike Vacanti: Romanian deadlift.

0:00:51.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh man. I’m giving it an A.

0:00:57.4 Mike Vacanti: Okay. I thought you were going B.

0:00:59.5 Jordan Syatt: What are you going?

0:01:00.3 Mike Vacanti: The RDL for the hamstrings, I am in your position this week. I also have not reviewed this list and as I look at it, why are there so many glute exercises on this list?

0:01:17.6 Jordan Syatt: Because AI isn’t there yet.

0:01:21.1 Mike Vacanti: Because despite its many utilities… Yeah, I think it’s an A. Right, the amount of knee flexion on the RDL is going to bias it towards glute or hamstring. If you have a little bit more knee bend, you’re gonna get a little more glute activation. If it’s more of a stiff leg deadlift with a five to 10% knee angle compared to a 25 to 30% knee angle, you’re gonna hit more hamstring with the straighter leg. Good compound move. I like the RDL.

0:02:05.7 Jordan Syatt: My bias here is going to be I prefer hamstring exercises that are knee flexion based as opposed to hip extension based.

0:02:15.7 Mike Vacanti: Instead of both?

0:02:17.1 Jordan Syatt: Instead of exercises that do both at the same time.

0:02:19.9 Mike Vacanti: No, no, no, no. Instead of programming both.

0:02:22.6 Jordan Syatt: No, I just mean if I’m going to do S tier for anything, it’s probably going to be a knee flexion based hamstring exercise as opposed to a hip extension based exercise. So RDL being hip extension based, it’s an A. It’s an incredible exercise. I program them basically every single month in some capacity. But specific to the hamstrings, I just typically go more for knee flexion. That’s where my… I prefer that from a hamstring dominant exercise.

0:02:53.4 Mike Vacanti: Cool. Conventional barbell deadlift.

0:02:59.2 Jordan Syatt: B, maybe even a C for the hamstrings specifically. A great exercise again…

0:03:06.8 Mike Vacanti: This says cable pull-throughs, this says donkey kicks. This is… I’m about to just…

0:03:13.2 Jordan Syatt: Are you going to prompt it to be like, “Hey, I said…”?

0:03:16.5 Mike Vacanti: No, I was gonna verbally abuse it, but I’m not gonna do that. We’ll just review this list.

0:03:24.8 Jordan Syatt: This list.

0:03:25.5 Mike Vacanti: There won’t be as much S tier.

0:03:26.4 Jordan Syatt: Cool.

0:03:27.1 Mike Vacanti: C for conventional, you said?

0:03:29.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I’m gonna go C-plus. A C-plus for hamstring.

0:03:34.1 Mike Vacanti: Where did we have conventional deadlift for glutes? Probably a B.

0:03:38.6 Jordan Syatt: Probably a B. Yeah.

0:03:39.7 Mike Vacanti: In that case, I think a C, anywhere in the C range I think is good for hamstrings.

0:03:46.6 Jordan Syatt: Great exercise overall. But for hamstring specific, yeah.

0:03:50.6 Mike Vacanti: Stiff leg deadlift.

0:03:54.8 Jordan Syatt: I’m gonna give it an S. I know I just said I’ll bias the knee flexion, but stiff leg, just completely straight leg, yeah, that’s an S tier hamstring exercise.

0:04:07.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. We’re training more hamstrings there than we are on an RDL. Can load it decently. I don’t program it a ton.

0:04:20.7 Jordan Syatt: Me either.

0:04:23.1 Mike Vacanti: Because both of our populations, I mean the population of the world in fitness is more beginner and even early intermediate focused, and it’s not as good an exercise for those individuals as it is for someone who’s more advanced.

0:04:38.5 Jordan Syatt: There is, I think, a little bit more risk, and there’re just more risks with it overall. That teeny little bit of a straight leg versus a mild bend in the knee, it doesn’t make it worth it for me for the added potential risk of it. And then I think it’s a little bit more difficult to learn. And then when it’s more difficult to learn and they’re not as confident with the technique, that’s when it becomes even a little bit more risky. So I don’t really program it for… I’ve never programmed a completely stiff leg deadlift in the Inner Circle ever. And again, it’s S tier for the hamstrings, but when I’m programming for clients and Inner Circle members, it’s not… I’m not doing it like just this body part. I’m doing it as the program as a whole, which I think is an important distinction for a coach to make. So I’ve done it, I love it, S tier exercise, but I don’t program it for everyday people.

0:05:35.4 Mike Vacanti: And I’ve never programmed a locked out variation, which I know some people consider that a stiff leg deadlift, and it is technically. But a five to 10 degree amount of knee flexion is always how I’ve performed and programmed a stiff leg deadlift. You got to be… Especially… This is one of those in-person versus onlines. I’d be more comfortable having a client, if I were for some reason to have them do a knee locked stiff leg deadlift, I’d be way more confident doing it with them in person because I’m there for weight selection, I’m there to watch technique, basically to prevent them from going too heavy in their initial sets and hurting themselves.

0:06:23.6 Jordan Syatt: They’ve got to know they have really good control of their body, good lumbopelvic rhythm. They’ve really got to understand how to move properly to make it safer and more effective, not let the whole thing come from their back.

0:06:36.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s right. Nordic hamstring curl.

0:06:42.3 Jordan Syatt: S tier. This is what I was waiting for. S tier exercise, outrageously difficult, incredibly advanced. I don’t like the regressions of it, by the way. I think if you’re gonna the… If you want to do a Nordic hamstring curl because it’s a great skill and it’s fun and it’s impressive and it’s a great goal to shoot for, awesome. But if you’re programming it for more everyday gen pop who don’t care if they can do it or not, I would rather just do a full range of motion hamstring curl than use the regressions for the Nordic. The regressions being using a band assistance because the amount of time that you have under a significant amount of tension is so low during the regressions that just it becomes more or less not worth it at that point. But if you are strong enough to do a full range of motion Nordic hamstring curl, amazing. And if that’s your goal, also amazing, yes, use the regressions. But for the average everyday person, I don’t like using the regressions for someone who just doesn’t need that exercise. S tier.

0:07:49.1 Mike Vacanti: Definitely an S tier move. What are the regressions that you don’t like? ‘Cause I actually have a couple regressions on this one that I do like.

0:07:57.0 Jordan Syatt: So, listen, for people who want to do the Nordic, the regressions are great because they want to do the skill of the Nordic. My favorite regression is going down as slow as you possibly can until you use your hands, and then you can use your hands to try and slowly lower yourself and only use as much hand as you need to pull yourself back… To push yourself back up. That’s my favorite one. My least favorite is using either band assistance or using the pole as you go out and then using the pole to come back. I don’t really enjoy those as much. My least favorite is the band. My favorites go hands first, then pole, then band. But again, if we’re really trying to get a client to target their hamstrings and they don’t have a goal of being able to do the Nordic hamstring curl, I’m just not doing it. I’m just… We’re gonna target the hamstrings another way. But for that specific goal, the regressions are wonderful.

0:08:52.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I like the eccentric only.

0:08:54.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:08:56.7 Mike Vacanti: And for some people, I don’t mind using the pole. I mean, for some people, using the pole on the eccentric only is actually necessary depending where they’re at.

0:09:09.8 Jordan Syatt: Correct, yeah.

0:09:10.7 Mike Vacanti: But there, it probably just makes more sense to get their hamstrings stronger on other exercises before moving over to that one. But elite movement that if you’ve never done it before, that’ll have you sore for the next few days, that’s for certain. Seated leg curl.

0:09:29.5 Jordan Syatt: S tier. I love the seated leg curl and all of its variations. I love all leg curls. And this is probably my bias. Hamstrings are one of my favorite muscle groups to train, especially with my background in deadlifting. I just went nuts on hamstrings. But the hamstring curl, whether it’s seated, whether it’s lying, standing, I love the standing variation.

0:09:57.8 Mike Vacanti: Well, I think seated machine is where we’ll stay here. Yeah.

0:10:00.4 Jordan Syatt: Seated machine, S tier. I love the seated machine. S tier.

0:10:03.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I agree. Any interesting insights on that machine?

0:10:09.1 Jordan Syatt: The most important one is, and it’s funny, I didn’t even realize… I never used it that much when I was coaching in person. I just never… I opted for physio ball leg curls when I was younger and then the more RDL and things like that, glute ham raises. But if I was gonna start coaching in person again, I would probably include more seated hamstring curls. I do include them in the Inner Circle pretty frequently at this point. What I realized is that a lot of people don’t know how to set it up properly, and they don’t put the pad firm enough on their quads. They don’t lock themselves in tight enough.

0:10:52.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. There’s four things to adjust. It might be the most effort in setup in a machine that exists.

0:11:00.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It was actually really funny because we started doing some community workouts here at the house, and I was like, “Yeah, we’ll do hamstring curls.” And a bunch of the people were like, “I don’t really like hamstring curls because I don’t really feel it in my hamstrings.” And I watched them set up for it, and they weren’t locked in. I was like, “Oh.” And as soon as I got them to push the pad down… It’s uncomfortable. It’s really tight. It locks you in so you’re getting a ton of stability around that joint. But they’re like, “Now I finally feel my hamstrings,” because I’ve pushed… You have to push the pad down to really lock your leg in tightly so your knees aren’t shooting up during the movement. And I hadn’t realized that that was an issue.

0:11:45.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yep. Getting the seat, not height, but front to back distance correct. Getting the pad that goes behind your ankles, having that at a proper height and a proper distance away from you. I mean, if you are using a new seated hamstring curl machine, it takes some tinkering with, but I’d recommend when you’re tracking your sets and reps and weights, write down the number that you’re using for each of those. Because even I, I’m like, “I’ll remember it.”

0:12:23.0 Jordan Syatt: And then never remember it.

0:12:23.5 Mike Vacanti: This machine is different than this gym’s machine. Am I at a three or a four here? I completely forgot. And it takes time. But yes, amazing exercise. Like you mentioned, knee flexion based, a lot of tension in the stretch, a lot of stability. S tier movement.

0:12:48.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:12:49.0 Mike Vacanti: There is like, I’ll sometimes get a little ambitious with my setup where I have the height of the ankle pad as high as it goes, and then I’ll artificially push the knee pad lower than it should.

0:13:05.9 Jordan Syatt: Yes. I do that too.

0:13:08.3 Mike Vacanti: So that I’m getting max, max stretch and I’m still under tension. The weights haven’t planked yet. But the problem there is if I go close to failure or to failure, then I’m in this weird position where I can get stuck because you got to push the thing down to release and come up.

0:13:28.1 Jordan Syatt: At the top, your knees are hyperextended. You’re like, “Get me out! Get me out!”

0:13:32.4 Mike Vacanti: Like the cost benefit there, I don’t know how worth it it is.

0:13:35.6 Jordan Syatt: You knee bar yourself.

0:13:37.5 Mike Vacanti: Exactly. That’s exactly right. Which is kind of fun to be an idiot in the gym sometimes, but also…

0:13:41.8 Jordan Syatt: I do the exact same thing. I’m like, “It’s worth those extra couple centimeters just to really get the most stretch.”

0:13:48.3 Mike Vacanti: Absolutely.

0:13:49.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:13:49.3 Mike Vacanti: Lying leg curl machine.

0:13:50.7 Jordan Syatt: S tier. Absolute S tier. I love it.

0:13:54.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I love this machine as well. A little bit different feel than the seated hamstring curl. Your hips are flexed in the seated hamstring curl versus more extended here. There’s different variations of the lying leg curl. Some where it’s not a flat bench, but it’s elevated around your hips so you have a little bit of hip flexion. Some of them move. I don’t know if you’ve seen those where the whole…

0:14:21.5 Jordan Syatt: I haven’t used it, but I’ve seen it.

0:14:23.8 Mike Vacanti: Those are kind of cool and feel good. I don’t know if it’s necessarily more beneficial than the stationary ones or not. But yeah, great exercise. Crushes the hamstrings. S tier.

0:14:37.7 Jordan Syatt: Do you prefer seated or lying?

0:14:41.0 Mike Vacanti: It’s a good question. It really depends, I’ll go in…

0:14:48.5 Jordan Syatt: On the machine?

0:14:50.6 Mike Vacanti: Just how I’m feeling. I’ll go in phases. I prefer both. I’m pretty much doing one of those movements in any training phase that I have, and I alternate them. I guess gun to my head, I prefer seated slightly, but I do like them both. How about you?

0:15:13.7 Jordan Syatt: My preference, and I love both of them. They’re both S tier. My preference is lying. If I had more space in my gym, I would have just gotten the lying one as opposed to the seated. However, I have these like monkey feet that I can do standing hamstring curls with. So then I was like, actually, I should just get the seated because I can essentially do the same thing with the standing, hips extended, all. There’s no reason to have a lying and do the standing. You’re essentially accomplishing the same thing. So I prefer the lying machine, but I got the seated for space and also because I can’t… It’s nice to have the loaded hip flexed option.

0:15:53.2 Mike Vacanti: Do you do the monkey feet always standing or do you ever do them lying?

0:15:57.2 Jordan Syatt: Never do them lying because you lose all tension at a certain point. With the standing, you have tension on it the entire time.

0:16:03.9 Mike Vacanti: With a lying, you’d have tension in the stretch position but lose it in the shortened position. With a standing, you have way more tension when it’s contracted, but when it’s stretched, there’s a little bit less.

0:16:17.7 Jordan Syatt: When it’s fully locked out. But as soon as you initiate the movement, the moment you initiate it, you have tons of tension.

0:16:27.2 Mike Vacanti: Glute ham raise.

0:16:28.5 Jordan Syatt: S tier. This is S tier. I love this one. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I would put it similar to the Nordic in that I’m not the biggest fan of using their regressions unless someone really wants to get very good at that specific movement. But incredible. I credit the glute ham raise to a huge percentage of my deadlift when I was at its peak. I always… That was my tester. I knew if I hit a PR in the glute ham raise, I would hit a PR in my deadlift. I could just always… That’s what I knew is I loved glute ham raise.

0:17:06.1 Mike Vacanti: Nice. S tier. I agree. I wish more gyms had them. That might be one of the more underrated pieces of gym equipment.

0:17:14.6 Jordan Syatt: Agreed. You can do so much on it. You can do ab stuff on it too, glute stuff on it, hamstring. It’s amazing.

0:17:21.0 Mike Vacanti: Good morning.

0:17:23.0 Jordan Syatt: For hamstrings, I will put it at… Man. The way that I consider a good morning is I consider a good morning more lower back. So I’m gonna give it a B-plus for hamstrings. Yeah.

0:17:41.8 Mike Vacanti: I think I would put good mornings in the same category as RDLs. And again, it depends how much you’re bending your knees on these. You are training your low back more than you’re training your low back on an RDL. I think anywhere in the B to A range is fine on these.

0:18:10.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You just… The reason you just can’t load it as heavy as an RDL. So that’s where I was like, okay, RDL, I think I give the nod for the hamstrings. It’s like, I’m gonna give you a higher rating, whereas good morning, you just… You can’t load it as well. And then when you do load it heavier, you’re gonna absorb more of it through your lower back in my experience.

0:18:33.5 Mike Vacanti: Yes, definitely. I’d be curious where… I agree with you. You can load the hamstrings more heavy on an RDL. I’d be curious what the ratio of glute to hamstring is on a good morning versus an RDL. ‘Cause it seems like more hamstring relative to glute on a good morning.

0:18:59.9 Jordan Syatt: Yep. Agreed.

0:19:01.2 Mike Vacanti: But more low back on a good morning. And you can go heavier on an RDL. I don’t actually do good mornings myself, by the way.

0:19:11.3 Jordan Syatt: I know. I know.

0:19:12.6 Mike Vacanti: What do you mean you know? Get out of here.

0:19:14.0 Jordan Syatt: I know.

0:19:15.0 Mike Vacanti: You don’t. You have no idea. Jordan’s coming to Minnesota in two days. He’s about to learn a lot.

0:19:20.5 Jordan Syatt: A lot.

0:19:21.2 Mike Vacanti: We’re going to the range. We’re going everywhere. We’re going to the golf range. We’re going everywhere. Kettlebell swing.

0:19:33.4 Jordan Syatt: I love kettlebell swings. I think they’re great. It really depends how you do them. If you do a traditional hard style RKC kettlebell swing, you’ll get a lot more hamstring. Whereas if you do the way that I prefer to do a kettlebell swing is, you get a little bit less hamstring, a little bit more quad.

0:19:57.2 Mike Vacanti: More quad or more glute?

0:19:57.9 Jordan Syatt: Quad. Quad. I prefer to get a little bit more knee bend with my kettlebell swing.

0:20:03.4 Mike Vacanti: Do you?

0:20:04.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I do.

0:20:04.5 Mike Vacanti: Has that changed over the years?

0:20:05.9 Jordan Syatt: It has, yeah. I prefer a little bit more of a… Just a little to… People are gonna get the wrong impression. I’m not saying it’s like a knees-over-toes squat, but it is a little bit more of a squat than a complete deadlift. It’s a little moderate in between the two. It just makes sense to me for the purpose of why I use the kettlebell swing, which I use it to improve explosive speed and strength and power. And when people are doing that, they want it to carry over to running, sprinting, jumping. And you’re not jumping like an RDL, you’re jumping more similar to a quarter squat. So I want it to closer mimic that. So it’s sort of a combination of the two. For hamstring hypertrophy, like growth? No, it’s like…

0:21:07.6 Mike Vacanti: D.

0:21:08.3 Jordan Syatt: D. Yeah, exactly. For hamstring power and, yeah, I would say not even strength. For hamstring power, I really like it. And for athleticism, I really like it. But for a hamstring-specific exercise, I’m gonna go B-minus.

0:21:25.9 Mike Vacanti: Good answer. C, I guess. In the B-minus to C range.

0:21:35.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I think that’s fair.

0:21:36.8 Mike Vacanti: You used to do your kettlebell swings very hip dominant.

0:21:41.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I was literally, yeah, completely hip dominant. And I still think that has a time and a place. I even have tutorials in the Inner Circle that are more hip dominant, which I still use, but I personally prefer more of a… It looks a little bit more squatty.

0:21:56.6 Mike Vacanti: And I would imagine… I’ve seen your kettlebell swing, at least the previous variation of it, and it’s very tight and very dialed. I don’t want people here picturing Jordan doing the… You’ve seen people do a squat with the kettlebell and then a front raise overhead and then a squat.

0:22:11.8 Jordan Syatt: No, no, no, no. That’s nonsense. My kettlebell swings are good.

0:22:16.3 Mike Vacanti: When you say more quads, that’s moving from a place where you had basically no quads on your kettlebell swing.

0:22:23.1 Jordan Syatt: Correct. My torso was completely parallel to the ground. My hips were touching the wall behind me. It was a sumo deadlift. But even more than a sumo deadlift.

0:22:37.1 Mike Vacanti: Even less knee flexion than a sumo deadlift.

0:22:38.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, correct. Yeah, exactly. And that’s the hard style swing. That’s how it’s taught. But as I coached more and wanted more carryover to athletics and performance, I was like, this doesn’t make as much sense to me.

0:22:51.3 Mike Vacanti: Compared to doing it for deadlifts or doing it for another reason. Yeah.

0:22:57.0 Jordan Syatt: Jumping, sprinting.

0:22:58.9 Mike Vacanti: Single leg RDL.

0:23:00.2 Jordan Syatt: Oof. I’m gonna go S-tier, dude.

0:23:07.5 Mike Vacanti: Wow.

0:23:08.0 Jordan Syatt: I was between A and S, and it’s just, it’s such a good exercise. I have to go S-tier.

0:23:14.0 Mike Vacanti: What puts it above regular RDLs for you?

0:23:18.3 Jordan Syatt: Man, that is a great question. Honestly, just personal preference.

0:23:25.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:23:25.5 Jordan Syatt: I just, I love it. I love it so much. I love that exercise for so many reasons, and it has so much utility across all populations. I’m just like, this has to be an S-tier.

0:23:42.5 Mike Vacanti: What’s your favorite piece of equipment to use on it or variation?

0:23:48.3 Jordan Syatt: My favorite variation would probably be… This is gonna be really boring. It would probably be just a single arm, loading the contralateral side and going heavy and either a dumbbell or a kettlebell. Dumbbells are typically better when you have a good range because the kettlebell will hit the ground before you can stop. I like the kettlebells for a dead stop RDL, which are great, but it’s not… I just prefer the regular one first. So, yeah, just a dumbbell, heavy loaded. If I really want to go heavier, I’ll either do barbell, which I love, or one dumbbell in each hand. Those are my favorites. It’s just such a good exercise. What about you?

0:24:32.4 Mike Vacanti: I like it. I also really like this move. I program it constantly. I do it myself constantly. Because I really like it, I think that bumps it from B-plus, if we’re just talking strength and muscle for hamstrings, to definitely a solid A. And I like the feel of the kettlebell more than a dumbbell, especially as you start to get heavier and when you’re only loading one side. And just the balance of the weight. I’m normally kind of indifferent/actually prefer dumbbells over kettlebells for a lot of stuff, but on this one, the kettlebell feels really good. That said, the heavier you get, the bigger the kettlebell is, the more reduced range you have. So you might have to elevate your foot a little bit to make room for that extra range.

0:25:35.9 Jordan Syatt: What do you elevate yourself on?

0:25:37.7 Mike Vacanti: Plate, like a 25-pound plate.

0:25:39.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, plate. Okay, smart.

0:25:41.0 Mike Vacanti: Well, I mean, the kettlebell isn’t missing your foot by that much, right?

0:25:46.8 Jordan Syatt: Right, exactly.

0:25:47.2 Mike Vacanti: So if you got an aerobic step or something, it’s gonna hit it.

0:25:50.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:25:51.6 Mike Vacanti: You don’t want to be on the very edge of an aerobic step on one leg, holding something heavy.

0:25:57.3 Jordan Syatt: No. The 25-pound plate makes a lot of sense. That’s smart.

0:26:00.6 Mike Vacanti: Quarter, maybe two quarters, depending how much range I need. Or just reduce range, go heavier. Yeah. Good move. Slightly underrated move, I would say.

0:26:15.2 Jordan Syatt: I agree.

0:26:15.3 Mike Vacanti: Meaning I don’t think as many coaches either like it/program it as…

0:26:19.8 Jordan Syatt: You know why I think that is? I think it’s because they’re not good at doing it, and they don’t like filming the tutorial of it, and it’s not the easiest one to do. So I think a lot of the coaches, “I’m just not gonna do it,” ’cause they don’t like it, because they don’t like that they’re not good at it yet.

0:26:39.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, probably. There’s a lot going on. Glute bridge.

0:26:46.3 Jordan Syatt: F.

0:26:48.1 Mike Vacanti: No, not an F.

0:26:49.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, for hamstrings, F.

0:26:51.0 Mike Vacanti: Interesting.

0:26:51.9 Jordan Syatt: Specific for hamstrings, F. Glute bridges can be a wonderful exercise in so many different circumstances, but if someone’s like, “Hey, I need the top 50 exercises to strengthen my hamstrings,” glute bridges don’t make that top 50 list.

0:27:08.8 Mike Vacanti: I agree.

0:27:09.6 Jordan Syatt: So, F.

0:27:10.6 Mike Vacanti: I agree. I just think there’s enough below it, like a bench press. Actually, a bench press, you might have a little bit going on depending on that leg drive. Is E a category, or does it go from D to F?

0:27:27.6 Jordan Syatt: I don’t know, dude.

0:27:28.5 Mike Vacanti: I’d go E on these. Obviously, it’s not what you’re trying to train. You’re mostly training your glutes. It is the second most active muscle group, if we’re calling the glutes one muscle group. It’s the second most active muscle group on that movement. You can load it pretty heavy. In a glute bridge, you’re not getting much of a stretch.

0:27:57.5 Jordan Syatt: At all.

0:27:58.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Where would you… I don’t even know if it’s on here, but would you put hip thrust above glute bridge for hamstrings, or would you have them both in the F category?

0:28:07.0 Jordan Syatt: They’re both F. I mean, I would say if I had to say which one is better, I would do a hip thrust for hamstrings, but they’re both F.

0:28:17.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, you’re not training the hamstrings on either of these movements. You’re not programming these movements to train the hamstrings. You’re training them a little bit residually. I’ll go E with both of them. Obviously, there’s more glute-to-hamstring work going on here than in an RDL. F, I really want to see if there’s more on this list that… I think you’re gonna be giving out some F-minuses here.

0:28:48.0 Jordan Syatt: I almost did that here.

0:28:57.2 Mike Vacanti: Stability ball hamstring curl.

0:28:59.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, S-tier, dude. S-tier.

0:29:03.3 Mike Vacanti: What about… I agree. I love this move. I program this move all the time. It’s great because someone who’s in a hotel gym, someone who has a home gym with limited equipment, usually dumbbells up to 50 and an exercise ball are there.

0:29:15.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh, you’re good. Yeah.

0:29:17.0 Mike Vacanti: So you can… It has high usability ’cause you don’t need a glute-ham machine in your pretty fancy gym to do it.

0:29:25.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:29:26.4 Mike Vacanti: But what about for a stronger, more advanced population?

0:29:31.6 Jordan Syatt: S-tier. Single-leg variations, slowing down the eccentric, moving the ball further away from you so it’s a bigger, longer lever arm. I have yet to find, and I know they exist, but in the general population, I’ve yet to find anybody that that exercise… That there’s no variation that would be challenging for them. I haven’t found it yet. In the general population, if I’m talking about more advanced lifters or an elite athlete, yeah, now we’re getting to it. But, I mean, even then, sometimes we’ll just be like, “You know what? We’re gonna do higher rep. We’re gonna go 20 reps, single-leg,” and it blows. It’s horrible.

0:30:17.3 Mike Vacanti: Well, that’s where… Yeah. If someone doesn’t love it… Look, doing a slow eccentric single-leg for a lot of reps, yeah, you’re weeding out the majority of the population with that variation. It’s almost just the dislike factor of having to do 40 reps, 20 on each side per set.

0:30:37.9 Jordan Syatt: Terrible.

0:30:40.5 Mike Vacanti: I’ll give it low S. It’s a great move. I do it. I program it.

0:30:45.1 Jordan Syatt: So good.

0:30:45.8 Mike Vacanti: So good in like, “it hurts so good” kind of way. I almost want to knock it because of the discomfort.

0:30:51.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s so painful.

0:30:53.7 Mike Vacanti: Which probably isn’t a good reason to lower it since that’s what we’re trying to do, right? Is get stronger and build muscle. Single-leg glute bridge.

0:31:07.3 Jordan Syatt: F.

0:31:08.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:31:08.8 Jordan Syatt: Fail. And by the way, I do those almost every month.

0:31:12.0 Mike Vacanti: Not for your hamstrings.

0:31:13.1 Jordan Syatt: Not for hamstrings. Great exercise. Amazing. Similar, actually, to the single-leg hamstring curl, where even if you have someone who’s super advanced, there are so many variations you can do that you can make it so that eight to 12 reps really sucks.

0:31:26.4 Mike Vacanti: You do more single-leg hip thrusting than single-leg glute bridges?

0:31:29.7 Jordan Syatt: Yes. Yeah, I almost never do single-leg glute bridges. I almost never do glute bridges.

0:31:34.5 Mike Vacanti: I didn’t want to confuse people because you said, “I do these every single month.”

0:31:38.0 Jordan Syatt: Is this a hip thrust or a glute bridge?

0:31:39.8 Mike Vacanti: Single-leg glute bridge.

0:31:41.0 Jordan Syatt: Oh, shit. I’m sorry.

0:31:42.7 Mike Vacanti: You’re good.

0:31:43.2 Jordan Syatt: Oops. I don’t do glute bridges.

0:31:45.3 Mike Vacanti: People understands, elevate your upper back, get a bigger range.

0:31:49.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:31:51.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Bulgarian split squat.

0:31:52.8 Jordan Syatt: F. It’s not a hamstring exercise.

0:31:55.9 Mike Vacanti: It’s more of a hamstring… Yeah, I completely agree, but it’s more of a hamstring exercise than a seated dumbbell lateral raise. I’m trying to think of what we gave Fs on in previous…

0:32:06.2 Jordan Syatt: Is this a strawman? Is that what this is?

0:32:08.0 Mike Vacanti: No, but you have to grade on a curve. Right?

0:32:12.2 Jordan Syatt: Well, I am so glad you brought that up.

0:32:14.4 Mike Vacanti: You grade moves relative to other moves. And so I’m thinking about what gained an F in previous episodes. And if you have, like, the Bulgarian split squat is, I think, more of an F than a hip thrust or a glute bridge because the hamstrings aren’t even the second muscle group used here. They’re the third, at least. And so I’m more with you here, but what were the moves we had in F tier on?

0:32:42.5 Jordan Syatt: Here’s… I don’t like curves. I don’t like curves.

0:32:45.1 Mike Vacanti: Life’s a curve.

0:32:46.2 Jordan Syatt: No, it’s not.

0:32:47.1 Mike Vacanti: You of all people. You’re Mr. Competition. Your life is a curve. I promise you.

0:32:51.3 Jordan Syatt: Listen, a failing grade is a failing grade.

0:32:54.8 Mike Vacanti: It’s not.

0:32:55.4 Jordan Syatt: Yes, it is.

0:32:56.0 Mike Vacanti: It’s not.

0:32:57.3 Jordan Syatt: You’re an ISTJ. Blood is in blood. Blood is in your veins. A failing grade is a failing grade.

0:33:04.1 Mike Vacanti: All right, all right. Make your case for not being on a curve.

0:33:07.0 Jordan Syatt: Okay. When I was in college, I was in chemistry, all right? 300 kids in the class. Massive class. And the smartest kids in the class, the smartest kids were getting C minuses and Cs, but there was a curve that somehow brought them up to an A. And for me, the whole purpose, or one of the major, if not the major purpose of testing and getting a grade is not just to see how smart the kids are, but to see how well the teacher is teaching the information. If the highest grade not curved is a C minus or a C, that means in my opinion, the teacher’s doing a horrible fucking job.

0:33:58.5 Mike Vacanti: The class is too hard.

0:34:00.3 Jordan Syatt: The class is too difficult, right? Or the teacher’s not teaching it well.

0:34:04.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Some combination.

0:34:05.3 Jordan Syatt: So in that case, why don’t you just have a better fucking class?

0:34:09.7 Mike Vacanti: You should. I agree.

0:34:11.7 Jordan Syatt: What’s the purpose of, okay, you got a… The smartest kids got a C minus or a C. So now we’re just gonna… I understand, like, “Hey, we can’t fail all these people, so we’re gonna curve it.”

0:34:20.4 Mike Vacanti: Teacher’s either bad, has an ego, made the tests way too hard. Completely agree. But it’s unfair to the smart students and all the students, really, because they’re competing with other… So when they go to their interviews and their GPA is compared to people who got a different chemistry professor who was just like, they were making s’mores all day and watching… What are those movies that you watch in science class with the rocket ships? They were just dicking around all day every day and everyone got an A. And so they go to interview and they’re like, “Well, you have a 3.6 and Sally Pants over here has a 3.8.” You’re like, “Well, Sally Pants got so-and-so for chemistry, and I had the hard chemistry.”

0:35:03.8 Jordan Syatt: She lied, I didn’t lie.

0:35:04.4 Mike Vacanti: Exactly. Sally was watching Bill Nye and doing experiments.

0:35:08.4 Jordan Syatt: I agree.

0:35:09.3 Mike Vacanti: So that’s why you have to curve classes.

0:35:11.7 Jordan Syatt: I agree with that, but so you’re looking at it from the end. I’m looking at it from the beginning. I’m like, you’re essentially saying this is just the fact of the matter, this is what you had, so you have to curve it. I’m saying it doesn’t have to be that way from the beginning. How about you just teach it like a fucking smart teacher with an appropriate curriculum so that… Because if all of the smartest students are getting C… What’s that?

0:35:36.7 Mike Vacanti: That’d be ideal. That would be ideal. I don’t know how you make every single teacher super competent.

0:35:43.5 Jordan Syatt: You… I was about to say something so controversial.

0:35:47.5 Mike Vacanti: Say it. Say it. Say it.

0:35:50.3 Jordan Syatt: And by the way, a huge portion of my family are tenured professors. And like…

0:35:55.7 Mike Vacanti: Oh, you remove tenure?

0:35:56.9 Jordan Syatt: Remove tenure and you fucking make sure that they’re doing… And I understand the need. I understand the argument. Listen, my cousin, my uncle, my whole family is professors. I get it.

0:36:07.9 Mike Vacanti: I don’t think our listeners are gonna be offended that you think removing tenure would help.

0:36:11.0 Jordan Syatt: There’ll be someone who’s offended.

0:36:12.3 Mike Vacanti: That’s okay. We don’t want them listening.

0:36:13.3 Jordan Syatt: The idea that you don’t have to continually keep up to date and that you essentially… The idea of you have to do something heinous to lose your job as opposed to performing at an adequate level is insane to me. You should always be aiming to do a really, really good job, not the bare minimum. And if your bare minimum… And if your regular is C minus, C student, or the smartest kids in class are getting C minus and Cs and the vast majority… Dude, I got a 30 on an exam and I passed. Makes no sense.

0:36:51.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, because the class was too hard.

0:36:53.4 Jordan Syatt: That’s what I’m saying. It shouldn’t have been that… That’s a stupid way to structure it. If I passed with a 30, that’s insane.

0:37:03.0 Mike Vacanti: Do you think you should have failed? Let’s… Here, listen to me.

0:37:06.9 Jordan Syatt: Yes, I do. And I think that the teacher should be replaced.

0:37:09.4 Mike Vacanti: Hang on. Let’s say you got a 30, right? But you finished in the top 10% of your class. 90% of the class got less than a 30. You got a 30. Do you think you should get an F?

0:37:21.2 Jordan Syatt: Yes.

0:37:22.0 Mike Vacanti: Okay. I don’t.

0:37:23.3 Jordan Syatt: I do. Because what I think… I think if that comes back and I got a 30 and that’s the top 10%, I think the school should say, “What’s this teacher doing?”

0:37:33.4 Mike Vacanti: Completely. The school should say, “What’s this teacher doing?” anyway without penalizing the students for getting a bad teacher.

0:37:42.3 Jordan Syatt: Agreed. Yeah, yeah, agreed. I agree with that.

0:37:45.1 Mike Vacanti: I think we’re mostly aligned there.

0:37:46.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:37:47.5 Mike Vacanti: That being said, the Bulgarian split squat does not train the hamstrings. So…

0:37:53.5 Jordan Syatt: F.

0:37:53.9 Mike Vacanti: I’m giving it an F-plus. I really want to remember, where did we have band pull-aparts for… That’s a bad example. Where did we have… What’s something where the secondary muscle, triceps. We had a barbell bench press decently high.

0:38:11.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, but that’s a prime mover.

0:38:13.5 Mike Vacanti: Is it? It’s the second most engaged muscle on a bench press. Just like the hamstring…

0:38:19.3 Jordan Syatt: I consider that a prime mover. Right.

0:38:21.0 Mike Vacanti: Just like the hamstrings are the second most engaged muscle on a… And I don’t think those are equal. But I think if we… I don’t think it’s B to F. I think if a bench press is a B for triceps, then I think a hip thrust is a D for hamstrings, not an F.

0:38:38.3 Jordan Syatt: Here’s how I frame it in my mind. And I said it. I was like, if it’s not in the top 50 exercises I would recommend for that muscle group, then it’s an F. If it’s not in my top 50, it’s an F.

0:38:50.6 Mike Vacanti: Barbell hip thrust.

0:38:52.4 Jordan Syatt: F.

0:38:53.6 Mike Vacanti: E. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift.

0:38:57.5 Jordan Syatt: Dumbbell Romanian? Oh, I’ll go A.

0:39:06.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s an A. That’s an A right there. We got a mentorship Q&A in nine minutes, by the way. We only got a few left. I think we actually made great work of this hamstring episode. We’ve been efficient. We’re getting through the whole list. It’s been fun. But we got a hot seat. About once a month roughly, going forward once a month, we do a hot seat in the fitness business mentorship. And today, Mr. Kevin Finn is going to have his content deep dive reviewed during our Q&A.

0:39:40.1 Jordan Syatt: Every week, we do a Q&A where we just answer any and all questions that you have in addition to all the access to the courses that we have. And about once a month right now, we take one member and whatever they want us to review, we review. So a couple weeks ago, we did a whole mock sales call because someone was struggling to close. And we reviewed their sales page and we reviewed how they go through a sales call. And I was actually really happy and surprisingly happy, I was surprised at how happy I was with how… No, I was surprised at how happy people were with that call. Because it’s all these things that… I’m not a math guy. We all know that. Talking with people comes more easily to me. So the things that I just… I think I understand sales more intuitively. So a lot of the things I was saying, people were like, “Oh, wow, that makes so much more sense.” I was surprised at how happy they were to learn this stuff. I was like, “Oh, this is great.”

0:40:43.6 Mike Vacanti: Got that curse of knowledge.

0:40:44.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:40:45.6 Mike Vacanti: Except not like…

0:40:47.4 Jordan Syatt: I never learned it. It just comes naturally.

0:40:51.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:40:52.1 Jordan Syatt: Sell this pen. Okay.

0:40:59.4 Mike Vacanti: It’s a good scene.

0:41:00.4 Jordan Syatt: Great movie.

0:41:01.3 Mike Vacanti: Reverse hyper.

0:41:02.4 Jordan Syatt: Love the reverse hyper. Not for hamstrings. I’m going to give it a… Obviously there’s hamstring involvement. I’m giving it a C. It’s more for your low back.

0:41:13.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Plate loaded?

0:41:15.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, yeah, dude. Reverse hypers without weight, I’m not a huge fan of.

0:41:21.1 Mike Vacanti: Hamstring slide with sliders or towels.

0:41:23.9 Jordan Syatt: S-tier. Especially with the sliders. S-tier. It’s the most difficult variation of the physio ball.

0:41:34.1 Mike Vacanti: Why especially with the sliders compared to a towel on hardwood floor?

0:41:38.4 Jordan Syatt: It just sometimes gets clunky with the towel. The towel gets bunched up. Your dog comes over and tries to rip it out. It’s just a little bit clunky sometimes. Maybe you hit a little notch on your hardwood floor that makes it that you hit your heel or something. It works great, but I love the sliders. They’re a little more stable and secure. Your dog can’t come rip it out from underneath you.

0:41:58.2 Mike Vacanti: Your dog might be able to.

0:41:59.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, Curtis would. Curtis would. Yeah, sliders are… It’s the most difficult variation ’cause your lever arm is the longest. And so it’s like, the physio ball is interesting ’cause it adds an instability component. So this doesn’t have the instability, but this is, you have the longest lever arm and it’s the biggest range. So, yeah, I love these. S-tier.

0:42:18.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, this is an S-tier move right here. What’s also cool is they’re cheap and, I shouldn’t say easy, but from a convenience and setup perspective, easy to do in most environments.

0:42:32.9 Jordan Syatt: When I was coaching Gary, my backpack had a couple of things, bands, sliders, and a jump rope. I just could do that in the hotel room, go outside in the parking lot, use them. They’re amazing. You can get them at Home Depot for five bucks, just furniture sliders.

0:42:50.1 Mike Vacanti: Cable pull-through.

0:42:51.4 Jordan Syatt: I love the cable pull-through. I know a lot of people don’t. I really love it. I’m not doing it for hamstrings as much as I’m doing it for glutes, but hamstrings are obviously a major part of it. I’m gonna give it a B-minus.

0:43:08.5 Mike Vacanti: I’m happy with that rating. Last one, donkey kicks.

0:43:12.4 Jordan Syatt: C.

0:43:13.1 Mike Vacanti: Really?

0:43:13.8 Jordan Syatt: I mean, you do end up…

0:43:15.6 Mike Vacanti: What variation?

0:43:16.6 Jordan Syatt: I was thinking straight leg. Maybe it’s not straight… I guess you’re kicking, so it’s not a donkey kick. Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong movement.

0:43:23.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I get confused with all these booty band movements.

0:43:26.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I’m not the expert on that. I think I’m thinking of the wrong variation. I’m thinking of a straight… I’m thinking the wrong one. I was thinking of more like a straight leg hip extension. Donkey kick…

0:43:39.5 Mike Vacanti: When I picture this, I’m picturing someone on all fours keeping their knee at 90, doing a kickback. But I think it’d probably be fair and more charitable to have this be a standing single-leg cable glute kickback.

0:43:56.9 Jordan Syatt: That’s what I was thinking. I was thinking… But I think I was doing it with a straight leg the whole time as opposed to having it bent and almost pushing it away.

0:44:05.8 Mike Vacanti: Look, every single Google image is the first thing I said, though.

0:44:09.7 Jordan Syatt: Oh, is it?

0:44:10.0 Mike Vacanti: So we don’t have to be that charitable.

0:44:10.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, all right, let’s not be charitable then. Let’s just do that. That’s an F.

0:44:14.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Okay, thank you. I got real confused when you were going C.

0:44:18.0 Jordan Syatt: No, no, I was thinking of a different movement. My apologies. I was thinking of a completely different exercise.

0:44:23.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. F-tier. Weekly episodes, we’ll be back next Tuesday. Thank you for listening. Subscribe on YouTube, like, review.

0:44:33.8 Jordan Syatt: If you could share this with your personal trainer friends, it would mean the world to us.

0:44:37.6 Mike Vacanti: We’ll be back next week. See you.