The hamstring muscles are often overlooked, yet they play a pivotal role in exercise performance and mobility.

Though you’ve probably seen fitness gurus sharing their intense hamstring workouts, you may wonder whether you can do them without the heavy equipment.

Fortunately, many exercises can help strengthen your hamstrings using just your body weight.

This article provides 12 bodyweight hamstring exercises for beginners to advanced exercisers.

Beginner bodyweight hamstring exercises

If you’re new to hamstring exercises, these exercises are great to start off with.

1. Good morning

Good mornings are a good option for improving the strength of your hamstrings and lower back. To maximize results, the key is to focus on slow, controlled movement and avoid using heavy weights.

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with elbows bent and your hands on the back of your head. Engage your core and keep your shoulders back.
2. Inhale and slowly hinge forward at the hips (rather than bending at the waist) while keeping your back straight and your knees slightly bent.
3. Bend until you feel a light stretch in your hamstrings and your chest is close to being parallel with the floor.
4. Push into the balls of your feet and squeeze your glutes to slowly lift your back until you’ve returned to the starting position. This is 1 rep.
5. Perform 2–3 sets of 8–12 reps.

2. Bodyweight Romanian deadlift

Though deadlifts may seem intimidating, they’re an excellent compound movement. In particular, Romanian deadlifts typically involve using lower weights and focus on the hip-hinge movement.

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your hands lightly clenched and palms facing your thighs (imagine you’re holding two dumbbells).
2. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge at the hips and slowly lower your hands toward the floor, keeping them close to your legs throughout the movement. Stop when they’re around the middle of your shins. Keep your core engaged and maintain a neutral spine throughout the exercise.
3. With control, squeeze your glutes and slowly rise up, envisioning pushing the floor away from you as you return to the starting position. This is 1 rep.
4. Perform 2–3 sets of 8–12 reps.

The lowering movement of this exercise focuses on eccentric contraction (lengthening) of the hamstrings. For optimal results, ensure you’re lowering slowly and with control.

3. Crabwalk

This move may look funny, but it’s great for the glutes and hamstrings.

1. Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat.
2. Extend your arms behind you and place your hands on the floor with your fingers pointed toward you.
3. Engage your core and lift your hips off the floor.
4. Step forward simultaneously with your left foot and right hand. Next, step forward with your right foot and left hand. Continue this movement as far as you can in the space you’re in. Then, try going backward.
5. Try to do this for 30 seconds 2–3 times.

4. Prone (lying) hamstring curl

Though hamstring curls are usually done on a leg curl machine, you can do them without equipment.

1. Lie on your stomach with your legs straight, elbows bent, and head gently resting on the tops of your hands.
2. Bend your right knee and pull your heel toward your glutes, creating resistance by flexing your heel and driving your foot through space. Be sure to keep your hip and thigh touching the floor and your other leg straight. It helps to think of sliding your knee away from your body, along the floor, to create length in the front of the hip joint.
3. Return to the starting position. This is 1 rep.
4. Perform 2–3 sets of 12–15 reps on each leg.

For an added challenge, use ankle weights or tie a resistance band around a stable surface and tie the other end to your upper foot.

Summary

If you’re new to exercising your hamstrings, you’ll want to focus on simple exercises and prioritize your form.

References: https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/hamstring-exercises-bodyweight#beginner-exercises