CrossFit and Olympic lifting are very quad dominant sports in general. In a nutshell, this means that over time, the hamstrings become underdeveloped in relation to the quadriceps. There tends to be much more focus on the extension of the legs and squatting than hinging and deadlifting.
In the sport of Olympic Weightlifting however, performing a pure deadlift does not necessarily transfer over to a clean or snatch as well because the positioning is very different from a clean or snatch pull.
As a result of this, we need certain exercises that will train the hamstrings and glutes, but also will mimic the positioning of the lifts.
For this we use:
- Good mornings
- Romanian deadliftsThese both mimic the shoulders being over the bar similar to the clean and the snatch. You can throw in additional work with RDLs to focus on the isometric strength as well, such as RDLS with a pause in the bottom position.
You can do single-leg RDLs as well. These will challenge your balance extremely and build musculature you didn’t know you had! (Read more about the benefits of single-leg RDL’s here.)
Other great exercises:
- Glute ham raises are also a great option for building your hamstrings and glutes.
- Weighted hip-ups are great as well for developing the glutes and focusing on glute “activation”.
Check out our FREE Brute Booty playbook for more tips, exercises, and mistakes to avoid when building your go muscles (the posterior chain.) It’s all the rage these days.
