Exercises to Reduce Pain Around the Hamstrings

Building Lower body strength for Boomers

One of the main reasons I have been going to exercise weekly with a personal trainer is to reduce the chronic pains I have in my lower body. I find that doing the right kind of exercises regularly has reduced the pain. However, my hamstrings were hurting during the Christmas holidays as I took a couple of weeks off from going to the gym and working out with my personal trainer.

Last Friday was the first day I went back to my exercise program with Joyce.  I told her about the pain I was experiencing in my hamstrings. She sprang into action and came up with exercises right there for me at the gym trying to reduce my pains.

Warm up with Lunges

Her exercises helped a lot! I felt really good after that one hour of exercises she designed for me. I wanted to write them down so that next time when my hamstrings hurt, I could do them on my own at home or at the gym.

Warm up exercises

Lunging - a. 1 gym length, touch wall and run back to the other end of the gym, 30 seconds rest
              b. 1 gym length, touch wall and run back to the other end of the gym, 30 seconds rest
              c.  lunging with wt overhead to one end of wall, run back

After warm up:

Ab Thruster - lay on back with a mat placed on the ground
                 - put feet up on 3-4 riser steps with heels on the top riser step
                 -a.  thrust hips as high as possible from the ground - 12x, rest for 30 seconds
                  b.  place a weight disk on abdomin, hold weight disk in place with both hands, thrust hips high    away from ground - 12 x
                  c. Repeat as in b, 12x. Rest for 30 seconds between each set of exercise.

Back squat with weight on shoulder  - 30 lbs
Put barbell on back of shoulder, squat down, with backside touching step riser, get up. Repeat 10x

Jumps  - ( really good for activating all the small muscles on the thighs where the hamstrings are)

Riser Steps

a. Riser Jumps - 6 step height
                   -  jump up and land on top riser step distributing body weight evenly, repeat 10x

b. Consecutive Riser Jump - set up two sets of riser steps with different height, one set at 4 steps, the second set with  6 riser step height.  Separate the two sets of steps with some distance in between.
 Jump the two sets of riser steps consecutively, 10x

High Knees

High knees - running on the spot with knees raise up as high as possible, non stop for 1  minute.
                 - rest 30 seconds in between, repeat 3 times, each time for 1 minute



R.T. Toronto
January, 2012