When you think about strengthening your legs, you might focus on the muscles on the front of your body. After all, those are the easiest ones to see.

But this can lead to a common imbalance. The hamstrings, the muscles on the backs of your thighs, are often 50 to 80 percent weaker than the quadriceps, the muscles on the fronts of your thighs. And weak hamstrings can make it harder to do your daily activities and lower back pain worse. 

Here, learn more about the benefits of strengthening your hamstrings and the best hamstring exercises for seniors to try.

Understanding the hamstrings

Your hamstring muscles help you bend your knees and move your hips backward. They’re essential in slowing down forward movement. They also help keep your knees stable as you move.

There are technically three muscles that make up the hamstrings. They begin at the bottom of your pelvis, run along the back and sides of your femur (the big bone in your upper leg), and then attach to the bones in your lower leg.

Anatomy of hamstring muscles

The three different muscles that make up your hamstrings are the:

• Semitendinosus, on the upper and inner part of the back of your thigh
• Semimembranosus, on the lower and inner part of the back of your thigh
• Biceps femoris, on the outer part of the back of your thigh

Benefits of hamstring exercises for seniors

Maintaining strong, flexible hamstrings helps you move with greater ease at any age. But here are some of the unique perks for older adults.

Hamstring strength for aging

Starting around age 30, adults naturally lose about 3 to 5 percent of their lean muscle mass each decade. This muscle loss due to aging is called sarcopenia. These changes may not become noticeable until you’re in your 60s, when the loss of muscle can start to interfere with your daily activities.

Maintaining muscle strength is crucial as you get older because it helps you keep up with those daily activities and maintain your independence. Otherwise, you’re at greater risk of falls, fractures, and higher health care costs. 

“Maintaining hamstring strength specifically as we age is key to the proper mobility of the knee and hips,” says Bold head trainer Alicia Estrada. “Strong hamstrings also help maintain lower body strength and support essential daily functions, contributing to good posture, improved mobility, and continued independence.”

Injury prevention

The hamstrings are particularly prone to strains and inflammation. But exercises that strengthen them can help you avoid pain. That’s especially true for hamstring exercises that lengthen the muscle, such as heel drags and deadlifts. One study found these types of exercises reduced risk of hamstring injury by 57 to 70 percent.

Ease of movement and mobility

Your hamstrings play a key role in your walking gait. With each step, they slow down your knee and hip before your foot hits the ground. When these muscles are strong, you can walk, climb stairs, hike, run, garden, and more with more ease. Strong lower-body muscles like your hamstrings also help you transition between sitting and standing or lowering down and getting up from the floor.

Stretching and strengthening your hamstrings also helps you move your knees and hips through their full range of motion.

Fall prevention

While more and larger studies are needed, some research suggests that when your hamstring and quadricep muscles are more balanced, you may be less likely to fall. Falls are a common source of injury in older adults, so anything you can do to prevent them is worth a try.

Less back pain

Hamstring stretch exercises aim to reduce tension in the muscles on the backs of your thighs. This, in turn, can help alleviate lower back pain in some older adults, because those tight muscles would otherwise be adding strain on your back. “These exercises are often overlooked when addressing back pain,” Rios says “Tight hamstrings can pull on your pelvis, which alters spinal alignment and consequently causes stress and pain in your back.”

Popular hamstring exercises for seniors

The best hamstring exercises target the muscle by keeping your feet on the floor or another fixed surface and moving your knees and your hips simultaneously.

While that might sound a little technical, there are plenty of options to choose from. Many of them can be performed seated, standing, or on the floor, depending on what’s most comfortable for you. Many are also bodyweight hamstring exercises, meaning you don’t need any equipment. But as you get stronger, you can also add resistance bands or dumbbells to your hamstring exercises at home to keep challenging yourself.

Before trying any new exercise, it’s always a good idea to talk to a doctor or physical therapist to make sure they’re safe for you. 

Seated hamstring exercises

Seated hamstring exercises give you the ability to work your lower body with a little extra support from a sturdy chair.

Seated hamstring curl

You can do a seated hamstring curl on a machine at a gym, if you have access to one. But you can also do this hamstring exercise at home with a resistance band.

• Start sitting on a sturdy chair with a resistance band anchored to a stable object in front of you. Loop the other end of the band around the back of one ankle. Make sure there’s tension on the band when your knee is just slightly bent.
• Bend your knee back toward the chair against the resistance of the band. Hold briefly.
• Straighten your leg until your knee is just slightly bent. Repeat for several repetitions.
• Complete the same number of repetitions on the other leg.

Heel drag

• Start sitting on a sturdy chair with one foot flat on the floor and the other heel on the floor in front of you.
• Use the back of your leg to pull your heel toward your chair.
• Continue for several repetitions, then complete the same number of repetitions on the other leg.

Bottom squat isometrics

• Start sitting at the front edge of a sturdy chair with your feet flat on the floor wider than hip-width apart.
• Lean your torso slightly forward with your back flat.
• Press through your heels to feel the back of your legs engage as if you were about to stand up from the chair but don’t get up.
• Hold this position briefly, then release.
• Repeat for several rounds.

You can find these and other hamstring and lower-body exercises in Bold’s 13-Minute Strength: Leg Blast class.

Standing hamstring exercises

Standing will give you more opportunity to add resistance and try dumbbell hamstring exercises. But you can also do standing hamstring exercises without any weight.

Standing hamstring curl

• Start standing holding onto the back of a chair or a wall for balance.
• Bend one knee and raise your heel as far as you can toward your buttocks. Keep your foot flexed and your knees close together.
• Pause briefly, then lower your foot back to the floor.
• Repeat on the other side.

Alternating reverse lunge

• Start standing with your hands at your side. Optional: Hold a dumbbell in each hand or a single weight at your chest. You can also hold onto a wall with one hand or the back of a chair with both hands if you need more support. 
• Take a big step back with one foot.
• Lower your body by bending both knees to 90 degrees or as low as you can comfortably go. 
• Press through your front foot to return to standing.
• Repeat on the other side.
• Continue alternating sides for several rounds.

Romanian deadlift

Deadlifts can be tricky for beginners. Start by learning the movement using just your bodyweight. As you grow more comfortable, you can try a dumbbell deadlift or even a barbell deadlift.

Romanian deadlifts target the hamstrings more effectively than conventional deadlifts because you keep your knees straighter. Once you’re ready to add weight, you might try a conventional deadlift, where you typically start with the weight on the floor and bend your knees more to pick it up.

• Start standing with your feet hip-width apart and a slight bend in your knees. Your arms can be relaxed by your sides. 
• Keep your back flat as you push your hips back and lean your torso forward. Think about lowering your hands toward your feet, keeping them close to your legs.
• Once you’ve lowered as far as you comfortably can, press through your heels to return to standing.
• Repeat for several rounds.

More experienced exercisers can also try single-leg deadlifts, which isolate the muscles of one leg at a time, by resting the toes of one foot behind you like a kickstand or even extending that leg straight behind you as you lower your chest toward the floor.

You can find more standing lower-body strength exercises to try in Bold’s standing strength classes.

Floor hamstring exercises

Certain floor-based hamstring exercises can give you a better opportunity to isolate these muscles, helping them grow stronger.

Glute bridge

• ​​Start lying on your back on a mat or another comfortable surface. Bend your knees and plant your feet on the floor. Your arms can be by your sides.
• Tuck your pelvis and press through your heels to lift your hips until your body forms a diagonal line from knees to hips to shoulders. Squeeze your glute muscles at the top.
• Slowly lower your hips back to the floor.
• Repeat for several rounds.

Lying heel drag

• Start lying on your back on a mat or another comfortable surface with one knee bent and that foot flat on the floor and the other leg straight and that heel on the floor.
• Use the back of your leg to pull your heel toward you as you bend your knee.
• Continue for several repetitions, then complete the same number of repetitions on the other leg.

Lying hamstring curl

• Start lying on your stomach on a mat or another comfortable surface with your forehead resting on your hands. Optional: Loop a mini resistance band around your ankles to make this more challenging.
• Use the back of your leg to pull the heel of one foot toward your buttocks.
• Slowly and with control lower that leg back down to the floor and repeat on the other side.
• Continue for several rounds.

You can find more floor lower-body exercises in Bold’s floor strength classes.

Hamstring stretch exercises

The movements above all help build muscle strength in the backs of your legs. But stretching exercises are also important. These movements help release tension, which is key to easing lower back pain and helping you move comfortably.

Seated hamstring stretch

• Start sitting tall on the edge of a sturdy chair with your feet planted on the floor.
• Straighten your right leg and place your right heel on the floor, flexing your right foot. Place both hands on your left thigh.
• Lean your torso forward until you feel a stretch in the back of your right thigh.
• Hold for several breaths, then repeat on the other side.

Standing hamstring stretch

• Start standing behind a sturdy chair or next to a wall to hold onto for balance.
• Keep a slight bend in your left knee and place your right heel on the floor, right leg straight.
• Hinge from your hips and lean your torso forward to feel the stretch in the back of your right thigh.
• Hold for several breaths, then repeat on the other side.

Floor hamstring stretch

• Start lying on your back on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat.
• Lift one leg and bring your knee toward your chest. Hold the back of your thigh below your knee with both hands. Optional: If this is challenging for you, loop a towel around the back of your thigh instead and hold the ends.
• Straighten your leg and gently pull it toward you until you feel a stretch in the back of your thigh.
• Hold for several breaths, then repeat on the other side.

You can find more stretches to try in Bold’s flexibility classes. 

Hamstring workouts at home

All you need to get started with hamstring exercises at home is enough space to move comfortably and safely. If you’re curious about seated hamstring exercises, make sure you have a sturdy, stable chair that won’t wobble or roll. Then, choose from Bold’s many different lower-body strength classes to find exercises like these and more that will help build your hamstring strength. With seated, standing, or floor positions, there’s something for everyone!

More lower-body classes to try:

• 22-Minute Strength: Lower-Body Power
• 29-Minute Balance: Lower-Body Coordination
• 23-Minute Strength: Lower-Body Foundations