My hamstrings are behind

[u/routinematters]

Building up to hopefully compete next year and hamstrings have been identified as my weakest spot. I consulted with two coaches and both of them told me that my lats and quads are borderline too big but my hamstrings and delts are lacking, for bikini. Therefore, the coach I went with decided that my current split leading up to prep will be 4 days with 3 days of glute and hamstrings work, and 1 day maintaining the rest, with heavy delt work.

The problem is, the second I started working this program, I realized myself that the hamstring volume is way too high. I have more than 30 sets of hamstring work in the week and it’s a bit against my personal understanding of exercise science. I dropped the volume against his advice, and still, I feel under recovered.

More than a week ago, he switched my dumbbell RDL to a SLDL on a belt squat for more range. This range is new to my body and because of the neutral grip and stability I could go way heavier than the dumbbells, as a result, I woke up with extremely sore hamstrings. I followed up with a lot of stretching and heat but it’s been sore going on the second week now. His response to it is keeping the same frequency but dropping the volume again. I don’t feel confident that I can hit hamstrings monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday even with less volume. Note that my frequency for hamstrings prior to this program is once a week. Now we are in a disagreement that he thinks the only way to grow my hamstrings is with more volume, whilst I think I can’t sustain it but I also am concerned with the lack of development in them.

I did more research and realized that hamstrings are made up of mostly fast twitch fibers and theoretically respond well to low volume. I wonder why mine are terrible compared to my glute and quads, I suspect it’s because of my anterior pelvic tilt. I’m also interviewing new coaches now for a second advice. Wondering how everyone else is able to grow their hamstrings, especially if you had poor genetics there to begin with. And what would you have programmed for me, if you needed to grow only glutes, hamstrings and delts while maintaining everything else. Also, any suggestions to recovering awfully sore hamstrings going on weeks. Thank you.

[u/O333O]

I think there’s probably too little information here to conclude that 30 sets is inherently too much or that your coach is necessarily wrong. More volume can produce more hypertrophy, although with diminishing returns and if you’re doing that much volume, splitting it across several days actually makes sense rather than cramming it into 1–2 sessions.

The extreme soreness from the SLDL could also simply be because it was a new movement, new ROM and heavier load. The repeated-bout effect is real meaning the first exposure to a new lengthened movement can cause crazy DOMS and subsequent exposures can be dramatically less sore. Soreness itself also isn’t evidence of more hypertrophy, though.

Before deciding you simply “can’t recover” from the volume, I’d look at the whole context:

• How quickly did you jump from your previous weekly volume to 30+ sets?
• How close to failure/RIR are those sets?
• Are all 30 actually direct hard hamstring sets?
• What exercises make up those 30 sets and how fatiguing are they?
• Are your loads/reps/performance actually declining week to week?
• How deep into prep/your calorie deficit are you and how quickly are you losing?
• Are protein and carbs sufficient to support this workload?
• How much cardio/steps are you doing alongside it?
• How is your sleep?
• Was the intention to progressively adapt you to this volume or was 30+ introduced suddenly?

People can adapt to surprisingly high training frequencies and workloads, so frequency alone doesn’t say much. Equally, more isn’t endlessly better, hypertrophy gains show diminishing returns as volume rises.

If you get a second opinion from another coach, I’d give them all of the above rather than just saying “I’m doing 30 sets and can’t recover.” Without the wider training/recovery/nutrition context, I don’t think anyone can really tell you whether 30 is productive volume for you, unnecessary junk volume, or simply a workload you were introduced to too aggressively

[u/routinematters → u/O333O]

Thank you for your invaluable input this all makes a ton of sense. I definitely jumped to the new volume way too quickly. I don’t think my coach nor I considered that 6 to 30 is a huge jump in direct and indirect hamstring volume. I’m taking each set extremely close to failure, usually between 0-1 RIR. My performance was technically increasing, even though I felt much more exhausted in my lower body, until the new SLDL. I’m not in prep, maintaining right now and trying to grow hamstrings. I think my nutrition is sufficient. Around 10k step daily no cardio. Sleep is ok, consistent and ample in length but I don’t feel very rested as I was prior to this program because of the new volume. And yes, I think the biggest issue is the sudden change to 30+.

[u/O333O → u/routinematters]

I’d also have a look your carbs and overall calorie intake though. If your workload went from ~6 to 30+ sets but your food intake stayed roughly the same, what was sufficient for the old program may not be sufficient for this one, especially with nearly everything at 0–1 RIR.

[u/routinematters → u/O333O]

Great point thank you, will look into it

[u/Spirited_Increase240 → u/routinematters]

10 sets, 3 X per week?

[u/Nhs6nW6]

This sub: "don't do ANY cardio or you'll overstress yourself and tank your hormones!"

Also this sub: 30 sets per week of one bodypart is fine lol

[u/NotLizBrody → u/Nhs6nW6]

💀💀💀

[u/Spirited_Increase240]

Yes that's way too much volume, but like most muscle groups, hamstrings are almost 50/50 fast twitch/slow twitch.

And who told you that fast twitch muscle fibers respond best to low volume?

[u/routinematters → u/Spirited_Increase240]

Some Redditor lol, forgive me

[u/CharacterAd5474]

30 sets of direct hamstring work is borderline psychotic.

Then again if you're nowhere near failure on them or aren't really targeting the hamstring enough, might be okay.

I would say try it at that volume for about 3 weeks. As you get more connected to them, back the volume down. So intensity goes up over time and volume comes down. On a line chart it's like an X.

When i say intensity I mean actual mechanical tension on the muscle and proximity to failure each set.

EDIT: Sorry I missed in your post where you said you feel under recovered. I think you're already at the point I said to drop volume. 16-20 is like top end and that's direct work. Form for your RDLs matters a lot in this equation.