Q: I’ve been training for years now, and things have changed. We used to do stiff-legged deadlifts and it seems like no one does hamstring curls with free weights - only curls on a machine. What do you think of the following free weight ham routine?

• Stiff-legged deadlifts

• Walking lunges

• Good Mornings

• Lying leg curls with dumbbells

(Two sets of each)

A: Let’s start at the end first. Why do dumbbell lying leg curls when machines do them better? And that’s the point here - it isn’t that free weight movements don’t work for hams or any other exercise - they do. I am old school too, but I admitted a long time ago that many machines position you much more correctly, and remove a lot of margin of error from workouts, than you can. I would do the first three, along with lying leg curls on a machine intended for that. Stiff-legged deadlifts, remember, are only as good as the person performing them. They can be done horribly or with very good form. Do Good Mornings once a week, always do walking lunges, and do stiff-legged deads if you feel absolutely confident you know what you’re doing. The hams are a fast twitch dominant muscle. Training them with lower reps 6-8 is fine when it comes to flexion movements. For movements like stiff-legged deadlifts and Good mornings, which are extension movements, choose higher reps since the glutes are involved and are a slow twitch fiber. I personally like to employ a kind of rest-pause style with very heavy weight. I’ve seen incredible improvements in my entire back side - from traps down to hamstrings - doing this.

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