Fit Over 50 - Hamstring Exercises

Margie Weiss: Hi! I am Margie Weiss. This video is how to get fit over 50 and this segment we are working is hamstring strength. For people who are a little bit older often have some back issues. So to work the hamstring the safest way would be to lie on the stomach so that your back is supported. Christina is going to put her chin right on her hands, so her back is nice and flat. She is going to take her belly button and tuck it into her backbone, she is going to squeeze the glute muscles together and her inner legs together, inner thighs and all she is going to do is raise and lower her legs. As she does this, the important thing because we dont have a really heavy weight and it is the weight which is what we have got right now, the weight is a 5 pound weight, you can do three, five, you can even do no weight. But what she wants to do when she comes up is not quite get to the top and not quite get to the bottom. She is going to breath out as the weight comes up and she is going to breath in as it goes down and she is going to squeeze the glute each time so that hip bones stay against the floor, her hip doesnt rise up and down and by doing a continuous motion where you dont come all the way up and all the way down, you are going to fatigue that muscle much quicker. And so doing a nice smooth even action is very safe on the knees and its a good controlled motion. You are going to feel it even if you dont have a weight, because you are going to feel it right here, the hamstrings of the main muscles in the back of the leg. So this hamstring exercise is slightly more difficult and has slightly more risk but it's very effective if you again -- you dont have back issues. You got to keep your back very flat, you are going to tip from the waist band only as far forward as you can keeping your back flat. If you round your back at the base you completely change the exercise and you are putting a lot of stress on your lower back. So you want to keep the back flat. Therefore your flexibility is going to determine how far you go down. Head is neutral because it's part of the backbone, as you go down you release the legs just a little bit but as you come up you are going to squeeze the hamstrings and the glutes so that you tighten all the way up through the core. Weights can be heavy weight or you can do a light weight. Your hamstrings are pretty strong so you can take a decent amount of weight but again if you had back issues, this is not the way to do the hamstring, lying on the ground is. So both of them are really effective just very different. The next segment will be inner and outer thigh exercises.