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« on: October 17, 2015, 01:18:14 pm »
The hamstrings are pretty much useless in high bar squats. They are being shortened at the knee, while being stretched at the hip. So they pretty much maintain the same length throughout the squatting movement.
That's why you sometimes see the knees caving in on the concentric phase of a high bar squat - since the hamstrings are being pulled out of the concentric phase, the adductors are being recruited to act as hip extensors instead - hence the adduction that is occuring.
The last thing in the world you should worry about in a high bar squat are the hamstrings. The hams do participate to a more important degree in the low bar squat, since the low bar squat is more of a "sit back and limit the forward knee translation" type of squat, meaning the hamstrings are being stretched more at the hip and shortened less at the knee => more hamstring participation.
Obviously, the lack of hamstring strength importance is the greatest during front squats - they're pretty much a quad+glute exercise.
PS. I remember when Kelly said he had "girlish hamstring strength" on leg curls when he had a 40+ vert off two legs. All glutes+quads.
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