Archive Article: One of the Most Underrated Strength Exercises You Can Do

[Mark Rippetoe]

One of the Most Underrated Strength Exercises You Can Do | Mark Rippetoe

[Daniel Jones]

Coach Rippetoe,

Is there an immediate relationship between athletes that train for their sport the [high bar] squat and the power clean (non-SS style, hips down) without the deadlift involved at all, and then these athletes have persistent hamstring problems?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't have the quantitative data on this, and nobody else does either.

[Daniel Jones]

Yeah. I was just curious if you had an opinion of why hamstring injuries seem so prevalent as a sports injury in contrast to say the quads. Is this [the hamstrings] muscle group really that fragile or are they just undertrained, or something else?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I blame the knee extension machine. So much fun!

[wal]

I like the "underrated lift", it is the basis for most of the lifting I do at work and at home, howbeit those lifts most always being asymmetrical can sometimes be awkward and dangerous. The deadlift however has taught me how to lift heavy objects without injury. Thus far all these years I have manged to stay injury free. I don't need to find a coach, I have your book.