Those Other Biceps

Biceps femoris

Most people don’t realize they have biceps on the back of their thigh. What?! That’s right - the biceps femoris. The biceps on your arm is actually called the biceps brachii - referring to its placement on the upper arm.

“Biceps” means “two heads” and the biceps femoris has one attachment at the base of the pelvis and another that lies underneath, attaching to the femur. The biceps femoris is on the lateral part of your thigh and the other two thirds of your hamstrings are on the medial part of the thigh - the semimembranosus and semitendinosus.

The hamstrings are comprised of:

• Biceps femoris

• Semimembranosus

• Semitendinosus

The hamstrings play an essential role in your daily life by decelerating your leg when you run, walk, and they also help hold you upright as you bend forward. Their two main actions are hip extension (kicking back) and knee flexion (bending the knee).

How To Train the Hamstrings

Due to how often most people sit in daily life, the hamstrings are chronically shortened. Not only are they usually tight, but they are usually weak as well.

The hamstrings are most often trained in slight knee bend during hip hinging motions like the deadlift variations. It is important to train these large muscles through their full range of motion. Unless you use a leg curl machine, you are probably leaving a large part of your hamstrings untrained - the last 30-50% of knee flexion.

Below is one of the best exercises for the hamstring group because it trains both functions simultaneously - hip extension and knee flexion. This exercise is superior to a leg curl machine because it requires core activation, balance, multiple muscles working at once, and it can be progressed to a single leg version that is extremely challenging.

Give it a try and see what you think. Start with 5 reps and don’t increase reps unless you are able to control the eccentric phase - straightening the legs - for at least 2-3 seconds.

This is a very accessible exercise you can do at home. If you don’t have a ball, use socks on a slick floor or place a towel under your shoes to reduce friction and you can still get a lot of the benefit as the Swiss ball version.