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Menno Henselmans

Thomas DeLauer

Max German

Even when your hamstrings get bigger from training, that doesn’t really predict how much stronger you’ll get at the other exercise—so bigger muscles don’t mean much more strength in this case.

Correlational

Nordic curls make one part of your hamstring (semitendinosus) grow more, while stiff-leg deadlifts make another part (semimembranosus) grow more—so different exercises target different muscles in the same group.

Descriptive

Doing two different hamstring exercises—Nordic curls and stiff-leg deadlifts—makes you stronger at both, even if your muscles don’t grow the same way, meaning muscle growth isn’t what’s making you stronger in the other exercise.

Causal

Both Nordic curls and stiff-leg deadlifts make your entire hamstring group bigger after 9 weeks of training—Nordic curls make them grow a bit more.

Descriptive

In stiff-leg deadlifts, the size of the biceps femoris muscle (back of the thigh) seems to matter more for getting stronger at other exercises—unlike the other hamstring muscles.

Correlational

In untrained individuals, compound movements can improve performance on isolation movements due to enhanced neuromuscular coordination, overriding the specificity principle; however, in trained individuals, strength gains are highly movement-specific.

Comparison