I was talking to a former cornerback in the NFL the other day about strengthening ones legs. He said that cornerbacks typically want a 60-40 strength ratio of quadriceps to hamstrings due to all the backpeddaling that a cornerback does. This means they want 60% of the muscle in the quadricep and 40% in the hamstring. Does anyone know the average strength ratio of quadriceps to hamstrings? Common sense would dictate that they would be 50-50, but I was wondering if one was supposed to be stronger than the other.
From experience with an high school injury and following rehab, IIRC the ratio is like 4:1 to 3:1. I base this on what is admittally out of date info.
The quads are much stronger than the hamstrings. There are probably hundreds or thousands of football players (and others) who could squat 500+ lbs. and do legs extensions with probably 200+ lbs. or more. How many can leg curl the same amount?
When I rehabed my knee, the idea was to get the ratio (and total strength) the same between injured and healthly leg.
I would imagine that a low ratio won’t hurt but a high ratio might lead to muscle pulls or tears. It’s easy to imagine the quad overpowering the hamstring but not vice versa.
For evolutionary and neuroanatomic reasons, the quads are stronger than the hams in bipedalists, like ourselves. I’m not sure what the “optimum” quads:hams strength ratio is, but I would guess that it is around 60:40. In general, it is the “antigravity” muscles that are stronger in terrestrial vertebrates.