36 active individuals completed a program to discover whether or not a Resistance Training program based on High Load induced similar distribution of muscle hypertrophy among the hamstring heads when compared to Low Load combined with Blood Flow Restriction.
Both groups alternated between 2 different training sessions a week, for a total of 9 weeks.
Session 1:
Stiff Leg Deadlift
Front Squat
Session 2:
Bi-Set of Bilateral Seated Leg Curl and Seated Leg Extension
The Volume was equated between groups, but to make sure both were training with sufficient effort, the Sets were either being performed close to, or to complete failure, with a 12 RM for the High Load Group and 30 RM for the other.
The results showed greater muscle hypertrophy for the Semitendinosus Muscle in the High Load Group, and greater muscle hypertrophy for the Semimembranosus Muscle in the Low Load with Blood Flow Restriction Group (no significant difference was found between groups for the Biceps Femoris).
Not only that, but the magnitude of the selective hypertrophy observed within each group varied greatly between individuals.
Both groups trained with the same amount of hip-extension and knee-flexion movements, and still, the results varied greatly both between groups, and inside the same group!
And although these findings suggest that it is very difficult to early determine the location of the hypertrophy among a muscle group, for the time being, we may still be able to benefit from this information.
If you’re training (at least, in the hamstring muscle group) with sufficient effort in all your prescribed exercises, and see that one portion is starting to fall behind, instead of changing the whole exercise selection, you may benefit from changing just the amount of Reps that you’re doing in those given exercises.
But this is just me speculating, for a more clear answer we may have to wait a while.
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