Directions (Seated Leg Curl)

1. Sit within the leg curl machine and modify it so the heel pad sits throughout your Achilles tendons, the thigh pad rests snugly throughout your decrease thighs, and your knees are a few inches off the entrance fringe of the seat.
2. Modify the again pad in order that it’s as far ahead as attainable whereas preserving the underside of your thighs securely anchored to the pad (this will increase the stress in your hamstrings).
3. Seize the handles, press your again towards the pad, and pull your heels down and again towards your butt so far as they’ll go, sometimes till the machine runs out of vary of movement.
4. Pause for a quick second, and return to the beginning place beneath management.

Directions (Mendacity Leg Curl)

1. Lie face-down on the machine and modify the heel pad so it rests throughout your Achilles tendons, simply above your heels.
2. Seize the handles and pull your heels towards your butt till your calves stumble upon your hamstrings.
3. Pause for a quick second, then decrease your heels and return to the beginning place.

Directions (Mendacity Leg Curl With Hip Extension)

1. Lie face-down on the machine and modify the heel pad so it rests throughout your Achilles tendons, simply above your heels. Relying in your machine, you might discover this train simpler to carry out for those who set the heel pad a little bit decrease in your ankles than regular (nearer to your heel bones than calves).
2. Seize the handles and pull your heels towards your butt till your calves stumble upon your hamstrings.
3. As soon as you may’t transfer your heels any nearer to your butt, flex your glutes arduous to raise your thighs off the pad as excessive as you may (only a few inches for most individuals).
4. Pause for a quick second, then reverse the motion to return to the beginning place. First decrease your thighs again to the pad, then decrease your heels and lengthen your legs.

Professional Ideas

• For the seated hamstring curl, set the thigh pad as little as you comfortably can. Ideally, it ought to be urgent arduous into your thighs and it is best to really feel stress in your hamstrings earlier than you begin your first rep. Additionally set the backrest so that you’re as upright as attainable, not leaning again. This tilts your hips ahead and places much more stress in your hamstrings.
• Set the heel pad to the best attainable place for the seated hamstring curl, and the bottom attainable place for the mendacity hamstring curl. This ensures your hamstrings are working by the longest attainable vary of movement and makes each rep more practical for constructing muscle.
• Dorsiflex your ankles (pull your toes again towards your shins) all through every rep. This lengthens your calves, which considerably will increase knee flexion (bending) energy. In a research from researchers at Daegu College in South Korea, individuals who educated knee flexion with dorsiflexed ankles gained 29-to-59% extra energy than those that educated with pointed toes—each in peak drive and in how a lot whole lifting their hamstrings may do throughout a full take a look at. And a research from researchers on the College of São Paulo discovered that dorsiflexing your ankles permits you to do extra leg curl reps in every exercise, too.
• Don’t be afraid to grind out your previous few reps. Most individuals finish their units once they can now not transfer the load shortly, however you may nearly at all times get 2–3 extra reps on the leg curl for those who push your self. This pays off within the type of extra muscle acquire over the long-term.

Mike’s Take

The leg curl is one among my favourite hamstring workouts, and it’s the variation I embrace in my applications Greater Leaner Stronger for males and Thinner Leaner Stronger for ladies.

Right here’s why it’s such a stellar hamstring train:

1. It successfully isolates the hamstrings. Whereas the Romanian deadlift (RDL), barbell good morning, and deadlift additionally practice your hamstrings, your decrease again usually provides out on these workouts first, limiting how a lot weight you may raise. With the leg curl machine, this isn’t a problem. While you hit failure doing the leg curl, you realize it’s your hamstrings that hit their restrict and never another muscle.
2. You’ll be able to safely take your units shut or to failure. Likewise, it’s typically unsafe and impractical to take heavy compound workouts to true failure, whereas that’s not a problem with the leg curl.
3. It doesn’t drain you the way in which heavy compound workouts do. Once more, whereas RDLs, good mornings, and deadlifts are nice workouts, additionally they knock the starch out of you and require an excessive amount of focus to carry out accurately. The leg curl machine is extra forgiving—even after doing a number of different difficult workouts, an extended day at work, or a foul night time of sleep, you may nonetheless bang out just a few units.

A couple of notes on every variation:

Whereas the seated leg curl has some benefits over the mendacity leg curl (see beneath), it comes with a major draw back: it will get very awkward with heavy weights. Particularly, it turns into arduous to maintain your butt and again pressed towards the pads.

There isn’t a terrific repair for this aside from utilizing your arms to maintain your self in place. Generally it feels extra like a triceps and shoulder train than a hamstring train, however it’s what it’s (and it’s one cause I prefer to rotate this train with the mendacity hamstring curl now and again).

As for the mendacity leg curl with hip extension: it’s equivalent to the common mendacity leg curl, besides you add a small quantity of hip extension on the finish—lifting your thighs off the pad—to work the higher portion of your hamstrings, the half up close to your glutes.

The identify comes from the one that invented it—the author and researcher Lyle McDonald.

A couple of notes on how you can do it and what to anticipate:

1. Chances are you’ll must set the heel pad farther out of your butt than regular to offer your self room to raise your thighs. For instance, for those who usually use the medium setting, you might want to make use of the lengthy setting.
2. Pause for a half second on the high of every rep to be sure you’ve lifted your thighs as excessive off the pad as you may. You need to really feel an intense contraction in your glutes and lower-back muscle mass.
3. Not each mendacity leg curl machine makes this simple. Should you can’t fairly make it work, it would simply be the machine you’re utilizing reasonably than something you’re doing flawed.
4. You’ll most likely want to cut back the load a short while you get the dangle of it. Deal with correct method and add weight over time.
5. Some folks discover it uncomfortable on their decrease again and hips. If that’s you, it’s most likely higher to skip it (that is true for me, by the way in which).
6. Should you don’t prefer it, can’t get the dangle of it, or it causes any joint ache, simply skip it and do the common mendacity leg curl as a substitute.

Lastly, relating to programming the leg curl machine, I typically love to do 2–3 units of 6–8 reps with 1–2 minutes relaxation between units. You can even superset it with a quad train just like the leg extension or leg press to complete your exercises sooner.

Leg Curl Alternate options

• Barbell Romanian Deadlift (RDL). That is one of the best barbell hamstring train you are able to do. It means that you can use very heavy weights and trains your glutes, low-back, and forearms, too. It enhances the leg curl reasonably than changing it, because it trains hip extension, not knee flexion.
• Barbell Good Morning. That is mainly the identical hip-hinge motion because the RDL, besides you carry out it with a barbell in your again as a substitute of in your palms. Which you employ largely comes down to private choice.
• Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift. The entire identical professionals and cons of the barbell RDL, however with dumbbells.
• Glute-Ham Increase (GHD Machine). It is a respectable different, but it surely doesn’t have any significant benefits over the leg curl, is tougher to progress, and extra awkward to carry out.
• Nordic Hamstring Curl. This is without doubt one of the greatest (and solely) body weight hamstring workouts you are able to do. Inferior to the leg curl machine or a barbell train, however a very good possibility for those who don’t have entry to the previous.
• Reverse Hyper Machine. That is much like the Glute-Ham Machine, however emphasizes hip extension over knee flexion. Not a foul train, but it surely doesn’t have many significant benefits over the opposite workouts on this checklist, and most gyms don’t have one.

3 Leg Curl Exercises

Listed here are three pattern exercises that present how you can program the leg curl, it doesn’t matter what sort of exercise routine you’re following:

Decrease Physique Exercise with the Leg Curl

Barbell Again Squat: 3 units | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Barbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 units | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Leg Extension: 3 units | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min relaxation
Seated Leg Curl: 3 units | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min relaxation
Standing Calf Increase: 2 units | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min relaxation

Hamstring-Targeted Exercise with the Leg Curl

Barbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 units | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Seated Leg Curl: 3 units | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min relaxation
Leg Press: 3 units | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Mendacity Leg Curl: 2 units | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min relaxation
Leg Extension: 2 units | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min relaxation

Glute-Targeted Decrease Physique Exercise with the Leg Curl

Barbell Again Squat: 3 units | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Barbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 units | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Barbell Hip Thrust (or Hip Thrust Machine): 3 units | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min relaxation
Mendacity Leg Curl with Hip Extension: 3 units | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min relaxation

To progress any of those exercises, use double development: work throughout the given rep vary, take every set 1–2 reps shy of failure, and when you hit the top quality to your first set, add weight to the following set.

Seated vs. Mendacity Leg Curl: Which Is Higher?

Whereas the seated and mendacity leg curl each practice your hamstrings, they accomplish that in barely alternative ways.

Particularly, the seated leg curl trains your hamstrings whereas they’re in a extra stretched place than the mendacity leg curl.

That’s as a result of sitting upright together with your legs straight in entrance of you locations your hamstrings in a totally stretched place, whereas mendacity down doesn’t. That is noteworthy as a result of analysis exhibits that relating to constructing muscle, coaching a muscle whereas it’s stretched is superior to coaching it whereas it’s relaxed.

And that’s why the seated leg curl builds extra muscle than the mendacity model. A research from researchers at Ritsumeikan College in Japan discovered that the seated leg curl grew the hamstrings about 14% versus about 9% for the mendacity model over 12 weeks.

That’s roughly 50% extra muscle for a similar work. Most of that further progress was additionally within the higher portion of the hamstrings—the place they join together with your hips.

Muscle tissue additionally are inclined to develop extra once they’re educated by a full vary of movement, and the seated leg curl checks each bins: it trains your hamstrings by a full vary of movement whereas they’re totally stretched.

Thus, most individuals will profit extra from the seated leg curl than the mendacity leg curl.

That mentioned, the mendacity leg curl continues to be an efficient train. Should you favor the way it feels or it’s the one machine you’ve got entry to, it’s a viable different.

The mendacity leg curl additionally makes a helpful second curl to pair with the seated model. It really works your hamstrings from a barely totally different place, and it’s simple to get into and keep put, so you may push every set arduous with out the machine shifting you round.

Muscle tissue Labored by the Leg Curl

The leg curl primarily trains the hamstrings, although it additionally trains the glutes and calves to a small diploma, too.

Your hamstrings have two major capabilities: knee flexion (bending your knee) and hip extension (transferring your torso away out of your thighs).

One of many principal advantages of the leg curl is it trains knee flexion, one thing most different hamstring workouts (all types of the deadlift, the hip thrust, and the glute bridge, for instance) neglect.

Three of your 4 hamstring muscle mass cross each the hip and the knee, however one among them—the brief head of the biceps femoris—solely crosses the knee. Which means it barely participates in hip-hinging workouts just like the Romanian deadlift. The one approach to totally develop it’s with a knee-flexion train just like the leg curl.

Moreover, the seated leg curl trains knee flexion whereas the three largest “components” of the hamstrings—the lengthy head of the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus—are totally lengthened. This makes it significantly efficient for creating the areas of the hamstrings which have the most important affect on upper-leg measurement.

Blended up the machines? The leg extension is the other train. You straighten your knees towards resistance, which trains your quads, not your hamstrings.

Extra Hamstring Workouts