Lying Leg Curl
Trains the Hamstrings.
- Equipment
- A machine
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set the machine so the padded roller sits just above your heels, on your Achilles tendons rather than on your calves.
- Lie face down with your knees just past the edge of the pad, so the knee joint can move freely.
- Grip the handles and keep your hips pressed down into the pad throughout.
- Curl your heels toward your backside by bending your knees, breathing out as you go.
- Squeeze briefly at the top, then lower under control until your legs are almost straight. Stop just short of the knee locking out to keep tension on the muscle.
Common mistakes
- Lifting the hips off the pad at the top. Raising the hips shortens the hamstrings at the hip end, which makes the curl easier and shorter. Keeping the hips flat is what keeps the movement honest, and it usually means less weight.
- Letting the weight drop on the way down. The lowering half is where a hamstring gets loaded while lengthening, which is the demand it meets in sprinting and the one it is worst at. Take at least two seconds to lower.
- Treating leg curls as complete hamstring training. Curls train knee flexion; they do almost nothing for hip extension, which is the hamstrings' other job and the one Romanian deadlifts and good mornings cover. A program with only one of the two has trained the muscle at one end.
- Setting the pad on the calves rather than just above the heels. Too high and the lever is short, the ankle takes the pressure, and the range gets cut.