Isolation · Advanced
Nordic Hamstring Curl
- Movement pattern
- Isolation
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanics
- Isolation
- Sides
- Bilateral
- Main plane
- Sagittal
How to do the Nordic Hamstring Curl
Setup
Kneel with your ankles anchored under a sturdy object or held by a partner, hips straight, torso upright to start.
Lower your torso forward as slowly as possible, resisting the fall with your hamstrings -- this is trained mainly as a slow eccentric, since your hamstrings are far stronger lowering than lifting.
Push off your hands at the bottom and use them to assist your way back up if needed.
Scale the difficulty by how much hand assistance you use -- from heavily assisted negatives up to a full unassisted Nordic curl.
Common mistakes
Dropping quickly instead of controlling the descent -- the slow negative is the entire point of this exercise.
Skipping a thorough warm-up and progressing too fast -- the hamstrings are highly susceptible to strain in this movement, so build range gradually.
Muscles worked
How the knowledge graph models this movement
Knee flexion
Hip extension