Nordic hamstring curl: lower slowly and let your hamstrings brake

The Nordic curl trains the knee-bending job of the hamstrings, the same job as the leg curl, but in reverse: instead of curling a weight up, you resist your own body falling forward. The load is everything above your knees, and as you lean it moves further from the knee, so the exercise gets harder the lower you go. Most people lose control somewhere in the last third, when the body is closest to the floor. Your glutes and trunk hold the hips straight; if they give way, the hips fold and the hamstrings are let off.

Working a muscle while it lengthens under load is called eccentric training, and the Nordic curl is about as pure an example as the gym offers. That is why it is common in football, rugby and sprint training, and with anyone who wants demanding hamstring work without a machine. It suits people who already train their legs regularly. A complete beginner will usually get more from the leg curl or the Romanian deadlift first; the hamstring exercises page shows how the hinge and the curl share a week.

The machine is easier to measure: you know what you lifted last week and you add a step. The Nordic curl cannot be made lighter than your bodyweight without help, so progress is judged by how far and how slowly you can lower. Many programmes keep both, using the machine for regular sets of eight to twelve and the Nordic curl for a few slow, hard reps once or twice a week.

The Nordic curl is known mainly through injury research in team sports. A 2019 review that pooled fifteen studies across several sports reported that athletes whose injury-prevention programmes included the Nordic curl had about half the rate of hamstring injuries of those whose programmes did not. One trial behind that figure followed fifty Danish football teams through a season: players given a ten-week Nordic programme, then a weekly session to keep it up, recorded fifteen acute hamstring injuries against fifty-two in the teams that trained as usual.

Those findings describe groups of athletes on a structured programme over a season, mostly in football. They do not say what will happen to any one person, and the exercise is no substitute for a physiotherapist's care of an existing strain. Training studies add two practical points. A 2020 review found that low weekly volumes built eccentric strength and lengthened the muscle's fibre bundles about as much as high volumes, in programmes of six weeks or more. A 2017 study found that the Nordic curl and a hip-extension exercise both lengthened the fibre bundles of the outer hamstring, while the hip exercise grew that muscle more: a good reason to keep a hinge in your week as well.

If you have hamstring pain, are coming back from a strain or have a knee problem, speak to a doctor or physiotherapist before you start Nordic curls. They can tell you whether the exercise suits you now, and at what level.

Your heels must stay pinned for the whole rep, or you simply tip forward. At a gym, that means one of three things.

• A partner. They kneel behind you and press your lower legs, just above the ankles, into the floor with straight arms and their weight leaning onto you. Ask them to hold hardest at the bottom of the rep, where the pull is greatest.
• Equipment built for it. Some gyms have a Nordic bench or a glute-ham developer, both of which lock the ankles under a padded roller. Ask the team what can anchor your heels.
• Padding under the knees. Kneel on a folded mat or a pad: your knees carry much of your weight on every rep.

Avoid improvised anchors that can roll or lift, such as a loose barbell or light furniture: the pull on them peaks at the bottom of the rep.

1. Kneel tall with your knees hip width apart and your heels anchored. Thighs, hips and torso form one straight line.
2. Squeeze your glutes, brace your trunk and hold your hands in front of your chest, palms forward, ready to catch.
3. Lean forward from the knees as slowly as you can. Aim for three to five seconds on the way down, keeping the line from knee to shoulder straight, with no bend at the hips.
4. When you can no longer hold back the fall, let go into a soft push-up catch.
5. Push yourself back up to kneeling with your hands, using your hamstrings as much as you can, and reset before the next rep.

The usual cheat is bending at the hips as you lower, which shortens the lever and hands the work to your glutes and back. If your hips start to fold, end the rep there. Breathe out slowly on the way down rather than holding your breath.

Because your bodyweight is fixed, you scale the Nordic curl by range and by assistance. Move on only once you own the version before.

If the Nordic curl is too much for now, the leg curl trains the same job with a load you choose, and the good morning or the single-leg Romanian deadlift covers the hip side of the hamstrings.

Small doses go a long way, which fits the 2020 review's finding that low weekly volumes held up well against high ones. Place the Nordic curl after your main lift or at the end of a lower-body session, and pair it with a hinge such as the Romanian deadlift in the same week. Progress by range first, then by slowing the lowering, and only then by adding load.

A Nordic curl needs something to hold your heels and padding for your knees. RPM's floor photos do not show a Nordic bench or a glute-ham developer, so ask the team what can anchor your heels on your free guided tour. Training with a partner is the simplest answer, and in a personal training session the coach can hold your heels, set your range and judge when you are ready for more.