5 Leg Curl Alternative Exercises to Build Hamstrings  | Men’s Health Muscle - video Dailymotion

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Optimal Leg Curl Alternatives to Build Big Hamstrings | Men’s Health Muscle

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00:00 Point blank, the Quest for Perfect Hamstrings needs to include the leg curl.

00:04 Yes, there are other ways that you can train your hamstrings overall, and we can spend

00:08 plenty of time attacking them with exercises like deadlifts and kettlebell swings.

00:12 But if you want truly strong, powerful hamstrings, then you need to include some sort of leg

00:18 curl.

00:19 Why?

00:20 Because the leg curl has two main strengths compared to most other hamstring exercises.

00:25 First off, it's training a different and critical function of your hamstrings, knee flexion.

00:30 Your hamstrings are responsible for two actions.

00:33 First off, they can help you extend the hip.

00:36 This is critical for athleticism, and it is important to train this.

00:40 But the second function may very well be more important for overall hamstring development.

00:44 Your hamstrings are also going to flex the knee, and there are two main reasons to consider

00:49 training your hamstrings this way.

00:51 First off, working your hamstrings via knee flexion allows you to ensure that you're actually

00:56 focusing on training your hamstrings.

00:58 During that first function I mentioned, hip extension, it's actually a combination of

01:03 glute and hamstring power that drives the motion, and your hamstrings can very often

01:07 take the back seat, depending on how you move and what your mind-muscle connection is.

01:12 That can't happen when we're training our hamstrings via knee flexion.

01:15 Your hamstrings have to drive that motion, period.

01:18 The second major strength of the leg curl is that it challenges your full hamstring.

01:23 You have four main hamstring tendons, and just three of those are actually involved

01:28 in hip extension.

01:29 The short head of your biceps femoris, though, kicks in during the leg curl.

01:34 So if you truly want to build hamstrings, even if you're doing deadlifts and kettlebell

01:37 swings, you'll still want to find some time to hit leg curls.

01:40 So there are two types of leg curl machines that we can replicate, and they both train

01:45 your hamstrings in slightly different ways.

01:47 There's the seated leg curl variation, and this lets you train your hamstrings from a

01:51 bit of a stretch position, since you're in hip flexion when seated.

01:55 The lying leg curl, which may be the most common leg curl machine you see, lets you

01:59 train your hamstrings with a bit less stretch, and has you in a position closer to hip extension.

02:05 Both leg curls, especially if you find good machines, can often get more challenged from

02:09 your hamstrings as the muscle begins to flex, which is when it's at its strongest.

02:15 So you'll feel a good pronounced squeeze as you aggressively contract your hamstring

02:19 during either of those exercises.

02:21 So what do you do if you don't have access to a leg curl machine?

02:24 Here are the five best alternatives.

02:28 Your lowest strength option that's really going to focus on knee flexion is something

02:31 called the barbell leg curl.

02:34 Here we're setting up a bench and a bar, aiming to get our torso parallel to the ground, almost

02:39 as if we're prepping for an inverted row variation.

02:42 But once we're set, we'll tighten our abs and glutes, and then flex at the knees as

02:46 much as we can.

02:48 This is a solid variation that gets us the knee flexion we want, with an underrated amount

02:53 of load too.

02:54 The only downside, and the reason it ranks so low on the list, you may find that your

02:58 limiting factor is your grip instead of hamstring strength.

03:02 A little higher on the list is the dumbbell leg curl.

03:05 To do this, we'll simply lie on a bench with a single dumbbell held between our feet.

03:09 We'll curl up as we do this, then slowly lower down.

03:13 This move is fine in that it works us through knee flexion, but it actually doesn't quite

03:18 challenge us like the leg curl does.

03:20 It's actually most challenging when your legs are straight and your hamstrings are at their

03:23 most stretched, but it decreases in terms of challenge as you curl up.

03:29 Once your feet are directly above your knees, you won't feel much hamstring tension at all,

03:33 so expect very little chance to squeeze at the top and really contract your hamstring.

03:37 The setup for this is not especially easy if you don't have a partner to hand you the

03:43 dumbbell.

03:44 Moving up the list, we get to our more superior options, and we can train the exact same movement

03:48 as that dumbbell leg curl with a resistance band, performing a banded leg curl.

03:52 Now we're starting to truly replicate both the motion and the force curve that we get

03:57 with a true hamstring curl machine.

03:59 You'll really have to earn the squeeze at the top of each rep too, because the banded

04:03 leg curl is toughest in that most flexed position when the band is most stretched.

04:08 Another similar move that trains our hamstrings a bit more at length since we're shifting

04:12 into hip flexion is the seated banded leg curl.

04:16 Once again, we'll anchor a band in front of us and curl.

04:19 This is a simple way to start to challenge your hamstrings, and like the lying banded

04:24 leg curl, it'll light you up in part because it's truly challenging you to flex and squeeze

04:29 your hamstrings at the top of every rep.

04:31 Still, there's an even better option of this move, and it's our best banded option for

04:36 the leg curl.

04:37 That is the lying single leg curl in a wrap.

04:41 For this one, we'll set up a band overhead and lie underneath it, then latch one foot

04:47 within the band, leg pointed straight up.

04:50 From there, all you do is curl.

04:52 What's great about this is much like we could on a seated leg curl machine, we can ensure

04:57 that we're really isolating our hamstrings and we're not sneaking in a little bit of

05:01 hip extension force through our glutes because we can press our hands into our thighs.

05:06 We'll get a lot more stability out of this and less opportunity to cheat on the hamstring

05:10 curl.

05:11 That's everything you want in the leg curl, and really with all of these options, no matter

05:16 the situation, you can always find a way to get that old school leg curl burn.

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5 Leg Curl Alternative Exercises to Build Hamstrings | Men’s Health Muscle

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