As your chest touches the bench flex your hamstrings focussing on ‘breaking out of the belt’. Tense your glutes, brace your core and slowly allow your body to begin ‘falling’ forward, contract your hamstrings to slow your descent allowing the band to help. Reach back for the resistance band, hold it over your head or position it beneath your armpits
NORDIC HAMSTRING CURL FREE
Adjust the belt until your feet are snuggly compressed into the bench, ensuring there is no free play in the belt. Wrap a lifting belt around the bench and over your legs, just above your heels. Assume a tall kneeling position on top of the bench, facing away from the bar. Position a bench slightly in front of a pull-up bar or sturdy anchor point for a resistance band. Less so for the rest of us.įortunately, there’s a solution that requires no specialist machinery, can be performed in any gym, and only necessitates a few bits of kit that you probably already have in your gym bag. Thankfully, if you’re less than interested in working your way through the regressions, and want a pragmatic solution to start hitting those hamstrings now, there are several, specialist machines that offer counterweighted solutions, helping you to offset the weight of your body while you focus on building strength. With a myriad of regressions to work through and strength to be built before you can even come close to performing a single, solitary rep, this is far from an entry level exercise. In fact, it can be traced all the way back to the 19th century, where it was featured in books on physical culture.ĭon’t be lulled into a sense of false security by the ‘ bodyweight’ suffix though, this is by no means an ‘easy’ movement- unassisted Nordic Curls make high rep sets of the pistol squats look like child’s play. If you follow any fitness accounts on social media, there’s every likelihood that you’ve already heard of ‘the nordic curl’, a bodyweight hamstring exercise that in effect allows you to perform hamstring curls (the type you’d usually see performed on specialist machines), targeting all four muscles in the back of the legs with nothing but your bodyweight.ĭespite the sudden surge in popularity, the Nordic Curl is by no means a new invention dreamt up for instagram engagement alone. Having enjoyed and endured a number of disciplines from endurance racing, to strongman, to Crossfit AT enjoys getting neck deep in the practice just as much as the theory. A coach, writer and current fitness editor of Men’s Health Magazine, he has been in and around the fitness industry for the past 16 years. Personally, I think investing in some equipment for a behemoth of an exercise like the Nordic hamstring curl is definitely a good idea!Ĭheck out my 8 favorite nordic hamstring curl alternatives if you want some other ideas.Andrew Tracey is a long time collaborator with Bulldog Gear. If you wanted to go completely equipment free, you can, but you’re either going to need a partner or to seriously compromise the effectiveness of your Nordics by reducing the range of motion. My dream home gym definitely contains a Nordic bench and this is one of the best and most affordable on the market. If you had a bit more cash to spend, investing in a Rogue Nordic bench is going to be your best bet. It’s cheap, convenient, and works incredibly well.
My favorite of the above methods is to simply use a Nordic strap with a workout bench. Nordics are so insanely important that you absolutely must find a way to incorporate them into your weekly routine, whether that’s at the gym or at home. If you do enough of these, you can actually get some decent hamstring stimulation going.įor the most part, I’m not in love with this approach as it seems like more of a hamstring ‘activation’ exercise rather than a strengthening exercise. You’re pressing your toes into the wall on the concentric phase as well and really trying to pull yourself back up using your hamstrings only. The idea here is to dig your toes into the wall and focus on activating your hamstrings as much as possible before you fall to the mat. Your browser does not support the video tag. One thing you can try is doing the wall hamstring curl variation. I’m personally not a huge fan of relying on someone to help me with every exercise, but if you’re already training with a partner, then this could be an excellent option. Your friend is essentially acting like a Nordic strap or bar here.
The easiest way to get your Nordics in with absolutely no equipment is to have a friend apply pressure to your ankles while you perform the exercise. There are a couple options if you have absolutely no equipment, but if I’m being completely honest, they’re not very good… Find A Partner