Nordic Hamstring Curl

What is the Nordic Hamstring Curl?

The Nordic hamstring curl is a brutal bodyweight exercise where you kneel with your feet anchored and lower your torso toward the floor under control, resisting the fall entirely with your hamstrings. It overloads the eccentric (the lowering phase) and has strong evidence behind it for building hamstring strength and injury resilience.

Muscles worked

Primary: Hamstrings

The hamstrings work eccentrically as knee flexors, straining to slow your descent as the knees extend, then concentrically to pull you back up when you can.

Secondary: Glutes, Calves

The glutes help extend the hips to keep your body in a straight line from knee to shoulder, and the calves assist by anchoring the lower leg against the tipping torque.

How to perform the Nordic Hamstring Curl

1. Kneel upright on a pad with the ankles anchored under a secure roller, a partner, or a loaded barbell.
2. Keep the hips extended so the body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders, glutes squeezed.
3. Lower the torso toward the floor as slowly as possible by resisting with the hamstrings, not by bending at the hips.
4. Fight the eccentric for as long as you can control it, since the hamstrings are strongest resisting the lowering.
5. Catch yourself with the hands near the floor once you can no longer resist the descent.
6. Push off the floor just enough to assist the hamstrings back to the tall kneeling start position.

Suggested working range: 5–10 reps. Default progression: double progression.

Mechanics

A knee-dominant, eccentric-focused movement: with the feet fixed, lowering the torso forces the knees to extend while the hamstrings fight to control it, then reverse. It is a compound in the sense that the hips and trunk must stay locked, but the hamstrings do the work at the knee, and the eccentric loading is far greater than anything you can curl.

Form cues

• •Anchor your feet firmly and keep a straight line from knees to shoulders. Never hinge at the hips to cheat the rep.
• •Lower as slowly as you can, fighting the fall the whole way rather than dropping and catching yourself.
• •Use your hands to push off the floor and assist back up on the concentric if you cannot pull yourself up yet.

Common mistakes

• •Breaking at the hips into a bow so the movement becomes a hinge instead of a knee curl.
• •Dropping fast because the eccentric is hard, which throws away the eccentric-overload stimulus.
• •Ignoring the high hamstring cramp risk by jumping to full unassisted reps before building tolerance.
• •Failing to anchor the ankles securely so the feet lift and the body pitches forward uncontrolled.

Variations & alternatives

• •Assisted Nordic curl: loop a band across your chest to reduce the eccentric load while you build strength.
• •Lying leg curl: a machine knee-flexion movement to accumulate hamstring volume with far less fatigue per rep.
• •Glute-ham raise: a GHD movement that combines knee flexion and hip extension for a fuller posterior-chain hit.

Romanian Deadlift

Hamstrings · Barbell

Leg Curl

Hamstrings · Machine

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

Hamstrings · Dumbbell

Single-Leg Curl

Hamstrings · Machine

Glute-Ham Raise

Hamstrings · Machine

Programming: sets, reps & when to use it

Program the Nordic curl for 5–10 reps: the low count reflects how demanding the eccentric is. Start with partial range or band assistance, and place it late in a session since the muscle damage is high; a few hard sets a week is plenty.

Frequently asked questions