hey guys I'm excited to share with you the hardest hamstring exercise that you can do
without weights the Nordic curl or the glute ham raised eccentric train this exercise and
your hamstrings will grow bigger stronger and they'll become bulletproof from injury
if you're training this movement at a gym a lat pulldown machine is the perfect option
set up by anchoring your legs underneath the pads and I find it useful to place the pad
further up on the cuff this makes it easier to produce greater force which allows us to
do more reps and use a harder progression now in terms of foot placement the research
doesn't show any benefit to a foot flexed or a foot pointed position dorsiflexion versus
plantar flexion either way the gastrocnemius calf muscle contributes to knee flexion I recommend to
choose whichever foot placement is the most comfortable and the one that allows you to
create the most attention during the exercise I always like the mental cue of pulling the heels
towards the bum as hard as I physically can because the exercise is so difficult we want
to contract our hamstring and calves as hard as we possibly can to survive the movement a
small tip that I find helpful is clenching the fists to encourage yourself to get as tight as
you can throughout your entire body to get the most out of the Nordic curl set up in
as much hip extension as you can ideally the body will look relatively upright throughout
range especially when you look at it from the side fight to control as much of the lowering
portion as you can when you drop catch yourself in the bottom of a push-up position explode up
and start again between reps I like to reset the hip position this way I know that I'm actually
extending as much as I can at the hip before I lower down now let's take a look at the ankle
position during the exercise I find the ankles will stay neutral throughout the mid portion of
the movement which I can assume is to maintain the length tension relationship of the posterior chain
as you can see towards end range they naturally plan to flex when peak tension is needed now as
I mentioned the goal is to extend the hips as much as possible when you lower down but when
you're new to the movement or not as strong a more flexed hip position can be held throughout range
staying more flexed at the hip allows you to descend lower before your hamstrings and
calves give up as you get stronger extend the hips and stay as upright as you can during the
eccentric this small change in hip position completely changes the intensity try it and
you'll see what I mean so you're starting to get pretty strong at the e Centrex let's make
it harder having the hands behind the head is the body weight way of adding weight to the
exercise now you're forced to remain extended throughout the entire body placing more tension
on the hamstrings things definitely feel much more challenging with this small adjustment the
hamstrings will be screaming at you as they fight to extend the hip and flex the knee at the same
time because the hamstrings are contracting eccentric Lee as the muscle lengthens you'll
build strength that long muscle lengths and bulletproof your hamstrings people typically
inge themselves at long muscle lengths this will be way less likely if you train this exercise
at Fitness fa Q's you should know the progression doesn't end there let's take it further placing
your arms in an overhead way is a brutal final progression for the bodyweight version of the
nautic curl ok the glute ham recipe centric you only have to take a look at my facial expression
to understand the intensity we're working with now eccentric style training with this movement
creates a significant amount of muscle damage which is one of the key components for muscle
growth the truth is that you can definitely build leg size using only your bodyweight if
you want to learn more bodyweight exercises to grow big legs without weights download
my training program limitless legs in limitless legs by outline what it takes to build muscle by
body weight high volume and plenty of variety to keep your leg training interesting thanks
for watching drop a thumbs up below and I'll see you next week on Fitness fa Q's