Hamstring exercise: tips for leg curls

The muscle group on the back of the legs (hamstring) is the most easily overlooked among our body parts! Because it is on the back of the body, without the pectoral muscles and arms, and other facial muscle groups are eye-catching!

　　The gym has a large group of people who don’t like to practice legs! There is also a large group of people who practice legs and only practice legs in the front! These imaginations all illustrate the problem very well!

　　The back of the legs? Although it is not eye-catching, it does not mean that they can be ignored!

　　Hamstrings are very important!

　　1 The muscle group on the back of the legs is an engine! He is the protagonist of all the hip hinges (various deadlifts, hip bridges) movements! It is a very important "stable" and "strength" muscle group

　　2. Secondly, the back of the legs and the front of the legs belong to the "anti-talk muscle group". If the back of your legs are too weak for a long time and the muscle strength is unbalanced, it will inevitably bring the risk of injury!

　　Hamstrings can both stretch hips and bend knees, such as doing straight leg deadlifts and sitting leg curls.

　　In order to fully utilize the hip extension and knee flexion functions of the hamstrings, we must practice compound movements such as deadlifts and squats, and also practice Glute Ham Isolated movements such as Raise and leg curls.

　　Today we are going to talk about how to better perform leg curls

　　To improve the circumference and strength of the hamstring muscles, one trick is to pay attention to the position of the ankles when practicing leg curls.

　　Self-some people pay attention to the calves during knee bending training. In my opinion, this is wrong.

　　"Where is your toes pointing when practicing leg curls?"

　　Many people don't pay attention at all.

　　In knee bending movements, we must consider the function of the calves.

　　The gastrocnemius muscle spans two joints, namely the ankle and the knee joint .This muscle fiber length makes it impossible to be activated during the knee flexion of the ankle plantarflexion (toes away from the body). The gastrocnemius muscle can help the hamstrings to flex the knee only if the ankle dorsiflexion (toes close to the body).

Now, try to make the ankle plantarflexion while doing leg curls. You will feel that the hamstrings are making more effective contractions.

　　Why is the position of the foot so important?

　　When the ankle plantarflexion, our gastrocnemius muscle is not activated, we can only rely on the hamstrings to provide pulling force. .This phenomenon makes us have two interesting choices in hamstring training.

　　First: When we do leg curls, we can do a set of dorsiflexion of ankle joint and then another set of plantar flexion of ankle joint, which alternates like this.

　This leads to a wave load, one set of weight and the other set of small weight. The first set of dorsiflexion training allows you to use a larger weight to make your gastrocnemius work together! It is a big deal for hamstrings with insufficient strength.

　　In the plantar flexion group with smaller weight, the gastrocnemius muscles will reduce participation and maximize the recruitment of the muscle fibers of the hamstring muscles

The second option: In the centripetal process of leg curl (putting the calf close to the body), dorsiflex the ankle joint (with gastrocnemius muscles involved to lift a larger weight). Use plantar flexion during the centrifugal stage (because the muscles have greater strength during the centrifugal process, we can make the ankle plantar flexion, which reduces this larger weight, and slows down the movement speed.)

　　Centrifugal overload maximizes the fast muscle fibers, which will greatly promote the development of the hamstring muscles.

Related recommendations 　　The back side of the thigh that must be practiced: the importance of hamstring muscles

　　Improve your weak back muscle groups - Glute Ham Raise

　　2 excellent exercises for the muscle group on the back of the legs (hamstrings)!