Lying Leg CurlsMuscles Worked
Lying leg curls isolate your hamstrings by bending your knees against resistance, with little help from other muscles. Because your hips stay pinned to the pad, they train the knee-bending job of the hamstrings, which is a different job from hip hinges like the Romanian deadlift.
PrimaryHamstrings
- Equipment
- Machine
- Level
- Beginner
- Type
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
How to do it
- Adjust the machine so your knees sit just off the edge of the bench and the roller pad rests just above your heels.
- Lie face down, hold the handles and press your hips into the pad.
- Curl your heels toward your glutes as far as you can without lifting your hips.
- Squeeze your hamstrings at the top for a second.
- Lower the pad slowly until your legs are straight, keeping tension on the muscles before the next rep.
Form tips
- Keep your hips glued to the bench; if they pop up, the weight is too heavy.
- Take longer to lower the pad than to lift it, so the weight never just drops.
- Line up your knees with the machine's pivot point so the pad doesn't slide up your calves as you curl.
Why it made the list
No. 2 of 12
Best Hamstring Exercises
Machine isolation for hamstrings through knee flexion. Complements RDLs which hit through hip extension.
More hamstring exercises
See it on your own body map
Log your Lying Leg Curls sets in KasMaker and watch your hamstrings fill in on the map, weighted by how much you did. Logging and the body map are free on iPhone.
