The Nordic Curl is a staple in lots of athletes training programmes because of how well it targets the hamstrings. But don’t be mistaken into thinking that the Nordic ham curl is just for athletes, there is a variation of the Nordic for all experience levels.

What is a Nordic Curl?

A full Nordic curl is a great hamstring exercise that places a bias on one of the key functions of the hamstring, knee flexion. The hamstring is a biarticular muscle, which means that it spans across two joints, the knee and the hip. It can therefore be good to split your training into knee dominant and hip dominant hamstring exercises. The Nordic leg curl is an example of a knee dominant hamstring exercise. Specialist equipment is often used to anchor you in place to perform a Nordic curl, but you can just as easily perform them with a barbell, making them an accessible home gym exercise.

How To Perform a Nordic Curl Using a Barbell as an Anchor

• Place a barbell inside the uprights of a power rack.

• Load the barbell with heavy 25kg and 20kg plates. You should use 1.5 times your bodyweight. Place an exercise mat down in front of the bar to cushion your knees.

• Kneel in front of the bar, on the pad, with your heels anchored under the bar.

• Slowly lower your torso to the floor, keeping your hips locked out so that the hamstrings work hard. Place your hands out in front to cushion, should you need them.

• Pull against the bar with your heels to get your body back to the start position.

Nordic Curl Regressions

Eccentric Overload Nordic Curl - Perform the lowering portion of the Nordic curl and then use your arms to push back up.

Resistance Band Assisted Nordic Curl - Tie a Resistance Band to the rack behind you and wrap it around your body so that as you lower to the floor, the band assists you more in the difficult parts of the exercise. Progress this by slowly reducing the thickness of the band.

Nordic Curl Progressions

Weighted Nordic Curl - If you own a Weighted Vest for Running, you can also use it to increase the intensity of your Nordic curls.

Constant Tension Nordic Curl - Perform your first rep as normal and then perform a set of partial reps at the bottom of the range of motion, increasing the time under tension at the most difficult part of the lift. Fair warning, this is not for the faint hearted!

If you are looking to mix up your hamstring training, add the Nordic curl into your exercise regime. Once mastered, you can use a variety of Nordic hamstring curl variations in your programming, the easier variations at higher volumes and the harder variations for higher intensity days.

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