Nordic Hamstring Curl

An advanced bodyweight hamstring exercise performed kneeling with ankles anchored. You lower the torso to the floor by extending at the knees while resisting eccentrically with the hamstrings, then curl back up. Renowned for extreme eccentric hamstring loading and injury prevention.

Instructions

1. Kneel on a padded surface to protect your knees. Position a training partner to hold your ankles firmly down, or anchor your feet under a dumbbell, barbell, or fixed anchor point.
2. Set your body in a straight line from knees to head, hips fully extended and core braced. This is the starting position.
3. With control, slowly lower your torso toward the floor by extending at the knees. Your hamstrings resist the descent throughout — do not let your hips break or your lower back collapse.
4. Lower as far as you can control. When you can no longer resist, catch yourself with both hands on the floor.
5. To return, either actively curl back up by contracting the hamstrings (full rep), or use a small push off the floor to assist you back to the starting position (assisted rep).
6. Reset to the tall kneeling position and repeat for the prescribed repetitions.

Tips

• This is one of the most demanding eccentric exercises available; expect significant delayed-onset muscle soreness after early sessions. Start with 2–3 reps and build volume over weeks.
• Use a resistance band looped around a rack and over the shoulders, or push off the floor, when learning the movement. These assists allow you to train the eccentric without failing midway down.
• The eccentric (lowering) phase is what drives adaptation — take 3–5 seconds to lower on every rep and resist the urge to drop quickly.
• Keep hips fully extended throughout; any hip flexion shifts load off the hamstrings and onto the lower back.
• Perform no more than twice per week; high eccentric demand requires 72+ hours of recovery.
• Strong correlation with reduced hamstring strain injury rates in sprinting sports — a small dose of Nordic curls goes a long way for injury prevention.
• Progress markers: floor-catch at shin level → catch at knee level → no hands needed → full eccentric with slow controlled descent.