Modifications & Progressions for Hamstring Curls

: On today's episode, modifications and progressions for hamstring curls. Welcome to the podcast helping you overcome your proximal hamstring tendinopathy. This podcast is designed to help you understand this condition, learn the most effective evidence-based treatments and... bust the widespread misconceptions. My name is Brody Sharp. I'm an online physiotherapist, recreational athlete, creator of the Run Smarter series and a chronic proximal hamstring tendinopathy battler. Whether you are an athlete or not, this podcast will educate and empower you in taking the right steps to overcome this horrible condition. So let's give you the right knowledge along with practical takeaways in today's lesson. Thanks for joining me this week. I am not sure why I haven't done an episode on this yet. If you are familiar with previous episodes, you know I've done an episode on deadlifts, deadlift modifications, progressions, all that sort of stuff. Did that episode because I think deadlifts are the number one exercise you should have in your rehab. And almost all almost every pht client I see gets some variation of a deadlift but what makes people nervous or worried is they've tried deadlifts in the past which has obviously been too much they've started the start point was too much and have led them up and so they're worried to go back to them but my approach is okay let's see what modification you can get away with and then let's I guess my second most important exercise would be some variation of a hamstring curl and my third favourite would be some variation of a weighted step up and you know after that I'd add in a few extra bits and pieces, maybe two exercises depending on the type of person I have in front of me, whether it's a runner or a triathlete or a swimmer or a recreational or sedentary client and yeah, that's where it sort of veers off, but Hampton Curves is an important one. So I thought I'd just do a quick little episode on educating you on hamstring curls what variations you have if you've got equipment if you've got gym You know no equipment whatsoever Then it's important to at least have some sort of variation Hope you enjoying the success stories in the past couple of weeks. I do have a couple more coming up There will be one next episode and two episodes after that So look forward to bringing you those Alright, let's start off with some hamstring curls and their modifications. I want to start with different positions you could put yourself in, depending on the equipment that you have. First of all, you might hear of an exercise called a prone hamstring curl. So prone just means laying on your stomach. Supine is laying on your back, prone is laying on your stomach. So when you do a prone hamstring curl, it will be, yeah, lying on your stomach. And all you're essentially doing is starting with your legs straight. you have something attached to your ankle and you are just curling your ankle towards your glutes. That's it, nothing too fancy. So you can do a prone hamstring curl, you can do it seated as well. You can do a seated hamstring curl where you're obviously in a seated position, your leg is out straight and then you're curling something underneath you. That could be a particular variation. You can do a supine one as well. You can do a supine hamstring curl like on a Swiss ball where you sort of do a bridge with your feet on top of a Swiss ball and then you curl the ball or roll the ball towards you. Some people can use a skateboard as well where you bridge up and your legs are a little bit straight but then you wheel the skateboard towards you. So that's on your back. So that's supine. But let's start with the prone because I think the prone's probably one of the more favourite exercises or favourite positions that I'm used to. Okay, so we're prone, so we're on our stomach. You can use a thera-band or a resistance band which can attach to the other leg or it can, my preference is to attach it to, you know, a table leg or something really sturdy at the ends of your feet so when you curl it that tension is put more and more on that band. if you, that is if you don't have a gym membership, if you do have a gym membership, you can use a prone hamstring curl machine. So you lay down on the machine and the pads, the weighted pads are like where your Achilles goes and then you curl with a certain number of kilograms or pounds or whatever weight you decide to do. So you can do your prone hamstring curl with a band, you can do it with a band. machine at the gym. Some gyms, for whatever reason, they don't have a prone hamstring curl machine. Some just have a seated, but if you don't have a prone hamstring curl machine originally designed for that exercise, you can use a gym cable. So you'll know like the pulley system to do like a bicep curl or something like that. What you can do is get that pulley that's used as the lever. it all the way down to the floor and then attach one of the cable attachments onto your ankle, then you lie down, then you can do a prone hamstring curl with the cable and then you can assign the certain weights. So that could be an option for you if your gym doesn't have a prone hamstring curl machine. I'd usually prefer those over a resistance band because you can progress in a gradual fashion, it's very systematic. is very detailed and measured, you can just go from three sets of ten, fifteen pounds, to three sets of ten, seventeen and a half pounds or twenty pounds and just slowly work your way up. Whereas with a band, it's very hard to know if you have a green band or a blue band or a black band exactly what level of difficulty that is apart from just being subjective and just trying to guess how hard you're working. And Obviously with a prone hamstring curl machine and a cable, it's kind of limitless. You can really load it up once you get really, really strong, whereas the bands have certain limitations. Don't use an ankle weight though. I've seen a couple of people say, oh yeah, my physio gave me this exercise. I've just been strapping ankle weights to my foot and laying on my stomach and then just curling. when it comes to, I guess, the force applied, the ankle bases don't do it justice. And you can sort of appreciate this if you've ever done it before. If your legs are out straight and you're on your stomach and you have an ankle weight attached to you, when you start that curl, the very first moment of lifting the foot is the hardest because that's where gravity pulls down on the long lever of the leg. The leg is the most straight. It works the hardest as that lever is the longest. it's the longest part of the lever. But as you start to curl your leg and get, well, towards 90 degrees, it becomes like easy. It's like the weight isn't even there because the force is now pulling directly down that axis and you can do some short hamstring curls like close to 90 degrees and you won't even feel a thing. The hamstring is rarely activating, whereas with a hamstring curl with a band or a cable or a machine, that 90 degree range, or the more you curl the harder and harder it gets. Just because, well with a band the harder and harder it gets because it goes more and more on tension. But I guess with the machine it's the same amount of resistance applied the entire time throughout the load. That's what we want, that's what we're after. So if you're using ankle weights, scrap them. Buy some bands or start using the machine or the cable. Usually what I would recommend, like I said for the machine and cable, is you can go heavy, you can go slow and heavy, the same as what I would recommend for deadlifts or step-ups. The tendons love slow heavy load and you can do that. You can't really do that with a band, I guess, you know, you can get close but it's just not the same as opposed to a machine or a cable. And I suppose with the machine as well, what I should say with the prone hamstring curl machine, you are in a slight bend, like the machine's designed for you to lay down and not be completely straight. Your hips are sort of raised up a bit, which is good. It means you can recruit more hamstring muscle fibers, and also you're in a little bit of tendon compression, which is good for rehab. We just wanna make sure that, you know, our starting point is adequate, is within our adaptation zone. And so I'd usually recommend the slow heavy stuff if you can tolerate it. Some people get really caught up in the range of movement. How much should I curl? How close to My glutes should my heels get I'm not that fast If you get beyond 90 degrees and that's fine Sometimes if you get to 90 degrees, I think that's fine as well your hamstrings still working pretty hard If you can't get to 90 degrees, the weights are probably too heavy But if you're getting past 90 degrees and worried that you're not getting the maximum amount of curl as possible, I wouldn't worry too much about that. When it comes to the tempo of the exercise, again, tendons love slow heavy loads, so you want to slowly control it. So I just say a slow controlled movement. I don't really focus on seconds or like, you know, tempo seconds, but just keep that in mind. Um, okay, the sets and reps that I would usually recommend, uh, anywhere between eight and twelve repetitions, I do very similar for deadlifts as well. Um, three sets. So if you're doing double leg, that's another variation as well. Like the machine, you'll be able to do double leg. With the band, you'll have to do single leg with the cable. You'll have to do single leg or maybe there's some cable attachments where you can do double leg. Anyway, I digress. And with the Swiss ball, you can do double or single leg. So what I would do for progressions is I would start with a certain weight that is within someone's adaptation zone and I would start with three sets of eight. And then the next progression I would try once you can tolerate that is three sets of 12. And then once you can tolerate three sets of 12, I'll increase the weight and then drop back to three sets of eight. and then just work within that rep range for most usually. That's what I like to do. And up to well, and then it will just depend on the response of the client. Some people might not respond well to 12 reps, some people might find eight, some people might find 12 is too easy. But then as soon as you increase the weight and drop back down to eight, that's too hard. And so what we might do say okay let's do two sets of 12 at your easy weight and then do one set of eight with that really heavy or the heavier stuff the thing that you thought there was a bit too much of a jump and so there's ways you can be creative and sort of create progressions within you know the standard progression chart that I was talking about before so keep that in mind but there are several variations to these sort of exercises though. which we'll go into now. This podcast episode is sponsored by the Ransmata Physiotherapy Clinic, which is my own physio clinic, where I help treat a wide range of PhD sufferers, both locally in person and all over the world with online physiotherapy packages. In the years I've been self-employed as a physio, close to 70% of my entire caseload has been helping people with proximal hamstring tendinopathy, which is why I decided to launch this podcast. So if you're building upon your own rehab knowledge through the podcast, but still require tailored assistance. I'd love to be on your rehab team. Whether you are a runner or not, head to runsmarter.online to see your available options for working together. If you're still unsure if physiotherapy is right for you, or if you need a rehab second opinion, you can always schedule a free 20 minute injury chat with me. Find the free injury chat button on my website or in the podcast show notes to be taken to my online calendar to book in a time. Okay, we have some variations to this exercise. The first one being eccentrics or the emphasis on eccentrics, which I'm not a massive fan of. Mainly, like I think people do, they get caught up in eccentric stuff after reading a whole bunch of blogs or watching YouTube videos and things. And a lot of people do Nordics. A lot of people do eccentric curls, a lot like I think the eccentric stuff is, especially when it's not into compression, is mainly for hamstring muscle rehab. Like if you have a hamstring muscle strain, if you're a soccer player or a sports athlete and you're doing sprinting and you get a strain in the belly itself, then these eccentrics would be more of a priority. I tend to skew more towards the load under compression. Yes, deadlifts have that eccentric component, but that's only because it's going into compression and it's slow and heavy. That's what I like about it. Yes, I would put some eccentric stuff in there if someone's already doing their Nordics or if they're a sprinter and need to get back to speed work. Eccentrics is a really important component of that. But if you're like a cyclist or a recreational... gym goer or a sedentary person. The eccentric stuff, while important, isn't as important as a lot of the other stuff. So I guess, you know, in my physio mind, I'll have a bit of a priority list what I would like to prioritize more than others. Tolerating compression is probably the number one up there. But incorporating eccentric stuff is, you know, a lot further down on that list. So it's not that important and depends on your goals as well. So what eccentric stuff might look like? Well, eccentric is just the muscles contracting and working really hard as it's lengthening. Now, usually as a muscle works hard in its conventional sense, it's shortening. If you hold onto a weight and do a bicep curl, that bicep is shortening under load, it's working hard as it shortens. But if you get a weight that's really heavy, and you hold onto that in your hand and you simply can't hold, you hold it in a curled position and it's so heavy that you can't simply hold it in that curled position, you start to slowly straighten out your arm because you can't hold it. So you're slowly trying to decelerate the fall of your hand with the weight placed in your hand. What's happening there is your bicep is working really hard but it's working as it's lengthening because it's straightening out the arm. rather than curling it. That's what we call an eccentric muscle contraction. And I'd say great for muscle rehab. So if you have a muscle strain, perfect to implement that. But what that looks like for a prone hamstring curl, let's just say you use a machine, you might get loaded up quite, might load up the weight rack quite heavy, then you curl your legs. with both legs, so you use both of your legs to curl that weight up, but then you take your good leg away and wait for the affected side to slowly release the weight back down to its starting position with the legs out straight. So start with the legs out straight, double leg curl and then single leg release, a nice slow controlled release, that's what an eccentric or a single leg eccentric hamstring curl looks like. So that's a variation. But like I said, not a fan. Well, it's not high on my priority list unless there's certain conditions that would say, okay, I need to reprioritize things. The other variation would be isometrics. So isometrics would be working hard without the muscle moving. So like a load and hold would be a better way to describe it. So if we're using that bicep curl as an analogy, if I was to get some weight, and not curl or straighten my arm, but just hold it at a 90 degree position and then place that weight in my hand. Again, my biceps working, but nothing's moving. It's not shortening, it's not lengthening, it's just holding it in place. That's what we call an isometric. And you can do an isometric for a hamstring curl. You can curl that weight maybe 45 degrees, like sort of half what you normally would. for a traditional curl and then just hold it there, hold it there for 10, 15 seconds and then release. Again, not a big fan of this. Isometrics are really important that I use for rehab, especially during flare ups, especially for people who can't really tolerate a lot of concentric or eccentric stuff. And we know that isometrics do provide for some an analgesic effect to reduce symptoms reduce pain and so it can be really important for rehab but I found that isometrics work better if it's a closed chain exercise. So what I mean about that is if your foot is fixated on the ground would be an example of a closed chained exercise. So if I was to do an isometric long lever glute bridge we're sort of holding the hamstrings the hamstrings are working in that same but your feet are fixated on the ground, you're not going anywhere. Whereas the curl, the weights, not fixated to the ground. And so you have the potential, if you were to hold that position during a hamstring curl, is you have these little wobbles, because you're trying to control that, especially if the muscle gets fatigued, you start to wobble that, the tendons start to wobble that muscle, you can probably have a look at your ankle and see like these little wobbles, only because it's not fixated to something. And that can cause it, it can probably not have the power or the emphasis or the effects that isometrics, the potential that isometrics can have. So like I say, not a fan doing the isometrics. I'd prefer to do an isometric glute bridge instead. Some other variations you could do double leg or single leg. I'm not fussed one or the other. If I were to choose one, I'd probably choose the double leg. You know, I've done episodes in the past about, you know, the single leg deadlift compared to double leg deadlift. I'll always choose the double leg deadlift. And we've seen from success stories in the past, we just had Trevor, um, couple of weeks ago talk about all he did to really move the needle in his rehab was go from single leg deadlifts to double leg deadlifts. He was able to have a bit more control, able to go a little bit heavier. Um, and just move the needle in his rehab. So the same, I guess, can be said for the double leg stuff. It's a lot more controlled. It's, you can go heavier and, you know, just overall, I just think is a better exercise. So those are some things that we could do. And just generally as a foundation, as an approach to this, like I said earlier, you wanna keep it slow and you wanna do it heavy, but... Once you've built up that foundation of slow heavy load in your hamstring curl, once you've done your prone hamstring curl in the gym and you're building up to, you know, 60, 70 pounds, 80 pounds, or like 40 kilos and beyond, if your goal is to start running, start running faster, start doing hills, start doing strides, if you do wanna start doing faster stuff, you can try to have your hamstring adapt to speed work. You do that by slowly doing speed work in your sport of choice. So like for a runner, I would add strides, see if you can tolerate those. Once you're really good at strides, I'd then implement some interval sessions. If it is the bike, I would start doing some faster sessions on the bike, like increasing the cadence on the bike or increasing the wattage on the bike. But when it comes to the gym, you can also introduce speed into the gym. And this could be done with your hamstring curl. You can start doing some faster hamstring curls. I usually prefer this with a band. Because sometimes I can, if you're doing a hamstring curl with, in on the prone machine and you curl it really fast, sometimes the weight of the weights, the weight rack, can sort of bounce and it's, you know, that's not safe or really that good for anyone. But if it's with a band, you can curl really fast and you know, it's kind of a bit safer. So that could be something you could do. Just be very careful when you introduce it. You know, you might want to start with one set only. Just people underestimate how much emphasis or how much work is required when you start introducing speed. And so people say, oh, you know, I've done three sets of 10 really slow and controlled. So let me try three sets of 10 really fast. And then they're flared up and they're not sure why it's only because that demand was, um, that jump was a bit too much. So you can start with one set. You can start with, um, say two sets of your original really heavy, slow, heavy controlled, and then you can try one set of faster stuff. See how it's tolerated. If it's tolerated well, then go to two sets, then go to three sets. You might want to do, say if you're going to the gym two or three times a week, you might want to do one session dedicated to slow heavy stuff, and then one session dedicated to a bit more speed work. That's something you can do. But we don't want to completely replace the slow heavy stuff with the fast stuff. You want a balance between the two. So. I hope that provides some insight for you. Let me go through some of these variations or the template of the episode anyway. So the different positions that you can do, you can do a prone hamstring curl, a supine hamstring curl or a seated hamstring curl. You can use a thera-band or resistance band, you can use a machine, you can use a cable or you can use a Swiss ball to curl the ball back and forth. Usually what you want to do if you have the equipment available is to do slow heavy stuff. You're going to get more effects, more benefits out of it. My preference would be a prone hamstring curl machine. My second preference, a prone hamstring curl cable. My third preference would be a thera-band. Don't do ankle weights. You know, you can do a Swiss ball but you just can't go heavy. You don't have any progress really. You can put a weight onto your hips but doesn't have the same effect. And then progress, you know, work within your rep range of about 8 to 12, slowly hover in and out of that range as you progress the weights and keep to the slow heavy stuff, that's your foundation. And then if so required based on your goals and your athletic endeavors, you can slowly introduce speed. Hope that makes sense. Hopefully you can follow the deadlift progressions. episode that I did along with this episode to sort of, I guess, make some tweaks in your current program and hopefully start moving the needle in your recovery. If you are seeing success with this podcast and with listening to some of these episodes, reach out to me. I love these messages. People saying they listen to the podcast and this is the benefits they're seeing. People on social media saying listening to this podcast has been really great for me. Give it a listen. So people are recommending it. Absolutely love that. And so keep them coming, because like I say, makes my day, gives me a lot of passion and motivation for continuing this podcast. So thanks for all of your support and good luck with your rehab this week. Thanks once again for listening and taking control of your rehab. If you are a runner and love learning through the podcast format, then go ahead and check out the Run Smarter podcast, hosted by me. I'll include the link along with all the other links mentioned today in the show notes. So open up your device, click on the show description. and all the links will be there waiting for you. Congratulations on paving your way forward towards an empowering, pain-free future. And remember, knowledge is power.