

So besides working the adductors, it's also become a good teaching tool. However, when they're forced to squeeze something, they do a better job of keeping the hips up and the glutes engaged. People tend to screw up sliding leg curls by flexing at the hips (i.e., letting the butt sag), which takes the glutes out of it and greatly diminishes the usefulness of the exercise. Interestingly, I started trying it as a way to get more bang for the buck by strengthening the adductors, but I quickly noticed that exercise form started to improve when athletes were forced to squeeze something. I've seen coaches and trainers use this method with glute bridges and I just applied it to sliding leg curls, which is really a bridge derivative even though it's more of a hamstring exercise than a glute exercise. Here's what it should look like, as demonstrated by Eirinn Dougherty. These are just regular sliding leg curls done while squeezing something like a small foam roller or medicine ball between your knees. Remember, the key is to find the right progression for your current level and then strive to move forward from there. All of these can be performed using a slideboard, sliders, or anything else you can McGyver. So here are some devilishly effective progressions of the standard sliding leg curl. That's when you need to use progression, and sliding leg curls can be progressed to the point of being downright tortuous. However, like any exercise, you can eventually get good at sliding leg curls.

And I'm talking super strong guys that can squat and deadlift obscene weights and do glute-ham raises like nobody's business.įrom a programming perspective, not only do they absolutely torch the hamstrings while being easy on the lower back and knees, they can also be done with a higher frequency, which is beneficial for building both size and strength. I've absolutely buried top athletes with those "wussy" sliders.

Sliding leg curls can be systematically progressed or regressed to match your strength level so you can experience consistent long-term gains.Unlike some exercises, they can be trained with higher frequency, which makes them ideal for fast hypertrophy gains.They hammer your hamstrings in a unique and painful way. You can do this by looping a resistance band around your legs and a pole so you pull against the band as you curl your feet towards you, but an even simpler way is to put a weight plate on top of the sliders and rest your feet on that as you move them back and forth. Once you’ve got a handle on the standard slider leg curl it’s time to add some resistance to increase the difficulty and the benefits for your hamstrings. Slowly slide your feet away from you until your legs are extended, keeping your hips off the floor and your core engaged throughout, then bring your feet back and return to the bridge position. Raise your hips into a bridge position where your body forms a straight line from knees to neck. Lie on your back with your heels on the sliders. They will have a coarse side to use on hard floors and a smooth side for carpets (note that neither works well on rubber, if you happen to have rubber floors). Slider leg curlĪ set of sliders is a great addition to your home gym set-up, because you can use them for a variety of core-crunching moves as well as machine-free leg curls. Move your feet back out again slowly, and resist the temptation to drop your hips to the ground even as your core muscles start to burn. Raise your hips into a bridge position, forming a straight line between your shoulders and your knees, and then draw the handles towards you with your legs. Set up a suspension trainer so the handles hang close to the ground, then lie on your back and put your feet in them so your heels are resting on the handles. TRX hamstring curlĪnother variation that ramps ups the demands on your core. Raise your hips and roll the ball towards you so your feet end up resting on top of the ball, then roll the ball away from you again. Lie on your back with your calves resting on a gym ball. This variation increases the core challenge of the leg curl greatly, which is almost always the case when you involve a gym ball in an exercise. What The Weights Machines In Your Gym Do.The Best Leg Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer.The Best Workout To Strengthen Your Hamstrings.
