On the subject of constructing sturdy, muscular hamstrings, most lifters carry out heavy RDLs or leg curls variations, usually neglecting the truth that body weight workouts can nonetheless pack a hamstring punch.
Nonetheless, resistance is resistance, whether or not it’s from a dumbbell or the pull of gravity. Your hamstrings don’t care about the kind of resistance you’re utilizing. They reply to stress, resistance, and motion high quality—and the single-leg hip extension hamstring curl on a stability ball delivers all three in spades.
This difficult body weight transfer combines hip extension and knee flexion, demanding your glutes and hammies work collectively whereas your core retains it tight. Whether or not you’re coaching at house, rounding out a lower-body day, or trying to improve your posterior, this transfer deserves a spot in your exercise rotation.
Let’s dive in.
What’s the Hip Extension Hamstring Curl?
The only-leg hip extension hamstring curl is a body weight train carried out on a stability ball that mixes two actions: hip extension and knee flexion—each major features of the hamstrings. Many hamstring workouts prepare simply the curl, however this variation begins with a hip extension and finishes with a hamstring curl.
One foot is on a stability ball, you then drive your hips up and curl the ball towards your glutes utilizing your hamstring. It’s a transfer that trains your glutes, hamstrings, and core concurrently, whilst you battle instability.
Subsequent, let’s discover ways to carry out this train with good kind.
How To Do the Hip Extension Hamstring Curl
- Start by putting one foot on the steadiness ball, then bend the opposite knee and produce it towards your chest.
- Activate your working glute to maintain a impartial decrease again place.
- Carry out a single-leg hip extension, pause, then curl the ball in the direction of you until your foot is flat on the ball and your physique types a straight line from hips to shoulders.
- Carry out an eccentric hamstring curl, decrease your hips to the ground, then reset and repeat.
Hip Extension Hamstring Curl Advantages
When your hamstrings are burning and you want the set have been over already, preserve these advantages in thoughts to recollect how useful this train is for you.
Runner Pleasant
The mixture of hip extension and knee flexion in a single motion mirrors the mechanics of a operating stride. You’re not simply constructing hamstring energy—you’re coaching the glutes and hamstrings to activate collectively, precisely as they need to throughout operating.
Mimics Precise Instability
In contrast to machines, the steadiness ball creates a shifting floor, much like the unpredictable terrain of roads, trails, or tracks. Each rep requires you to stabilize in opposition to rotational and lateral drift—very like what occurs with each foot strike. This instability teaches the hamstrings to be reactive and resilient, decreasing harm danger and bettering stride effectivity.
Glute-Hamstring Coordination
Weak glutes and hamstrings are a recipe for harm and diminished efficiency with any train involving these two muscle groups. This transfer requires each muscle groups to contract in concord, elevating the hips and pulling the ball in. That neuromuscular coordination enhances your capacity to stabilize the pelvis underneath fatigue and stress.
Harm Prevention
Hamstring strains don’t happen throughout concentric knee flexion; they occur when the muscle lengthens through the eccentric contraction. Research present that eccentric knee flexor workouts like this decrease the danger of hamstring strains by bettering eccentric knee flexor energy and growing the size of the hamstrings.
Widespread Hip Extension Hamstring Curl Errors and Fixes
It’s straightforward to lose focus, particularly when there isn’t any weight. Nonetheless, doing so can be a mistake as a result of stress and focus drive this train.
Sagging Hips
As fatigue units in, lifters usually lose hip extension whereas curling the ball in, which reduces stress on the glutes and hamstrings—and defeats its objective.
The Repair: Maintain your glutes tight all through and take into consideration driving your hips towards the ceiling as you curl. In case you can’t preserve hip top, regress to the two-leg model till your energy improves.
Pointless Rotation
The mixture of instability and coaching one aspect at a time may cause lack of management and twisting of the hips. This error compromises the motion and overloads one aspect of the decrease again.
The Repair: Maintain your torso sq. and core braced. The non-working leg ought to keep according to the hips, not flailing off to the aspect. Think about balancing a glass of water in your pelvis—don’t let it spill.
Speeding It
I get it. The train is difficult, and also you’re getting drained. Then it turns into a bent to hurry by way of reps to outlive the burn, utilizing momentum as a substitute of muscle.
The Repair: Decelerate. Use a 2-second curl and a 3-second reducing. The slower you progress, the extra time underneath stress you create—which is vital for muscle and energy.
How To Program the Hip Extension Hamstring Curl Into Your Routine
The only leg hip extension hamstring curl works properly as an adjunct train on decrease physique days or as a part of a core circuit. Listed here are the set and rep options for energy and muscle.
- For Energy: 4 units of 6 reps per aspect, targeted on managed eccentrics and most hip engagement.
- For Greater Muscle: 3 units of 8-12 reps per aspect, including a 2-second squeeze on the prime of every curl to extend time underneath stress.
