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When it involves constructing sturdy, muscular hamstrings, most lifters carry out heavy RDLs or leg curls variations, typically neglecting the truth that body weight workout routines can nonetheless pack a hamstring punch.
However, 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 rigidity, 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 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 is the Hip Extension Hamstring Curl?
The single-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 main features of the hamstrings. Many hamstring workout routines 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, then you definitely 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, when you struggle instability.
Next, let’s learn to carry out this train with good type.
How To Do the Hip Extension Hamstring Curl
- Begin by putting one foot on the soundness ball, then bend the opposite knee and produce it towards your chest.
- Activate your working glute to maintain a impartial decrease again place.
- Perform 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 kinds a straight line from hips to shoulders.
- Perform an eccentric hamstring curl, decrease your hips to the ground, then reset and repeat.
Hip Extension Hamstring Curl Benefits
When your hamstrings are burning and you would like the set had been over already, maintain these advantages in thoughts to recollect how useful this train is for you.
Runner Friendly
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 Actual Instability
Unlike machines, the soundness ball creates a shifting floor, just like the unpredictable terrain of roads, trails, or tracks. Every rep requires you to stabilize towards rotational and lateral drift—very like what occurs with each foot strike. This instability teaches the hamstrings to be reactive and resilient, lowering damage threat and bettering stride effectivity.
Glute-Hamstring Coordination
Weak glutes and hamstrings are a recipe for damage and diminished efficiency with any train involving these two muscle tissues. This transfer requires each muscle tissues to contract in concord, elevating the hips and pulling the ball in. That neuromuscular coordination enhances your potential to stabilize the pelvis underneath fatigue and stress.
Injury Prevention
Hamstring strains don’t happen throughout concentric knee flexion; they occur when the muscle lengthens in the course of the eccentric contraction. Studies present that eccentric knee flexor workout routines like this decrease the danger of hamstring strains by bettering eccentric knee flexor energy and rising the size of the hamstrings.
Common Hip Extension Hamstring Curl Mistakes and Fixes
It’s straightforward to lose focus, particularly when there isn’t any weight. However, doing so can be a mistake as a result of rigidity and focus drive this train.
Sagging Hips
As fatigue units in, lifters typically lose hip extension whereas curling the ball in, which reduces rigidity on the glutes and hamstrings—and defeats its goal.
The Fix: Keep your glutes tight all through and take into consideration driving your hips towards the ceiling as you curl. If you possibly can’t preserve hip peak, regress to the two-leg model till your energy improves.
Unnecessary Rotation
The mixture of instability and coaching one facet at a time could cause lack of management and twisting of the hips. This mistake compromises the motion and overloads one facet of the decrease again.
The Fix: Keep your torso sq. and core braced. The non-working leg ought to keep in step with the hips, not flailing off to the facet. Imagine balancing a glass of water in your pelvis—don’t let it spill.
Rushing It
I get it. The train is difficult, and also you’re getting drained. Then it turns into an inclination to hurry by way of reps to outlive the burn, utilizing momentum as a substitute of muscle.
The Fix: Slow down. Use a 2-second curl and a 3-second reducing. The slower you progress, the extra time underneath rigidity you create—which is vital for muscle and energy.
How To Program the Hip Extension Hamstring Curl Into Your Routine
The single leg hip extension hamstring curl works nicely as an adjunct train on decrease physique days or as a part of a core circuit. Here are the set and rep ideas for energy and muscle.
- For Strength: 4 units of 6 reps per facet, centered on managed eccentrics and most hip engagement.
- For Bigger Muscle: 3 units of 8-12 reps per facet, including a 2-second squeeze on the high of every curl to extend time underneath rigidity.