Is the leg curl underrated?

[Jay Mund]

OP: Do you think that the hamstrings are neglected by deadlifts and correctly performed squats? The hamstrings get plenty of work when you do The Program as it is written, when you do the exercises CORRECTLY. There is no reason to do either leg extensions or leg curls, because squats and pulls get the job done real good like.

[Scrofula]

Let's see now. Other than getting better at giving yourself a swift kick in the ass with your own heel, why else would you need to improve this particular movement?

"This particular movement"? As in, knee flexion? Are you asking why you would need to strengthen knee flexion? Because I can think of a few situations in which knee flexion is useful.

(Not that I'm claiming leg curls are the best way to strengthen it.)

[Mark Rippetoe]

Let's hear them.

[Kregna]

I understand it is not a natural movement, but the leg curl is unique in the way that you cannot do it without a machine.
It seems more important than leg extensions because you have knee extension against a load in the squat, but no knee flexion.

You can do it with glute ham raises

[Sean Herbison]

I can think of a few situations in which knee flexion is useful.

Let's hear them.

Hook kick, um... jumping hook kick... uh... I'm out.

[NigelB]

Let's hear them.

1. Back heeling footballs
2. Back heeling other things - backsides possibly as MEH observes
3. er ...

[stejor]

I'm a lifter who trains primarily with barbells, but recently added leg curls (and leg extensions) to my training at the suggestion of a friend. Contrary to my initial expectations, I've actually found them to be fairly productive, and I thought I'd share my observations:

1) They're very easy to do (assuming you train in a commercial gym), and I can train them effectively in less than five minutes at the end of a workout.

2) They've noticeably increased my leg hypertrophy.

3) They've allowed me to lower my squat and deadlift volume while still maintaining at least modest strength progress. This is particularly important for me, since I'm prone to back pain with the higher volume barbell work.

I've only been training this way for a couple months, so perhaps I'll change my opinion over time, but I can't really see much downside to adding in a couple sets of leg curls once a week and seeing what happens.

[quikky]

Let's hear them.

Jiu-jitsu and such?

[william jackson]

leg curls for the gurls.

[John Janecek]

I've been strength coaching for awhile in high school and colleges (about 23 years now) and have always liked the glute hams when I started having my athletes use them back in Albany in the mid 90's, we even did leg curls too and I thought it was good to hit that hamstring from "all angles" , hey couldnt hurt eh??

Well fast forward a few years and I get to SMU in 1999 to work as an asst strength coach and we are in "the transition building" which is a big metal bldg beside the new stadium under construction...We had ten racks with platforms, five more squat cages, and no glute hams (and one old universal leg curl)...I thought for sure our team would be done in for sure with hamstring injuries but we did cleans, snatches, front and back squats, and RDL;s and it never seemed to be a problem..??

I get into coaching in high school in Texas (make twice as much as I did as an asst at SMU, go figure) and immediatley have Glute Hams put in the school I worked in (Euless Trinity) and we used them year round from 2000 until 2011 when I left to come to Longview, no leg curl machines were ever used and we never had hamstring problems..

Now I figure we DIDNT do leg curls but we did glute ham so I was safe, get here to Longview and have all new equipment, nice stuff, and BRAND NEW GLUTE HAMS AND LEGS CURLS (six of each)!! I figure I'm safe again and put them both in our postseason program after playoffs-we work them hard 2xweek after low bar squats and 12 weeks later do our Ironman testing and results were great...

After Ironman coach says he needs me to lift the team one less day and I have 40 min instead of an hour, when I'm pressed for time I always keep the bigger lifts in and cut out the aux work....the leg curl / glute ham stations got the ax...I was a little concerned that we might start having hamstring problems cause of this...

We havent done them since first week in march and here we are almost six months later and kids have competed in track, ran speed and agility work all summer, played in 7 on 7 leagues here in Texas, and we just had our first game and you know what...Not a single hamstring problem has come up..??

We are getting some new bars and bumpers for our 20 platforms (if you dont know why search Troy VTX bumpers) and all we do in here is snatch and clean with front squatting and pulls or deadlifts on one day and low bar back squat and pressing on the other day and keep rotating these through...

After seeing this first hand I have really changed my thinking on the "need" for direct hamstring work.....Coach asked me the other day if I though we needed any more glute hams (we have six now) and I said no....

So my two cents - no you dont need a leg curl...