This exercise of musculation aims at muscling the thighs and more exactly the quadriceps.
The extended leg curl or recumbent leg curl is an isolation exercise to build muscle and tone the back of the thighs, it mainly targets the ischios. It has its place in your weight training program of thighs because apart from the semi-tensioned legs deadlift, the other exercises mainly used for the thighs do not solicit the hamstrings as much. It is still necessary to know how to do it correctly, even if the machine enables us to carry it out correctly.
It could be that in some old gyms there are still full flat leg curl machines, which is very bad for the lower back, if so, add cousins under the belly.
How do I do this exercise?
Adjust the sleeve or boudin behind the ankles according to your morphology, choose the desired weight then lie down on your stomach on the machine and seize the wrists. Bend your knees and bring the sleeve towards your buttocks with a strong contraction of the ischios without taking your pelvis off the machine, then slowly lower the load while keeping your abdominal muscles contracted and repeat until the end of your series.
All the muscles that will be worked are: hamstrings, semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius muscle (calves).
This exercise must be performed without lifting the stomach from the support during the movement.
CAUTION: Keep your pelvis glued to the back of the machine throughout the movement and your head in line with your back. Avoid completely flat machines at all costs to avoid arching the lower back.
Tips
- Exhale as you bend your knees and contract the back of your thighs, then inhale as you descend.
- Maintain continuous tension throughout the movement and do not swing.
- Keep your pelvis (belly) glued to the bench so as not to arch your back and not to use your buttocks and lumbar muscles to carry out the movement, do not hesitate to lower the load or the weight in order to concentrate only on the hamstrings and the leg muscles that we mentioned above.
Variants
- You can vary the position of the feet to solicit more the vastus medialis (feet outwards) or the vastus medialis (feet inwards) but this puts a lot of stress on the knee joints.
- The leg curl exercise can be done unilaterally to focus more on each quadriceps or to catch up on any delays.
Do you want a strength training program to develop your hamstrings?
Supplementary article :
