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Every exercise ranked by research, by lifters and by results. Find what’s S-tier for your goal, then train it.

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Explore/Hamstrings

Nordic Curl

Also called Nordic hamstring curl

BodyweightIsolationTakes some practice
Front
Back
Primary Secondary

Works

Hamstrings

Also glutes

You need

Nothing but the floor

How to do itPictures · 3 steps
1Start
2Lower slowly
Main musclesAlso working
  1. 1Kneel with your heels anchored
  2. 2Lower your body as slowly as you can
  3. 3Catch yourself and push back up

Most common mistake

Breaking at the hips to shorten the lever.

Watch a demo

Good for

  • Ranked #1 for American football and #2 for soccer
  • Keeps the work on the target muscle
  • Helps prevent common American football injuries

Compare with

vs Glute-Ham Raisevs 45° Back Extensionvs Good Morning
S
For soccer
#2 of 25
See the full list →
Research
89
Scored by hand
Results
Soon
From the app
How lifters rate itBe the first
S
A
B
C
D
F
Why research scores it 892 studies
TransferStrong
Injury protectionExcellent
PracticalityExcellent

Danish soccer teams that added Nordics had about 70% fewer acute hamstring injuries over a season.

  • Petersen et al., 2011 · Trial: Teams that added Nordic curls had about 70% fewer acute hamstring injuries over a season (3.8 vs 13.1 per 100 players). (942 Danish male professional and amateur players.)
  • van Dyk et al., 2019 · Meta-analysis: Programmes that included Nordic curls reduced hamstring injuries by up to 51%. (A later reappraisal judged the effect less certain because of study selection.)

Research behind these criteria

  • Transfer: Seitz et al., 2014 · Markovic, 2007 · Blagrove et al., 2018 · Rønnestad & Mujika, 2014
  • Injury protection: Lauersen et al., 2014 · van Dyk et al., 2019 · Harøy et al., 2019 · Webster & Hewett, 2018
How scores work

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  • SBulgarian Split SquatDumbbell
  • ALateral LungeDumbbell
  • ASingle-Leg RDLDumbbell
  • SCopenhagen PlankBodyweight

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