Intermediate

Medicine Ball Hamstring Curl

With heels on the ball and hips lifted, the hamstrings both extend the hip and flex the knee, exactly their dual job. The ball's small, unstable contact point adds a control demand the machine curl never gives you. It is a strong bodyweight hamstring builder and a useful drill for anyone rehabbing or bulletproofing the posterior chain.

Equipment
Medicine Ball
Body part
Hamstring
Type
Balance, Strength
Browse by movement
Hinge, Knee Flexion
Muscles worked
Target
Biceps Femoris, Semitendinosus
Secondary
Gluteus Maximus
Tertiary
Erector Spinae

How to do it

  1. 1

    Lie on your back and place both heels on the far side of a medicine ball, legs straight.

  2. 2

    Drive through the heels to lift your hips into a bridge.

  3. 3

    Keeping the hips high, bend the knees and roll the ball toward your glutes.

  4. 4

    Pause when the ball is close, then slowly extend the legs back out.

  5. 5

    Do not let the hips drop until the set is finished.

  6. 6

    Lower the hips only after the final controlled rep.

Tips

  • Keep the hips lifted the whole set so the hamstrings stay loaded.
  • Move slowly on the way out; the eccentric is where the strength is built.
  • Use two heels together, or progress toward a single-leg version for more load.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • The heels are perched on the top of the ball, so it squirts out sideways on the first hard rep; set them on the far side of the ball where it rolls toward you instead.
  • A ball that is too big or too soft parks the knees at a permanent bend and swallows the movement, so the legs never straighten and the knees travel through half the range you think they do.
  • The bridge gets dropped in one go at the end of the set while the heels are still up, and the ball skids out from under you; lower the hips under control, then take the feet off.
  • The hips travel with the ball as it rolls in and the knees finish over the chest, which lets the tension out; only the knees should move.
  • The ball bounces between the heels and the glutes and its momentum does the returning; it should be slow enough that you could stop it anywhere in the range.

Frequently asked

How many sets and reps of the medicine ball hamstring curl should you do when you are new to the exercise?
Ten reps for three sets, with both heels on the ball and the bridge held from the first rep to the last. When 12 to 15 feel controlled, add a two-second pause with the knees bent, then work toward single-leg reps a few at a time. Two sessions a week is enough, and expect the early sessions to be as much about keeping the ball still as about the hamstrings.
What can I use instead of a medicine ball for this hamstring curl?
A stability ball is the common version and is easier to control because it is larger. Furniture sliders or towels on a smooth floor turn it into a slider curl, and a suspension trainer's foot cradles do the same thing in the air. A machine leg curl trains the same knee bend in a gym, though you lose the bridge and the hip extension the bodyweight versions include.
What is the medicine ball hamstring curl good for, and when is it a poor choice?
It works the hamstrings at both ends, bending the knee while holding the hip extended, and the ball's small contact point adds a control demand no machine gives you. That suits home training and posterior-chain work alongside hinges. It is a poor choice if your only ball is large and soft, since the range collapses, and a poor choice for maximum strength, because bodyweight is the whole load.

Related exercises

Other movements among FitRay's 2,000+ exercises that load the same target muscle — same equipment and level first.

All Hamstring exercises