Tempo Lying Leg Curl
By stretching the lowering phase to three or four seconds, the tempo lying leg curl loads the hamstrings under a long eccentric that drives hypertrophy and connective-tissue resilience. It is a smart tool for building curl strength and reducing hamstring strain risk in sprinters and field athletes. Use lighter loads than a standard curl and chase control, not weight.
- Equipment
- Machine
- Body part
- Hamstring
- Type
- Strength
- Browse by muscle
- Biceps Femoris, Semitendinosus
- Browse by movement
- Knee Flexion
- Target
- Biceps Femoris, Semitendinosus
- Secondary
- Gastrocnemius Medial Head, Gastrocnemius Lateral Head
How to do it
- 1
Lie face down on the leg curl machine with the roller pad on the back of your ankles.
- 2
Grip the handles and keep your hips pressed into the pad throughout.
- 3
Curl both heels toward your glutes over about one second.
- 4
Pause and squeeze the hamstrings hard at the top.
- 5
Lower the weight slowly, taking three to four seconds until your legs are nearly straight.
- 6
Reset without resting the plates and repeat. Exhale up, inhale down.
Tips
- Count the eccentric out loud or in your head so the tempo stays honest.
- Avoid letting your hips pop off the pad to cheat the curl up.
- Drop the load; heavy weight ruins the slow negative that makes this work.
Variations
Common mistakes
- Your hips lifting off the pad during the slow lowering phase is the first thing to break when a negative gets long. If they rise before the plates land, the load is still too heavy.
- Letting the pad fall free over the last stretch of the descent skips the position where the hamstring is longest and least protected. Keep the same speed until the legs are nearly straight.
- Taking the same rest you take between normal sets forgets that each set now lasts twice as long. Give yourself two to three minutes so the second set is not a shadow of the first.
- Running these the day before a sprint session or a match leaves the hamstrings sore when you need them fresh. Long negatives take a few days to settle, so place them accordingly.
- Stacking tempo curls onto a day that already included Romanian deadlifts doubles the slow eccentric work on one muscle. Split them across the week or cut the volume of one.
Frequently asked
- How many sets and reps of the tempo lying leg curl should you do when you are new to the exercise?
- Three sets of 5 to 8 reps, each with a one-second curl, a squeeze, and a three to four second lowering. That comes to roughly 30 to 40 seconds of work per set, which is the point of the exercise, and it needs about a third less weight than your normal lying curl. Progress by adding a rep, then a second to the lowering, before you touch the pin. Once a week is enough, and not within a couple of days of heavy hinging.
- What can I do instead of the tempo lying leg curl without a machine?
- The slow lowering matters more than the equipment. A banded prone curl taken back over four seconds, a swiss-ball curl with a long roll-out, or a Nordic curl, which is almost all eccentric, all fit. Of those, the Nordic is the closest in intent: lower yourself as slowly as you can and catch yourself with your hands. An ankle cuff on a low cable also works if you can resist the stack on the way back down.
- What is the tempo lying leg curl good for, and who should skip it?
- It loads the hamstrings through a long, slow lowering phase, which builds size and gives the muscle work in the lengthened part of its range with modest weight. Sprinters and field-sport athletes often use it for exactly that reason. Skip it in the days before a competition or a hard running session, since it leaves the hamstrings sore, and skip it if you are chasing a heavy curl number, because the tempo caps the load you can use well below your best.
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