Sliding Leg Curl — eccentric hold
Hamstring eccentric with the hip extended — the sprinting position, which a Nordic on its knees never loads
How to do it well
The set-up and the rep in full, then the cues the app shows on the exercise card — the short version, for the moment you are standing in front of the bar.
Set-up
Lie on your back on a smooth floor with both heels on sliders, or a towel on a wooden floor, knees bent and feet close to the hips. Arms by your sides. Lift the hips into a bridge.
The rep
Keeping the hips high, slide the heels away over six seconds, resisting with the hamstrings, until the legs are nearly straight. Pause there with the hips still up, then drag the heels back in with the hamstrings and reset the bridge. Do five slides, and finish the set with a ten-second hold at full length.
On the exercise card
- Hips stay high the whole way out
- Slow the slide — do not let the legs run away
- Hold with the hips up, then drag back in
- Tempo
- 6s to slide out
What goes wrong, and the fix
| What goes wrong | The fix |
|---|---|
| The hips dropping as the legs go out | Hips high the whole way. Once they drop, the hamstrings are no longer working with the hip extended, and that is the point. |
| The legs running away | Slow the slide. If you cannot control the last part, stop short of straight. |
| Pushing with the arms | The arms rest on the floor. The hamstrings do the work. |
Make it easier, or harder
- Easier
- A shorter slide, or lower the hips to the floor before pulling the heels back in.
- Harder
- Single-leg slides, or a longer hold at length.
How Train Smart prescribes it
The sets and reps below are the authored starting point. The actual weight you see is calculated from your own last top set and the week you are in within your four-week block.
AFL and soccer carry both this and the Nordic in their lower-body prehab rotation, so the hamstrings get two different slow, lengthening exercises: the Nordic from the knees, this from a bridge with the hips held up.
What it trains, and who trains it
- Muscles worked
- Hamstrings
- Region
- Lower body
- Classified as
- Mobility
If you cannot do this one
Rack taken, kit missing, or it does not suit you. These are the swaps the app offers, matched by movement pattern and body region — each with the reason it is a fair substitute.
| Alternative | Why it works as a swap |
|---|---|
| Nordic Curl | Eccentric hamstring — top injury-prevention |
| Nordic Drop (slow descent) | Take as long as possible to lower — max-effort eccentric hamstring |
| Adductor Slider | Slide one leg out laterally — eccentric adductor loading |
| Lying Leg Curl Machine | Machine: direct hamstring loading, easy to scale |
| Seated Leg Curl Machine | Machine: hamstring isolation through full range |
| Standing Single-Leg Curl Machine | Machine: unilateral hamstring isolation |
This exercise, in a program that knows why it is there
Train Smart puts this movement in the right session, at the right point in your block, at a weight calculated for you — and swaps it automatically if you do not have the kit.
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