Why is it that it’s close to impossible to get stronger on leg curls?I’ve been hammering them for years with zero results.I’m pretty damn strong on everything else with a 500lbs. bench for example.The only thing that made me a little stronger was laying off them and only doing bent leg deads off a block(the best ham exercise IMO).Getting stronger on leg curls without doing them?Anyone have any possible explanations?Too little neural stimulation on that exercise maybe?
You just answered your own question. Lay off the leg curls and do more work for the postierer chain ie. good mornings(seated or standing),Russian deadlifts,deadlifts,stiff-leg deadlifts,back extentons,ham extentions. there’s more to fireing the old hams up than your basic curl.Mix in some veriety and make these movements your first piority.
If you aint getting stronger, why are you wasting your time? Get off of 'em. You wanna blast them, try this killer knee flexion exercise, Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
in a nutshell, its a leg curl, but the movement is about the knee the same as its sissy cousin, the lying down version, but your leg(side note, the leg is the portion of the body below the knee, NOT the whole lower appendage)stays staionary. You lower your upper body from the kneeling position without hip flexion, Oh just go to the page and look!!! Do them after your Hip extension choice, stiff deads, good mornings, whatever.
The question was WHY leg curls are so ineffective.Another observation is that hams
tolerate very little work on the curl machine before you actually lose strength.If I do more than two sets once a week I lose strength!
I guess because there is little real life spillover for a 100% knee flexion move? Have you tried other variances, standing, seated? When are you doing them? If you are hell bent on getting your knee flexion up, I am sure you could if you specialized it, prioritized it, but why? Are you pretty strong in the other moves you do for the lower body?
I do the leg curls for bodybuilding purposes.
It seems to me there should be some adaption in the form of strength increase for them to cause hypertrophy.I am pretty strong in low body exercises especially the deads.I can do 560 for 4 reps off the blocks which let me just get my feet under the bar.I don’t go to total failure for safety reasons.Squats are comparatively a bit weaker.Was it Coach Davies who said extentions and curls were worthless excercises?By the way,I’ve done them lying,standing and seated.Seated is my favorite.
Those are great numbers. I ask you to try the leg curls I mentioned in the first post. You can look at all the emg studies re different leg curls, but if you aren’t going anywhere, get off of 'em for awhile. don’t search so much for why, just realize what is. If you must do them, search this site for different variations and foot positions to do when you curl. They claim to make a mildly adequate movement more effective.
Do you sprint? youch.
I’ll try the excercise next workout.Does it hurt the knees?Looks like there could be a lot of weight on the kneecap.Being strong has it’s drawbacks.I tore my pec just three weeks ago.Scared the hell out of me.I was going to do 600 on the block deads.I think I’ll be working on technique a lot more instead and being extra careful.At 24 I’m just too young for these types of injuries.
Yes they are tough on the kneecaps. To get around that, place a towel or two or whatever it takes on the superior most aspect of the shin, just below the kneecap. I wouldn’t try positives first time, just controlled negatives. If you are trying a negative, let the first rep be your guage, do the rep as fast as your weakest point could control. An explosive pushup to get to the top of the movement is kinda cool. BE Careful. ease into this bad boy.
do you do curls after your deadlift routine? If your dealift poundage has been going up then you should not worry. I figure that you do deads first then curls, so if you are pushing hard week in week out on the deads and improving then how can you expect to have strength for the curls. I use curls as finishers after 4 sets of deads. they definitely help shape the muscle lovely. 560 deads off blocks for reps is great at age 24. how big are you? laters pk
I’m only deadlifting every 2 weeks or so.I do hams before quads on leg day.It’s pretty much the only excercise I don’t seem to progress on.
If I try to train them harder and/or with more volume I lose strength!
Actually I pulled 680 for a triple with a sumo stance and a deadlift suit when I was 21 but started to experience low back pain and got a hernia at the belly button.Since then I’ve taken it a lot easier.I’ve carried 230-245lbs. at 5’10 for the past 4 years.
dude you are big. i don’t know your body fat level but your size is definitely big. try splitting squats and deads. i don’t know what form you use to squat but you realize that hams are used when squatting. you are using a lot of volume on the hams without realizing it. to really isolate quads you need to do narrow stance full squats. laters pk
Why not try good mornings? I also got a ton of responses to my post a few weeks ago about eliminating ham curls and extensions…you might want to take a look there. I just started doing good mornings about 3 weeks ago and my hams are getting fuller already.