Cross Bench Leg Curls

Why Is This Exercise So Effective?

The standard leg curl does not give you much tension in the stretched position. This leaves out a large portion of the possible benefits you can get from the exercise. This version of the Leg Curl provides an excellent stretch at the bottom of the movement by positioning the body over a bench.

How To Do It

• The general execution for this exercise is the same as for a leg curl movement except that you will be using a dumbbell between your feet instead of a machine.
  
  
• Using a flat bench, lie face-down across the bench so that only your quads are touching the bench (just above the knees).
  
  
• Your upper body will be below the level of the bench supported by your forearms placed on the floor.
  
  
• Pinch a dumbbell between your feet with the top head of the dumbbell resting on the soles of your feet. Squeeze your feet together hard in order to keep the dumbbell firmly in place while doing the movement.
  
  
• You may need to get a spotter to place the dumbbell in between your feet for you.

• To do it yourself, pinch it in between your feet before you get into position on the bench then, with the dumbbell already in position, get yourself into position.
  
  
• Curl the dumbbell up using the standard leg curl motion.
  
  
• You will notice as you come to the top of the exercise that you start to lose tension in the hamstrings. Because of this, you may or may not want to come all the way up until your lower legs are vertical.
  
  
• Using a dumbbell will give your adductors a good workout, squeezing hard in order to keep the dumbbell held solidly in between. If you don’t squeeze hard, you drop the dumbbell.

How to incorporate this exercise into your workouts:

This exercise is a stretch position movement and should placed before exercises that work the contracted position more, e.g. regular machine leg curls.

Common Errors

1. Not focusing on the stretch

The value of this exercise lies in the stretch you get at the bottom of the movement. Work on accentuating and really feeling that stretch. Be sure not to rebound out of it at the bottom.

2. Lifting too fast

This exercise must be done slowly. If you go too fast, not only do you risk dropping the dumbbell, you will lose a lot of the tension that is possible in the movement.

3. Holding the dumbbell incorrectly

To ensure that the dumbbell doesn’t slip down, you must support one of the heads of the dumbbell on top of the soles of your feet. If you just place the dumbbell between your ankles, there is nothing to stop it from sliding down between your legs.

Tricks

1. Push your upper body up

As you come up, push your upper body back up as high as possible to increase the contraction by maximizing hip extension (you can use another bench or chair or dumbbell to accomplish this). Maximal hip extension serves to shorten the hamstrings at the top end of the thigh, helping to give you the most contraction your hamstrings can possible get. As you come back down, drop your upper body down again to get the benefits of the stretch by increasing hip flexion (bending at the hips increases the stretch on the hamstrings).

2. Change the angle of your legs

To change the angle of your legs somewhat, place plates under the feet on one side of the bench (not one end, one side). The bench will look like it’s tilting to one side. Having it sloping down will increase the stretch you put on the hamstrings, while having it slope up will increase the contraction. Try both.

3. Using a low pulley

This exercise can also be done using a low pulley with two ankle harnesses. This will help to give you not only tension on the stretched part of the movement but tension on the contracted position of the movement. When you are using a dumbbell, you actually lose almost all tension in the hamstrings as you come to the top.