Assisted Nordic Curl Machine

[Reno911]

Does anyone have an assisted Nordic leg curl at their gym? If so, what brand and how do you like it?

Doesn't look like too many companies make one.

Plate Loaded Assisted Nordic Ham | Hammer Strength

See how our Plate Loaded Assisted Nordic Ham is engineered for ultimate posterior chain development, empowering athletes to dominate the Nordic Hamstring Curl machine.

www.lifefitness.com

Assisted glute and ham developer (PW322) - Atlantis

Provides upper body support for the glute ham movement (the more weight added, the easier the exercise). Carriage adjusts forward and backwards smoothly. Roller pads adjust in order to properly secure ankles. Roller pad for chest adjusts to multiple heights. Adjustable range-of-motion. Rubber...

atlantisstrength.com

 

[aHarness]

Does anyone have an assisted Nordic leg curl at their gym? If so, what brand and how do you like it?

Doesn't look like too many companies make one.

Plate Loaded Assisted Nordic Ham | Hammer Strength

See how our Plate Loaded Assisted Nordic Ham is engineered for ultimate posterior chain development, empowering athletes to dominate the Nordic Hamstring Curl machine.

www.lifefitness.com

Assisted glute and ham developer (PW322) - Atlantis

Provides upper body support for the glute ham movement (the more weight added, the easier the exercise). Carriage adjusts forward and backwards smoothly. Roller pads adjust in order to properly secure ankles. Roller pad for chest adjusts to multiple heights. Adjustable range-of-motion. Rubber...

atlantisstrength.com

An old gym I trained at had one. Was fun to use every now and then for the novelty just to switch it up, but don’t feel it benefits beyond a standard leg curl.

 

[EnhancedFatGrappler]

John Meadows was a fan of the Nordic Curl, so I'm not dismissing it , but I just don't find the movement practical for big dudes. It is a fine movement for lighter guys, especially athletes, but a 260 lbs guy just has to work so much against the torque, even Big Ramy sized Hamstrings will not be enough. I don't see it being different than a lying leg curl from a mechanical standpoint, but there might be difference, have not looked hard into it. The question is, is the difference really noticeable?

I just do my damn leg curls and stiff legged deadlifts, hits the hams good enough.

FWIW, EliteFTS has something similar, and they have it in the elitefts gym where Dave Tate is at. Still, it looks awkward and finicky to me.

 

[heavyhitter]

John Meadows was a fan of the Nordic Curl, so I'm not dismissing it , but I just don't find the movement practical for big dudes. It is a fine movement for lighter guys, especially athletes, but a 260 lbs guy just has to work so much against the torque, even Big Ramy sized Hamstrings will not be enough. I don't see it being different than a lying leg curl from a mechanical standpoint, but there might be difference, have not looked hard into it. The question is, is the difference really noticeable?

I just do my damn leg curls and stiff legged deadlifts, hits the hams good enough.

FWIW, EliteFTS has something similar, and they have it in the elitefts gym where Dave Tate is at. Still, it looks awkward and finicky to me.

I regularly did band assisted Nordic curls at 260 plus pounds. One of the best hamstring movements I found

 

[EnhancedFatGrappler]

I regularly did band assisted Nordic curls at 260 plus pounds. One of the best hamstring movements I found

I'm really curious what makes you say it is one of the best movements for you. Better growth, better mind muscle connection, more doms etc? What changed it for you for hamstring growth compared to not using this exercise? I personally never got much out of it, I just can't progress it unlike stiff legged deadlifts and machine leg curls.

 

[Reno911]

John Meadows was a fan of the Nordic Curl, so I'm not dismissing it , but I just don't find the movement practical for big dudes. It is a fine movement for lighter guys, especially athletes, but a 260 lbs guy just has to work so much against the torque, even Big Ramy sized Hamstrings will not be enough. I don't see it being different than a lying leg curl from a mechanical standpoint, but there might be difference, have not looked hard into it. The question is, is the difference really noticeable?

I just do my damn leg curls and stiff legged deadlifts, hits the hams good enough.

FWIW, EliteFTS has something similar, and they have it in the elitefts gym where Dave Tate is at. Still, it looks awkward and finicky to me.

I do have the Elite FTS glute ham piece which you can do them on but yes, like you said it's an odd torque for a larger guy. Even if I use a broom stick to assist it's just awkward so was looking for a different option. Elite FTS glute ham however is great for back extensions. IMO much better at hitting the hams than a regular angled one.

 

[bigzzz]

Gym80 has one as well. Don't like it very much tbh.

 

[heavyhitter]

I'm really curious what makes you say it is one of the best movements for you. Better growth, better mind muscle connection, more doms etc? What changed it for you for hamstring growth compared to not using this exercise? I personally never got much out of it, I just can't progress it unlike stiff legged deadlifts and machine leg curls.

It’s like the difference between a chin up and a pull down on a machine. Any time your body is moving through space rather than you moving something else is always going to have benefits. The Nordic curl was a better choice for me for a few reasons. It caused less strain and pain on my knees( I’m pretty tall and most machines put me in a position that created a lot of torque in my knees that didn’t feel great.)
I had been lifting for a pretty long time before throwing them in. Progressing on Nordic curls brought more hypertrophy to my hamstrings than anything I’d been doing up to that point.
And they just FEEL better. Like, how some exercises just feel like they’re targeting the muscle in a really effective way. Everybody has a favorite exercise or machine etc. for a specific body part because you’re just able to “get in the groove with it”, to quote Dante. And this was the one for me for hams.
I did not however ever use a Nordic curl machine as I’ve never seen one at any gym I’ve been at in Az. I set mine up old school style with a band attached to a stationary object and kneeling on a couple yoga mats

 

[st114]

It’s okay. My gym has one. I think a GHR is more effective. Kind of a novelty gimmicky thing.

I just do standard Nordic curls without the machine, but I guess it can be useful to train up to do them, or if you want some more mind muscle connection, kind of like an assisted pull-up machine in both regards

 

[Poonami]

Golds I’m my area has one. All black. It’s pure torture but nothing smokes quads like that

 

[Reno911]

It’s like the difference between a chin up and a pull down on a machine. Any time your body is moving through space rather than you moving something else is always going to have benefits. The Nordic curl was a better choice for me for a few reasons. It caused less strain and pain on my knees( I’m pretty tall and most machines put me in a position that created a lot of torque in my knees that didn’t feel great.)
I had been lifting for a pretty long time before throwing them in. Progressing on Nordic curls brought more hypertrophy to my hamstrings than anything I’d been doing up to that point.
And they just FEEL better. Like, how some exercises just feel like they’re targeting the muscle in a really effective way. Everybody has a favorite exercise or machine etc. for a specific body part because you’re just able to “get in the groove with it”, to quote Dante. And this was the one for me for hams.
I did not however ever use a Nordic curl machine as I’ve never seen one at any gym I’ve been at in Az. I set mine up old school style with a band attached to a stationary object and kneeling on a couple yoga mats

What do you brace your feet with?

 

[Reno911]

Golds I’m my area has one. All black. It’s pure torture but nothing smokes quads like that

Any idea what brand it is?

 

[heavyhitter]

What do you brace your feet with?

There’s an incline bench station at my gym that has enough space under it to wedge my feet into. Basically like kneeling down and having someone hold onto your ankles. I attach a band to the bar that’s in the rack and that loops around my upper chest to give assistance on the way up.

 

[heavyhitter]

There’s an incline bench station at my gym that has enough space under it to wedge my feet into. Basically like kneeling down and having someone hold onto your ankles. I attach a band to the bar that’s in the rack and that loops around my upper chest to give assistance on the way up.

I’ve posted videos of myself doing it in a log in the log section if youd like to get an idea how I set it up

 

[Nate Dawg]

I kneel on the seat of a lat pulldown machine, facing "backwards", with my heels locked under the pad that you put your knees under for lat pulldowns.

Then I hang a band from the top of the lat pulldown and hold it under my chin while doing the Nordic curls, and the band gives enough assistance to help complete the reps. Adjust band strength for how much assistance you need.

 

[Flex500]

I think some of this comes down to how you feel or think of working the negative in training. I don't believe it's settled science based on the many studies but if you are a believer in EIMD focused training (as I am) then it's great. If you kind of feel like the negative is pointless or not important or your training is mostly focused around the pump, I wouldn't spend money on it. I personally have a junky nordic curl machine and do it about once a month for the negatives and basically am crippled for 4 days doing just one set of negatives.

 

[hogan87]

This machine is amazing, I prefer it over a standard hamstring curl machine. Most people over look the eccentric part of the exercise but muscle is still built in the eccentric. There is a new study showing seated standard hamstring curls to be slightly superior but I`m keeping this in the rotation. Way more DOMS

Hamstrings Hypertrophy Is Specific to the Training Exercise: Nordic Hamstring versus Lengthened State Eccentric Training - PubMed

These results suggest that LSET is superior to NHT in inducing overall hamstrings and BFlh hypertrophy, potentially contributing to better sprint performance improvements and protection against hamstring strain injuries than NHT.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov