Kristi demonstrates the kneeling leg curl, explaining why cable machines beat plate-loaded ones for smooth resistance. Foot position matters: dorsiflexion recruits your calves to help, while plantarflexion puts more demand on the hamstring but risks your knee. Driving your quad into the machine adds stability.
In this video, I'm going to be showing you the correct way to do a kneeling leg curl. Now first, before we jump on the kneeling leg curl, I'm going to say that I definitely prefer the cable kneeling leg curl than a plate kneeling leg curl. And the reason for that is on a plate kneeling leg curl, as you come up, the strength curve and resistance profile of the machine is inconsistent when putting a plate. On a cable, what you'll find is completely eliminates that jump that you get when putting plates on a machine. So where possible, I'll always opt for a kneeling cable leg curl over the plate loaded. The other thing, consideration for a kneeling leg curl is it does translate to standing strength much better than a lying leg curl. So we've got Kristi here today and she's going to jump on the machine to demonstrate. So when you're doing this, some cueing variations. So first of all, Go, go ahead and do a rep for us. Some considerations that you want to make is foot position and foot placement. So right now she's using a dorsiflex position with her foot, which is fine, but she's getting a lot more recruitment from the calf and stabilizing from the lower leg to help her curl up. So to eliminate this, what we're going to get her to do is point her foot down into a plantarflex position, which is going to make it— you can already see she's struggling a little bit more in the plantarflex position because the stability aspect is eliminated. But from an injury rehabilitation point of view and from a strength point of view, most people injure themselves in plantar flexion, not in dorsiflexion. The other cue we're going to make here is I want you to drive your quad into the machine as hard as you can and curl. Good. And you can already see that actually created a bit more force for her because we're creating more stability when we do that. Perfect. Just give us one more. Excellent. If you want more great tips and tutorials just like this one, make sure you subscribe for more.
