Step 1: Lie on the ground, placing the back of your legs and heels on top of a swiss ball. Your feet should be aligned with your hips with your toes pointed toward the ceiling. Keep your legs straight and your back tight and firmly on the ground. Extend your arms to the side to maintain balance.
Step 2: Keeping your core tight, lift your hips off the floor and dig your heels into the ball, making sure your back doesn’t arch too much. Your body should be in a straight line from your heels to shoulder blades.
Step 3: With a controlled motion, bend your knees and pull the ball toward your hips until your feet are entirely on top of the ball. Your hips will lift as the ball gets closer to you, but continue to stay tight and use your arms as balance.
Step 4: Once your feet are on top of the ball, pause for a split-second and then push the ball back with your feet to the original starting position. The tops of your feet will come off the ball with only your heels still on the ball at the starting point. Your knees will go back to being straight, and continue to maintain tightness.
Step 5: Take a breath between reps, exhaling only when reps are completed. Repeat until the desired reps are reached.
Benefits:
Swiss ball hamstring curls are a great way to target and strengthen the hamstrings, which are often neglected among lifters. With this exercise, you can really focus on developing your hamstring muscles, which are key in aiding your quads on compound leg movements.
The swiss ball will force your stabilizer muscles to work hard in order to maintain balance, adding another benefit to the movement.
This is also a great alternative for lifters who do not have access to a leg curl machine and want to find a movement that focuses on the hamstrings.
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