Suspension hamstring curl
On your back with your heels in the straps, bridge up and curl your heels toward your hips. Hamstrings working both jobs at once.
TrainsHamstringsGlutes
NeedsSuspension trainer
The movement
2 stages
Bridge long
01 Bridge long
Heels in the straps, hips lifted into one line from shoulders to feet.
02 Heels in
Drag the heels toward the hips, letting the hips rise as the knees bend.
How to do it
Setup
- Set the straps so the foot cradles hang about a foot off the floor.
- Lie on your back under the anchor and place your heels in the cradles, legs straight.
- Press your arms into the floor at your sides and lift your hips into a straight line from shoulders to heels.
Execution
- Pull your heels toward your hips by bending your knees, letting your hips rise as they come.
- Pause when your feet are under your knees.
- Straighten your legs back out slowly, keeping your hips off the floor the whole time.
BreathingExhale as you curl in, inhale as you straighten out.
Getting it right
Form cues
- Hips stay lifted from first rep to last.
- Drag the heels in and out along one straight line.
Common mistakes
- Dropping the hips to the floor between reps, which deletes the glute half of the exercise.
- Yanking the knees in fast and letting the straps swing.
- Arching the lower back at full extension instead of keeping the trunk braced.
Worth knowing
- Cramping mid-set is common at first, because hamstrings rarely work both hips and knees together. Start with short sets well shy of failure and build up over a couple of weeks.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
The hamstrings do two jobs, extending the hip and bending the knee, and almost every exercise trains only the first. Deadlifts and bridges load the hip while the knee stays quiet. The suspension curl makes the hamstrings do both at once, holding the bridge with one end while the other end drags your heels in, and that combination is why a bodyweight movement leaves them so sore.
It also fills the canyon between the glute bridge and the Nordic curl. The bridge stops challenging most people within weeks, while the Nordic negative starts beyond most people’s strength. This sits usefully between them, hard enough to train seriously, kind enough to allow full sets of 8–15.
Progress it by moving your body, the same as every strap exercise. Straighter legs at the start, a slower return, then one leg in the cradle with the other held in the air. Single-leg curls done strictly are genuine pre-Nordic strength, and by then the negative up on your knees will have stopped being a fantasy.