Update - School/Minimalistic Hamstring Curl System

What I chose for the school gym I’ve been setting up

Just a quick update this week based on what I chose for the school gym I’ve been setting up this year.

To remind you, the first 3 levels I use for students are:

1. Ham roller, two legs

2. Ham roller, two legs up, one leg down

3. Ham roller, one leg

I have 10 ham rollers which stack neatly, taking up only a few square feet of storage space.

They’re easy to space out, they’re durable, and they allow all students to be challenged at their own pain-free level.

NOTE: You can start working on this right now with zero equipment.

With just a piece of cardboard on a smooth surface, you can get a world-class hamstring curl workout.

(The cardboard method is not user-friendly enough for my students, but it’s worth knowing for someone at home.)

Hamstring curl strength matters in schools because by high school sports, you have one of the main sources of KNEE SURGERY.

The demand of sports is great.

Yet the majority of schools have no hamstring curl system to help with the knees’ ability to withstand the sports demand.

Strength behind the knee is one of the abilities we can improve, reducing the chances of knee surgery.

And for that reason, I like one further progression:

NORDIC NEGATIVE

This means lowering down your own bodyweight with the back of your knee as the leverage point.

In my original ATG, I had hamstring curl machines and Nordic benches for this.

Hamstring curl machines are completely unrealistic for schools.

Scalable Nordic benches could make sense for some wealthy schools.

But even Nordic benches are unrealistic for the majority of schools.

Fortunately, most high schools have squat racks. Rogue, Sorinex and other squat rack manufacturers now make roller pads that attach into the racks.

Add an AbMat for your knees, and you’ve got a Nordic station!

The school I’m at has 8 attachment points, so I just bought 8 roller pads.

This will make it easy for any sports team here to use Nordic negatives if they so desire.

To be clear, I consider the Nordic negative OPTIONAL.

But knee surgeries in high school sports are not.

They’re going to happen (to some extent) no matter what.

So I at least want the option available for students wishing to reach even greater levels of ability and reduce their chances of knee surgery.

My advice is a simple 2-3 sets of 5 reps, doing your best to control down at your pain-free level, just once per week - but for years.

If I said to work on pull-ups once a week for years to get good at them, everyone would say “No, duh.”

But for decades the knees have been thought of as some mysterious quality we can’t do much about.

No, we CAN greatly affect how protected our knees are, and the recipe doesn’t take much time.

My best advice:

Have effective tools available, know how to use them at your pain-free level, and then find a regimen you can enjoy for years to come.

I’ve been on such a regimen for 10+ years and haven’t had a knee problem despite vigorous sports.

I was a teen knee surgery case, too.

I have lived two very different lives physically, all due to a change in skill and knowledge.

Now my main purpose in life is helping the next generation understand and have access to more of these basics.

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

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