Using the Seated Hamstring Exercise Machine at the Gym

Video Transcript

"Hi I’m personal trainer Michael Angelo on behalf of Expert Village. And we’re here at Extreme Fitness in Laurel Springs, New Jersey and today I’m going to demonstrate how to use a seated hamstring curl machine. Now with the seated hamstring curl machine you want to make sure your adjustments are proper, there’s one down here you slide it up and down to get it where you want it and where you want it is right at the Achilles tendon. I’ll show you that when I get on here, also the seat in the back adjust just get it where you fit it properly and when you put your leg up here the Achilles tendon is right where it needs to be. Also there’s an adjustment here to lock you into the machine, you bring that down and you want to make sure that this isn’t on your knee; you don’t want anything on your knee during a weight training exercise. Here’s a select arise weight you put it at wherever you can comfortably do 12 to 15 repetitions. What we’re going to do is keep our hips on the seat, keep our back against the pad and come down all the way to the bottom, squeeze the hamstring, come up slow, don’t lock the knees keep your toes up, exhale on exertion exhale at the bottom and come up slowly. As you go through the range of motion you’ll notice we’re not jerking, we’re doing a smooth range of motion that’s working our hamstrings to its fullest capability. Now if I come down fast and I let gravity take my legs up I’m not getting an effective workout plus I’m putting myself at risk of injury. Keep that smooth range of motion, exhale on exertion at the bottom. Get a nice three second negative as we’re going through our set we’ll start to feel our hamstrings burn which is an indicator that we’re getting what we want out of the exercise which is a safe, effective, overload. And when you complete the exercise you want to make sure that you haven’t let the plates touch through the range of motion, this keeps constant tension on the hamstring muscle. And as we get done we’ll let the plates rest and lift our pad up and we’ve completed the hamstring machine properly. "