Cable Leg Curl
The cable leg curl is a hamstring isolation exercise where you curl your heel toward your glute against a low cable attached to an ankle strap. It works standing or lying face down. Use it when you have no leg-curl machine, or to train one leg at a time and fix side-to-side differences.
Muscles worked
The cable leg curl trains the hamstrings.
Primary
Weekly sets for hamstrings
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for hamstrings, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the cable leg curl
- 01Set the pulley at the lowest position and attach an ankle strap around one ankle.
- 02Face the stack and hold the frame for balance, or lie face down on a bench with your feet near the pulley.
- 03Step back until there is tension on the cable with your working leg straight.
- 04Curl your heel up toward your glute while keeping your thigh still.
- 05Squeeze your hamstring at the top, then lower your foot slowly to a straight leg.
Coaching cues
- Heel to glute
- Thigh stays still, knee does the work
- Slow on the way down
Common mistakes
- Swinging your thigh forward as you curl uses your hip flexors, so keep your knee pointing straight down.
- Arching your lower back to finish the rep means the load is too heavy, so brace your trunk and lighten the stack.
- Dropping the foot fast out of the top wastes the lowering phase, so take two to three seconds back down.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers isolation work toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Cable Leg Curl alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your cable leg curl free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.