Kneeling Quad Curls
Kneel down with your feet pointed behind you, the tops of your feet on the floor. Sit back on your heels, then drive your hips forward into a tall kneeling position with your glutes tight, and lower slowly. The further you take your torso back, the harder it gets.
Kneeling quad curls train the front of your thigh with nothing but your own bodyweight — on the gym floor, at home, in a hotel room, anywhere you have a bit of floor space.
In the tall kneeling position, the long quad muscle that crosses your hip (rectus femoris) is held long and has to produce force at that length. That's the stimulus this exercise is built around. Your patellar tendon takes part of the load, and tendons adapt to what pulls on them regularly.
You set the difficulty with your torso angle: upright is the starting point, leaning further back makes it far more demanding. So it fits a warm-up just as well as the end of a leg session.
From the studio: It has often helped me clear pain at the front of my knee after too much road cycling. That's what I've seen with my own knee.
Starting position
Kneel down with your knees about hip-width apart and your feet pointed behind you, the tops of your feet on the floor. Sit back on your heels with your torso tall. If you feel a strong stretch across the tops of your feet, or your knees press into a hard floor, put a mat or a folded towel underneath.
From there, drive your hips forward until you're in a tall kneeling position. Your thighs and torso form a straight line, your glutes are tight and your abs stay braced.
Then lower slowly and with control until you're sitting on your heels again. How far you get into the position also depends on how much ankle range you have to point your feet.
The three cues
- Torso tall
- Drive your hips forward
- Glutes tight
- Lower slowly
Common faults
| Fault | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| You stay folded at the hips at the top | At the top your thighs and torso form a straight line. Squeeze your glutes and your hips come all the way through. |
| You let yourself drop onto your heels | Lower slowly and with control — the way down is where the work happens. |
| You lean too far back too early | Start upright and take your torso back only once every rep looks the same. |
| The stretch across the top of your foot gets strong and your foot shifts | Put a folded towel under the tops of your feet so they lie comfortably and stay put. |
| Your knee starts to complain | Shorten the range and stay where your knee stays quiet. |
Variations
| Variation | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Torso upright | Hips forward, lower slowly, torso stays vertical. Move on once every rep looks the same and your knee stays quiet. |
| Torso slightly back | From tall kneeling, take your torso back a little while keeping your hips and torso in a straight line. |
| Leaning well back | Take your torso back as far as you can still bring it back up under control. |
Reps and load
Use it in the warm-up with a short range and an upright torso to get your knee ready for the session. Use it at the end of a leg session with more lean, when you want to give your quads a bit more work.
Build the lean up over a few weeks and stay in the range where your knee feels quiet.
Which muscles do the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| Rectus femoris M. rectus femoris | Prime mover | Extends the knee while being held long across the extended hip |
| Vastus lateralis M. vastus lateralis | Prime mover | Extends the knee on the outside of the thigh |
| Vastus medialis M. vastus medialis | Prime mover | Extends the knee on the inside of the thigh and guides the kneecap |
| Vastus intermedius M. vastus intermedius | Prime mover | Sits beneath the rectus femoris and extends the knee with it |
| Gluteus maximus M. gluteus maximus | Synergist | Keeps the hip extended at the top |
| Rectus abdominis M. rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | Keeps your torso in line with your thighs |
| Tibialis anterior M. tibialis anterior | Stabiliser | Sits on a stretch when the foot is pointed, and keeps the foot steady |
The four heads of the quadriceps do the main work. Your glutes keep the hip extended and your abs keep your torso in line with your thighs. The tops of your feet rest on the floor, on a stretch.
Explained in full
Andreas walks through the start position, the hip drive and the lean back, plus where he uses the exercise in warm-ups and leg training. · 3:21
Seeing it done right is not the same as doing it right
Video, cues and variations take you a long way. What they cannot give you is an outside eye at the moment the movement isn't quite there yet. That is what training with me is for — in the studio or in a workshop.
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Sources
Pereira NDS, Chaffe LP, Marques MI, et al. (2024). Reverse Nordic Curl Does Not Generate Superior Eccentric Activation of the Quadriceps Muscle Than Bodyweight Squat-Based Exercises. J Sport Rehabil 33(8):646–653. DOI: 10.1123/jsr.2023-0431 — The only EMG work on this exact exercise: 23 healthy people (15 men), comparing the reverse Nordic curl with the single-leg squat, Bulgarian split squat and lunge. The basis for listing all four heads of the quadriceps as prime movers. It does not show the exercise to be superior to the squat variations — vastus lateralis activity was higher in the single-leg squat, and the reverse Nordic curl was performed with less knee flexion. That is why the page makes no comparison with other exercises. A young, healthy sample; there's no data on people aged 40 to 60 training two to four hours a week. (Evidence type: EMG)
Larsen S, Sandvik Kristiansen B, Swinton PA, et al. (2025). The effects of hip flexion angle on quadriceps femoris muscle hypertrophy in the leg extension exercise. J Sports Sci 43(2):210–221. DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2024.2444713 — 22 untrained men trained twice a week for 10 weeks, one leg with the hip more extended and the other with it flexed. The rectus femoris grew markedly more with the hip extended, while the vastus lateralis showed no difference. The basis for describing the extended hip in tall kneeling as the point of this exercise. Untrained young men on a leg-extension machine rather than kneeling; no replication in the target group. (Evidence type: RCT)
Varovic D, Wolf M, Schoenfeld BJ, Steele J, Grgic J, Mikulic P. (2025). Does Muscle Length Influence Regional Hypertrophy? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Sports Med 46(14):1027–1036. DOI: 10.1055/a-2615-4935 — A synthesis of 12 studies in young adults on whether training at long muscle lengths produces more growth. Effects were close together across regions. That is why the page makes no general claim that longer muscle length delivers more, and only describes what happens mechanically in the position. Young adults, mixed muscle groups and measurement methods. (Evidence type: Meta-analysis)
Bohm S, Mersmann F, Arampatzis A. (2015). Human tendon adaptation in response to mechanical loading: a systematic review and meta-analysis of exercise intervention studies on healthy adults. Sports Med Open 1(1):7. DOI: 10.1186/s40798-015-0009-9 — 27 studies with 37 loading programmes in healthy adults aged 18 to 50, 264 people in total. Tendons responded to mechanical loading mainly with greater stiffness and a higher elastic modulus, while cross-sectional area changed less. The basis for the line that tendons adapt to what pulls on them regularly. It does not cover Andreas' wording that the fibres align under load — fibre alignment was not measured in living humans here; that finding comes from cell culture and animal work. Note: PubMed lists an incorrect DOI for this paper; the one given here was checked against Crossref. (Evidence type: Meta-analysis)
Nascimento LR, Teixeira-Salmela LF, Souza RB, Resende RA. (2018). Hip and Knee Strengthening Is More Effective Than Knee Strengthening Alone for Reducing Pain and Improving Activity in Individuals With Patellofemoral Pain: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 48(1):19–31. DOI: 10.2519/jospt.2018.7365 — 14 controlled studies in 673 people with patellofemoral pain. Strengthening hip and knee together reduced pain and improved activity more than knee strengthening alone, and the effect appeared even without a measurable strength gain. It puts Andreas' observation on anterior knee pain in context. The studies looked at strengthening programmes in general, not at this exercise. (Evidence type: Meta-analysis)
Lopes AD, Rizzo RR, Hespanhol L, Costa LO, Kamper SJ. (2025). Exercise for patellar tendinopathy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 5(5):CD013078. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013078.pub2 — 7 controlled studies in 211 people, almost all athletes around 26 years old with long-standing symptoms. The certainty of the evidence for loading programmes in patellar tendinopathy is rated very low to low, and the authors state explicitly that the results do not transfer to the general population. That is why the page makes no treatment claim about the patellar tendon and only describes that it takes part of the load. (Evidence type: Cochrane-Übersicht)
Soucie JM, Wang C, Forsyth A, et al. (2011). Range of motion measurements: reference values and a database for comparison studies. Haemophilia 17(3):500–507. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2516.2010.02399.x — Goniometric reference values from 674 healthy people aged 2 to 69. In the 45-to-69 age group, ankle plantar flexion is around 56 degrees in women and around 49 degrees in men. It explains why some people cannot lay the tops of their feet flat. Whether ankle range limits this particular exercise has not been studied — that part comes from practice. (Evidence type: Reference data)
A note on context: EMG studies show which muscles an exercise recruits — that is a good reason to pick it, but it does not replace adjusting things to the person in front of you. See a doctor for persistent or severe pain.