Looking to find effective and practical exercises that can bulletproof your knees by making them stronger, healthier and more mobile? You’re in the right spot. 

This article is going to be a breakdown on why the reverse Nordic curl should be implemented into your training regimen or general fitness training if you’re serious about building more robust, more mobile and overall healthier muscles and tendons for your knees and thighs.

Benefits of the reverse Nordic curl exercise are that it requires no equipment; it’s simple to perform; it’s challenging for beginners and professionals alike; it can be modified in numerous ways; it improves quadriceps muscle mobility, and it even helps increase hip flexion strength.

Yes, the reverse Nordic curl is a great exercise to perform, and it’s not “bad” for you so long as you follow the insight and tips in my other article: Reverse Nordics and Knee Health: What You MUST Understand.

No single exercise is appropriate for every individual on the planet. Still, the reverse Nordic curl is appropriate for more people than often given credit for. So, if you want to build robust, healthy functioning knees and thighs, read the benefits listed within this article. Once you fully understand them (and experience them), you’ll have a hard time ignoring this beauty of an exercise.

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Benefit 1: No equipment needed
Benefit 2: Not a complicated movement
Benefit 3: Effective for beginners and pros alike
Benefit 4: Can be modified as needed
Benefit 5: The strengthen & lengthen effect
Benefit 6: Improves hip flexion strength

Related article: Why You Have Reverse Nordic Knee Pain (and How to Fix it)

Disclaimer: While I am a physical therapist, I am not YOUR physical therapist. As a result, I cannot tell you whether or not any treatments or training methodologies mentioned on this website or in this article may or may not be appropriate for you, including performing reverse Nordic curls. By following any information within this post, you are doing so at your own risk. You are advised to seek appropriate medical advice for any pain you may be experiencing.

Benefit 1: No equipment needed

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When you don’t need any specific equipment for an exercise, you can perform it much more frequently and regularly. No equipment means you save space and money and can basically do the exercise wherever you please. 

Nothing’s worse than being limited with performing your workout due to not being able to get to the gym. If you have a training program that requires traditional gym equipment or machines that you can’t have at home, you know exactly what I mean.

Being reliant on gym equipment is pretty typical for strength training pursuits, but any time you can find an effective exercise that meets your training goals — one that can be done without specialized equipment — you should make note of it. Doing so will likely come in handy in the future. One such example: being required to workout at home due to gym closures from Covid.

All you really need is a padded surface that will be comfortable to kneel on for the movement. I prefer to use an Air-X pad or a very similar pad (Amazon affiliate link), but you can use a pillow or fold up a bath towel if you want. Both tend to get the job done just fine, and pretty much everyone has a pillow or a bath towel lying around at home that they can use for this movement.

Benefit 2: Not a complicated movement

The reverse Nordic curl is not exactly a complex or complicated movement by any means. While there’s certainly a bit of trial and error for fine-tuning the movement range and challenge to your own needs (as with any exercise), this can often be achieved within a minute or two.

You don’t need special training to ensure that you’re using an either safe or appropriate technique, and it’s not an exercise that requires high levels of coordination or mastery of other exercises before incorporating it into your training.

I have a lot of my patients in the clinic incorporate it into various stages and aspects of their rehabilitation training. They gain confidence with the movement and execute it appropriately within minutes. This will very likely be the case for you as well.

Complex exercises can be great, but there’s beauty in simplicity. The reverse Nordic gives your brain and body time to really feel and interpret the movement and sensations that are arising in your knees and thighs. This can be great for raising your awareness to components of your body’s health, such as its strength and mobility in areas being targeted by the exercise.

Benefit 3: Effective for beginners and pros alike

Just because an exercise or movement is simple doesn’t mean it’s only effective or appropriate for beginners. The reverse Nordic is just as appropriate and beneficial for seasoned fitness professionals or athletes as it is for the average weekend warrior.

For the beginners

Beginners or those with poor quadriceps mobility or strength can still perform this exercise in appropriate manners simply by staying within a small range of motion and avoiding more advanced variations that require greater ranges of motion or resistance throughout the movement.

For the experts

Those who are more seasoned in their fitness and strength pursuits can easily increase the range of motion to the extent that provides an appropriate challenge for either their quadriceps strength or mobility (or both).

So whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned fitness rockstar who wants to work on your strength, your mobility, or both, you’ll be able to challenge yourself appropriately based on your needs.

Benefit 4: Can be modified as needed

The reverse Nordic can be modified more than just by changing the range of motion that you use throughout the exercise. You also have the ability to hold onto extra weight (increasing overall resistance of the exercise, thus making it more challenging for the quadriceps), using external objects to decrease the resistance. You can even modify the movement so that you only focus on the eccentric phase of the movement (the phase where you’re leading backwards).

These modifications are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, so to speak. It’s all about getting creative with this movement.

Benefit 5: Incorporates the strengthen & lengthen effect

The “strengthen & lengthen” effect refers to the favorable changes that occur to a muscle’s overall health and performance when it is forced to lengthen out and then contract while in a lengthened position. Not only is this nice since you can improve a muscle’s mobility AND strength in one single exercise, but there’s some good evidence to show that strengthening your muscles by taking them through full ranges of motion can help with overall mobility and movement quality.

The reverse Nordic curl capitalizes on this phenomenon for the rectus femoris, one of the four quadriceps muscles. The rectus femoris is a bit different from the other three quadriceps muscles since it’s the only one to cross the hip joint (the other ones only cross the knee joint). This means that the rectus femoris muscle can extend (straighten) the knee and flex (bend) the hip.

So, when it comes to the strengthen & lengthen effect, the rectus femoris receives a massive stretch as you lean back into the reverse Nordic curl, and then an aggressive contraction as you use your quadriceps muscles to pull you back up to the starting position.

The result? You’re left with some quad muscles that can not only produce some strong contractions but can also lengthen out and display some extensive overall mobility!

Benefit 6: Improves hip flexion strength

This is arguably my favourite little “secret” of reverse Nordics since not many people think of this exercise as one that can improve hip flexion strength.

Remember in the previous section where I mentioned that the rectus femoris muscle crosses the hip joint? Well, since it does, it works to flex (bend) the hip. But how does it do this if the reverse Nordic curl doesn’t actually flex the hip throughout the movement?

Since the rectus femoris is a two-joint muscle (i.e., it crosses the front of the hip and the knee), it can flex the hip and extend the knee. In the case of performing reverse Nordics, the rectus femoris is strengthened as it tries to pull your body back to an upright position. But this is the SAME muscle that also helps flex the hip somewhat when you lift your leg off the ground. And since it gets stronger with performing a knee-dominant movement like the reverse Nordic, it will be stronger when flexing the hip for other movements, activities or exercises.

Now, theoretically, the reverse Nordics will strengthen more of the bottom half of the rectus femoris (the half that’s closer to the knee). However, the upper half of the muscle will also get stronger and adapt as well, albeit theoretically to a slightly lesser extent. Nonetheless, this is a great benefit considering there’s no primary hip flexion in performing the reverse Nordic curl!

Thanks, rectus femoris muscle!

Final thoughts

It’s hard to ignore an exercise that can improve your mobility, strengthen your muscles, and decrease knee pain, all while being down without any dedicated equipment or training experience.

Whether you’re brand new to this exercise, or you’ve been working out and keeping fit for decades, there’s something for everyone with the reverse Nordic curl. The key is to take the time required to individualize it and tailor it to your own needs and goals. Play around with it a bit and make this exercise your own, and once you do, you’ll be well on your way to some seriously robust knees and quadriceps muscles.

Train hard, train smart, and have a little bit of fun along the way!