Hamstring exercises come in two kinds. Hinges, like the Romanian deadlift, train the hamstrings by extending the hip. Curls, like the leg curl or Nordic curl, train them by bending the knee. A well-built program usually has both. When we read what coaches assigned on QuickCoach in September 2026, the first kind was everywhere and the second was thin.
Here's what the data shows, how it compares with quad work, and what to change if your own programs look the same.
The short answer
Coaches program plenty of hamstring hinging and much less knee-flexion work. The Romanian deadlift reached 37.5% of clients in September 2026, second only to the row. The leg curl reached 18.4%, behind the leg extension at 23.6%, and the Nordic curl just 1.5%. Most programs would benefit from one curl variation a week.
What this is, in one paragraph
Coaches type exercise names as free text. Every month we group every spelling of the same movement together and count the share of clients assigned each one, the method behind our living what coaches program page. For this report we read the hamstring and quad exercises from 229,713 verified assigned exercises in September 2026, with August figures where we published the same measure. The full method is at the foot of the page.
What hamstring exercises do coaches program most?
Hinges, by a distance. The Romanian deadlift is the second most-programmed movement of any kind, behind only the row. The conventional deadlift, which climbed more than any other top-50 movement between August and September, back extensions and trap bar deadlifts follow.
| Exercise | Sep 2026 | Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Hinges (hip extension) | ||
| Romanian deadlift | 37.5% | 37.2% |
| Deadlift | 15.9% | 12.8% |
| Back extension | 10.3% | 10.4% |
| Trap bar deadlift | 8.4% | 7.6% |
| Kettlebell swing | 5.8% | n/a |
| Good morning | 4.6% | n/a |
| Single-leg Romanian deadlift | 1.8% | n/a |
| Curls (knee flexion) | ||
| Leg curl | 18.4% | 19.5% |
| Hamstring curl | 6.5% | 7.1% |
| Seated leg curl | 2.1% | n/a |
| Lying leg curl | 1.6% | n/a |
| Nordic curl | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| Stability ball hamstring curl | 1.1% | n/a |
Share of clients assigned the movement at least once in the month. "n/a" means we didn't publish that movement's August figure.
One warning before you add anything up. "Leg curl", "hamstring curl", "seated leg curl" and "lying leg curl" are often the same exercise under different names, and the same client can appear under more than one. You can't sum them. What you can say is that knee-flexion work in total reaches somewhere above 18% of clients, while the Romanian deadlift alone reaches 37.5%. Why one movement splits into many names is covered in our guide to exercise abbreviations and name variations.
Do quads get more work than hamstrings?
In the machine-based, single-joint work, yes. The leg extension reached 23.6% of clients in September and the leg curl 18.4%. Both slipped from August (24.0% and 19.5%), but the curl fell further, so the gap widened from 4.5 points to 5.2. Add the squat (22.6%) and leg press (19.5%) and quads are well covered.
The picture is more balanced once you count hinges, because the Romanian deadlift does a lot of hamstring work. So the honest reading isn't that coaches neglect hamstrings. It's that they train them mostly one way. If a client's only hamstring work is the RDL, they're getting hip extension and very little knee flexion.
Does it matter how you train the hamstrings?
The research suggests it does. The hamstrings cross both the hip and the knee, and different exercises load them differently.
- Seated beats lying for growth. A 2021 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise trained one leg with seated leg curls and the other with lying ones for 12 weeks. The seated leg grew the hamstrings more, which the authors put down to training the muscle at a longer length with the hip bent. Coaches named the seated version for just 2.1% of clients.
- Eccentric curls for injury risk. A 2019 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found programmes that included the Nordic hamstring exercise cut hamstring injuries by up to 51%, though a later reappraisal questioned how certain that is. The Nordic reached 1.5% of clients in both months.
Neither finding says the RDL is wrong. It's the most-programmed hinge for good reason. They suggest a curl alongside it is worth its place. The Nordic and other injury-focused drills get fuller treatment in the prehab exercises coaches actually program.
How should I balance hamstring work in a program?
One hinge and one curl a week covers most general clients. More for athletes who sprint.
- Keep the hinge. A Romanian deadlift, trap bar deadlift or back extension stays the main hamstring lift.
- Add one knee-flexion exercise. A seated leg curl if the client trains in a gym. A stability ball or slider curl if they train at home.
- Add an eccentric option for clients who sprint or play field sports. An assisted Nordic curl, built up slowly over several weeks.
- Match the volume to the quads roughly. If a client does leg extensions every lower-body day, a curl on the same days is a simple rule.
Rep ranges for these accessories follow the same pattern as the rest of a program, which we cover in the rep ranges online coaching actually runs on. If your clients run or ride, the hamstring-heavy, single-leg strength menu in our guide for endurance and hybrid coaches is a good fit.
Did hamstring programming change from August to September?
The hinges gained and the curls slipped. The deadlift rose 3.1 points, the biggest climb in the top 50, and the trap bar deadlift rose 0.8. The leg curl fell 1.1 points and the hamstring curl 0.6. September looked like the start of a heavier block, which we break down in what changed in coaches' programming from August to September 2026. One month is a short window, so we'll keep watching.
Methodology and limitations
How we got these numbers
Source. September 2026 programming on QuickCoach, a platform used by more than 40,000 coaches and fitness businesses worldwide: 229,713 verified assigned exercises grouped into 4,144 canonical movements. August figures are from the August 2026 read published on what coaches program. No individual coach, client or plan is identifiable in anything published here.
Definitions. A movement's figure is the share of clients assigned it at least once in the month, every spelling grouped together. Grouping keeps some names apart that often mean the same exercise, such as "leg curl" and "hamstring curl", and one client can appear under several, so figures across rows can't be added. Hinge and curl groups are our editorial grouping.
Limits. We can't see sets, reps or load here, only whether a movement was assigned, so this describes how often hamstring work appears, not how much volume it gets. Figures are rounded. Research summaries describe the linked studies, not QuickCoach data.
Frequently asked questions
Do coaches program enough hamstring work?
Enough hinging, less curling. In September 2026 the Romanian deadlift reached 37.5% of clients on QuickCoach, second only to the row. Knee-flexion work trails: the leg curl reached 18.4%, below the leg extension at 23.6%, and the Nordic curl 1.5%.
What is the most-programmed hamstring exercise?
The Romanian deadlift. It reached 37.5% of clients in September 2026, the second most-programmed movement of any kind after the row. The conventional deadlift (15.9%), back extension (10.3%) and trap bar deadlift (8.4%) follow among the hinges.
Is a seated or lying leg curl better?
For muscle growth, the seated version has the edge in research. A 2021 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found seated leg curls grew the hamstrings more than lying ones, likely because the hip is bent and the muscle trains at a longer length. Coaches program both rarely under those names.
Do I need leg curls if I already do Romanian deadlifts?
It helps. The Romanian deadlift trains the hamstrings through hip extension, and a leg curl trains them through knee flexion, the hamstrings' other job. One of each per week covers both. This is general coaching guidance, not a QuickCoach data figure.
What hamstring exercises work at home without a machine?
A stability ball or slider hamstring curl, a single-leg Romanian deadlift with a dumbbell, and an assisted Nordic curl with a partner or band. Stability and Swiss ball hamstring curls each reached about 1% of clients in our September 2026 data.
Published from September 2026 programming data. The full monthly ranking lives on what coaches program. Questions about the data? Reach us at support@quickcoach.fit.
