When doing leg curls, keeping your toes pointed up lets you lift more total weight over time than pointing them down, even though both positions build muscle and strength equally. This extra volume...

Pro

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Community contributions welcome

Myoelectric activity and improvements in strength and hypertrophy are unaffected by the ankle position during prone leg curl exercise – a within person randomized trial

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2023 Nov

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Myoelectric activity and improvements in strength and hypertrophy are unaffected by the ankle position during prone leg curl exercise – a within person randomized trial

Score: 45

DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2023.2214794

Similar Assertions

After 10 weeks of leg curls, it doesn’t matter if your foot is pointed up or down—you’ll get the same muscle growth and strength gains either way.

85%

Doing leg curls with your foot pointed up or down leads to the same muscle growth and strength gains over 10 weeks. This means your starting leg position doesn't change how much your muscles grow or get stronger in the long run.

82%

Doing leg curls with your toes pointed down builds the same amount of hamstring muscle and strength as pointing them up, but you can do it in less time. This means you might get the same results faster by simply changing your foot position.

78%

People did more total reps with their foot pointed up, but that didn’t make their muscles grow bigger or stronger than the leg with the foot pointed down.

76%

Whether your foot is pointed down or up during leg curls doesn’t change how much your hamstrings are working during the exercise.

74%