Early adopters are now making use of hip thrusts,
Nordic hamstring curls, and flywheel leg curls with eccentric overload.
Despite this common advice, the majority of elite soccer teams fail to use
the Nordic hamstring curl in either prevention or rehabilitation programs, which may explain the continued high incidence of both novel and recurrent hamstring strain injury (Bahr et al. 2015).
Small et al. (2009) found that long - term training using
the Nordic hamstring curl either before or after practice had different effects.
Eccentric hamstring training, particularly
the Nordic hamstring curl exercise, reduces the incidence of both novel and recurrent hamstring strain injury.
Leg curls are a reliable option, while good mornings, Romanian deadlifts, and
Nordic hamstring curls (glute - ham raises) are good alternatives.
Therefore, whether there is any difference between medial and lateral hamstrings EMG amplitudes in
the Nordic hamstring curl (and whether it in fact matters) remains unclear.
Exploring the EMG amplitude of the hamstrings during
the Nordic hamstring curl, Iga et al. (2012) found that EMG amplitude of the hamstrings was higher when the knee was extended than when the knee was flexed, indicating that the exercise trains the hamstrings at long muscle lengths.
The Nordic hamstring curl is the primary exercise used for performing eccentric training of the hamstring musculature during long - term trials investigating hamstring strain injury prevention (Gabbe et al. 2006b; Engebretsen et al. 2008; Arnason et al. 2010; Petersen et al. 2011; Van der Horst et al. 2015) although a range of others have also been developed that may also be suitable (Askling et al. 2013; Orishimo & McHugh, 2015).
Bourne et al. (2015) found that
the Nordic hamstring curl produced preferentially higher semitendinosus EMG amplitude; but again, Zebis et al. (2013) did not report any preferential activation; Mendiguchia et al. (2013a) reported preferential biceps (short head) activation; and Ditroilo et al. (2013) reported that biceps femoris EMG amplitude exceeded maximum voluntary eccentric contraction levels by some margin.
However, Zebis et al. (2013) did not find any effect of joint angle on EMG amplitude during
the Nordic hamstring curl.
Exploring multiple sets of
the Nordic hamstring curl exercise, Marshall et al. (2015) noted that a single set of 5 repetitions led to substantial reductions in peak eccentric knee flexion moments during the exercise, with even further reductions in subsequent sets, implying that performing
the Nordic hamstring curl prior to practice or other exercise might not be advisable.
The Nordic hamstring curl allows coaches to load the ECCENTRIC portion of the lift, which is key to increasing the tensile strength and resistance to strain during explosive movements where the hips and quadriceps kick into full force mode.
To this end, there are two nice exercises that fit the bill in improving hamstring strength and functionality, the glute - ham raise, as taught and invented by Dr. Yessis, and
the Nordic hamstring.
The Nordic hamstring has been written and raved about by many coaches and researchers for years, and for good reason.
In
the Nordic hamstring curl, the lifter lowers themselves forwards to the ground by extending the knee, slowing their descent by trying to contract the hamstrings muscles.
An example from elite soccer is prescription of a lengthening training intervention (e.g.
Nordic Hamstring Exercise) to an athlete.
In the group who did
Nordic hamstring exercises, which had 23 teams, there were only 15 injuries.
Not exact matches
In soccer there have been a number of studies that prove doing something called
Nordic exercises — also called Russian
hamstring exercises — can strengthen the
hamstring in a particular way to make it less likely they are injured.
A few exercises to help this are eccentric
hamstring leans, glute ham raises,
Nordic leg curl, prone, standing and kneeling leg curls.
Interestingly, the
Nordic curl produces greater increases in muscle fascicle length and preferential biceps femoris (short head) and semitendinosus hypertrophy compared to hip extension - based
hamstrings exercises (Bourne et al. 2016).
Though
Nordic curls get a lot of love in the research on
hamstring injuries, I personally am not convinced there are any more special than any other exercise.
The
Nordic curl is commonly recommended as the primary exercise to perform in order to prevent and rehabilitate
hamstring strain injury (Schmitt & McHugh, 2012; Bahr et al. 2015).
Oliver and Dougherty (2009a) investigated
hamstrings EMG amplitude in the Razor curl, a variant of the
Nordic curl, and found that it produced significant
hamstrings EMG amplitude.
Hamstrings energy absorption can be enhanced by eccentric - only or accentuated eccentric training for knee flexion (flywheel leg curl or
Nordic curl) or hip extension (single - leg back extension).
The deadlift appears to be a better
hamstrings exercise than the back squat but the Romanian deadlift is similar to other commonly - performed
hamstrings exercises (
Nordic curl, glute - ham raise, machine leg curl).