I saw this interesting abstract today about Nordic hamstring lowers and how they’ve been shown to?reduce the incidence of hamstring injury by 70%. I don’t have the full article (I’d be interested to read if anybody did), but anytime percentages are used when discussing data it can be misleading without raw numbers accompanying them.
The abstract to this article can be found HERE.
Lately, Nordic hamstring lowers have been synonymous with soccer strength training. Sort of like a magic pill for hamstring health. While I think they’re a fine exercise and they’ve been proven in many studies, I still feel that the exercise is just one of many that has the ability to increase hamstring strength.
Here’s another abstract that looks at more conventional exercises -?Muscle activation during various hamstring exercises.
From a team dynamic standpoint, I can see why they may be the best (or easiest) choice. You don’t need any glute-ham machine or weights and they’re not hard to teach. The only thing you need is a partner. Nordic hamstring lowers may be an easy choice on-field where you may not have access to weights. But, when you do have access to weights, you can use RDLs (single leg or traditional), glute-ham raises, kettlebell swings or exercises that may be considered a little less direct like lunge and squat derivatives.
The issue of incidence of hamstring injuries could just potentially be the lack of hamstring strength, not necessarily what exercise is chosen.
John Grace
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[…] Nordic Hamstring Lowers – A Magic Pill […]
Mike, my hypothesis is that many hamstring injuries come from an overactivity of that group of muscles, so NOT stretching the hamstrings (hamstring tension might be a protective reaction and we don’t want to eliminate the only thing keeping us from an injury) and strengthening the glutes would reduce injuries more than working on hamstring eccentric strength. What is your take on this matter?
I don’t think it’s an either / or scenario. We definitely want to attack both glute strength but I think it’s important to not ignore the research that shows increasing eccentric hamstring strength decreases the likelihood of injury.