Hi team,
Saw a new video of the hamstring curl on youtube. Wondering for us who run and want to avoid hamstring injuries, how would you introduce and train this movement? Also, for someone currently rehabbing a mild hamstring strain, would you wait to introduce the movement when the hamstring is no longer bothering the person or start before that?
Hey, there are few specific exercises we can effectively say with confidence reduce the risk of injury. The Nordic Hamstring is one of those. For dosing, the literature (and I) recommend 2x/week for 3-4 sets of 6. For my personal programming I do them on my GPP day and after my comp squat day. Initially you may get some DOMS from them but it is also an exercise on which you will quickly see some progress.
Specifically to a recent hamstring injury, I introduce this exercise as soon as my athletes can tolerate it and recommend they keep doing it for long after they are done with me.
Thanks for answering the questions Derek, that’s very helpful.
Ill start adding these in soon then!
Interesting. Do you know/have a theory on why that is?
Out of curiosity, what are other exercises that can effectively reduce injury risk?
Sean, not really. What I’m about to say is mostly speculation on my part but there does seem to be an increasing amount of evidence that eccentric oriented exercises cause some advantageous adaptation. In regards to the Nordic curls I tend to be in the camp that most of the studies conducted on this were on soccer athletes who are likely grossly undertrained when it comes to resistance training. It’s then hard to say that an exercise that has a large eccentric component to it such as an RDL or squat may not be just as effective. By the letter of the literature law though, the Nordic wins. There is also some evidence that the Nordic changes some muscle architecture but once again, it’s hard to say another exercise isn’t just as effective. Right now though, the Nordic and Copenhagen adductor protocols are the two specific exercises we can say reduce injury risk. But this is still specific for strains and likely more warranted in high speed running athletes and those more predisposed to groin injuries (hockey, soccer).
Is this something to use progressive overload with? Holding a weight to the chest?
If you can control a full eccentric down and concentric back up I see no reason why you couldn’t hold a weight for the exercise. That being said, I’ve only seen a few people be able to hit a set of 6 through full ROM. If that’s you, that’s impressive.