To prevent hamstring injuries, this exercise needs to be in your training program

Research reviewed: Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis (BMJ 2018, van Dyk et al.)

In this week’s research review - a high level systematic review and meta-analysis of 8,459 athletes - the researchers examined whether including the nordic hamstring curl exercise as part of an injury prevention program resulted in less hamstring injuries.

Methods

The researchers used stringent criteria to narrow down an initial pool of 1590 papers involving the nordic hamstring curl down to 15 highly-relevant ones, with a total sample size (n) of 8459 individuals.

Results

When a training program included the nordic hamstring curl (compared to programs without the nordic), hamstring injuries were reduced by 51%!

Practical takeaway

This one is pretty clear - the nordic hamstring curl is a key piece of the puzzle for reducing hamstring injuries. The overall research clearly shows that trend and this paper further reinforces it.