- Mick Hughes
Assisted Nordic Hamstring Exercise
When added to injury prevention programs, the traditional Nordic hamstring exercise has been shown to decrease hamstring strains by 50% - when compared against injury prevention programs that didn't include them (Al Attar et al, 2017).
Anecdotally, however I find that some people struggle to do them which creates a barrier to its implementation. So for those that struggle to do the traditional Nordic hamstring exercise, here is a band-assisted Nordic that allows you to lower to greater hamstring lengths, but also assists you on the way up so you can sneak in a shortening contraction too.
The reasoning behind the band-assisted option is that it allows you to build capacity in the hamstrings over a few weeks to eventually move onto the traditional exercise, thus increasing exercise compliance and decressing injury risk in the long term. For more information on hamstring rehabilitation, sign up to Drs Ryan Timmins and Peter Brukner's online Hamstring Masterclass here
I've also co-authored the Melbourne ACL Rehabilitation Guide with Randall Cooper. If you are going through ACLR rehab, or work with ACLR patients, you can download it by clicking on the link below ⬇️
