Nordic Hamstring Exercise in Females

In one of the first research trials of its kind, the Nordic Hamstring exercise was studied in a group of professional female soccer players in Brazil.

In a 8 week pre-season, Nordics were performed in a progressive manner 2x per week alongside their usual training sessions.

The primary outcomes being investigated were changes in eccentric knee flexor strength and long head of biceps femoris fascicle length.

The Nordic program can be seen below

After the 8 week program, eccentric knee flexor strength improved on average by 13% and fascicle length by 6% - both of which to values that have been shown in previous research in males to carry a significant reduction in future hamstring injury risk.

Future prospective studies are required in the professional female athlete to build a data set similar to that of men so that we can better understand hamstring injury risk.

What's your views on Nordics?

Do you use them in your weekly training schedule? If not, why not?

If so, what's your experiences using them.

If you're interested in taking a deeper dive into this paper, click on the link here

If you're interested in learning more about hamstring injury assessment and rehab, consider signing up to Learn.Physio Hamstring Masterclass here