Training: Power up your hamstrings

Hamstrings are as large as they can be limiting. Running the length of the thigh from the back of the knee to the hip, the stringy muscles and tendons are engaged in bending the knee and straightening the hip, relied upon heavily for any movement involving power and speed.

With each running stride or jump, the strain on the hamstring is considerable and, if insufficiently prepared, they will buckle beneath it, a pull or tear being the painful consequence.

Statistics show that hamstring strains are the most common non-contact injury in elite sport and, for athletes in all events, hamstring protection is paramount. Yet it remains a neglected focus for some. “It’s very overlooked for many athletes,” says physiotherapist Philip Coleman of the Running Physio clinic in Newbury.

“In sports like football, where hamstring injuries are rife, it has become a prime area of attention in training, but while many sprinters do have adequate hamstring-strengthening programmes, others don’t. And many distance runners think they are immune from tears, which is completely wrong.”

Power of the Nordic curl

What, then, should we be doing to power up the mass of muscle and tendons at the back of the legs? If there is one exercise that is touted as a hamstring savior over any other, it is the Nordic curl.

Professional football clubs have invested thousands of pounds in equipment designed to help players execute this simple strengthening move correctly and sports scientists have devoted more research time to it than any other lower-limb exercise.

“It is not a new exercise, but has really come into prominence over the last few years as its value has been better understood,” says Sammy Margo, a spokesperson for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. “We now know that it can be hugely important in preventing hamstring injuries if it is done in a considered and graded way.”

HOW IT WORKS

Margo says that the effectiveness of the Nordic curl comes down to its eccentricity. “Eccentric loading of a muscle occurs when it strengthens and lengthens at the same time,” she explains. “It creates more force through a muscle than concentric, or shortening, moves and that ultimately creates strength.”

Studies have shown that eccentric muscle moves like the Nordic curl are also effective at boosting coordination between brain cells and muscles, improving …

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