Nordic Curls, For or Against?

I'm pro Nordics when used appropriately in programmes, however most of the time they're that exercise that gets thrown in without much thought as to the repercussions. You could argue that from an elite sports point of few that a Head Coach isn't going to be impressed when his players can't run the next day due to large amounts of "DOMS".

Or you could make the point that the most commonly injured hamstring is the Bicep Femoris, yet the Nordic curl elicits minimal activity of this hamstring.

In terms of mechanical specficity, there is the argument that during the movement, as the hamstrings function as a biarticular muscle they work through isometrically holding the hip in extension whilst flexing at the knee. Thus resembling High speed running, However in terms of dynamic correspondance, there are more "specific" exercises out there e.g. Plyometric based movements, RDL's, sled pulls etc.

My current thoughts on hamstring resilience is that in terms of specificity and crossover from training to on pitch performance, Kettlebell swings utilising a hip hinge pattern rather than a squat movement elicit an eccentric loading and unloading of the hamstrings more similar to that of high speed running over nordic curls.

(e Smet AA et al. AJR Am J Roentgenol. (2000)), Brandon, R.,Cleather, D (2007), Matthews, M., Cohen, D., (2013), Siff, M., (2003).

#hamstringstrength #kettlebell #highspeedrunning