I HAVE PUT TOGETHER 5 BULLETPROOF HAMSTRING EXERCISES YOU CAN ADD TO YOUR TRAINING TO REDUCE THE RISKS AND RECURRENCE OF HAMSTRING STRAINS AND TEARS
THE NHE OR NORDIC CURL
The American Journal of
Sports Medicine reported that “The Nordic Hamstring Exercise (NHE), or Nordic curl, has been shown to be an effective tool to increase eccentric hamstring strength, developing higher maximal eccentric hamstring strength torques when compared with regular hamstring curls. Previous studies on male professional soccer players have shown that adopting the NHE in regular training reduced hamstring injury incidence rates by as much as 65% to 70%, “with a particularly preventive effect in reducing recurrent injuries”.
The Nordic hamstring exercise involves the athlete kneeling on the ground with his or her ankles fixed, followed by slowly lowering himself or herself to the ground by eccentrically contracting the hamstrings.
ECCENTRIC BOX DROPS
According to an article in Strength and Conditioning
Journal: “Eccentric exercises for hamstring injury prevention should include high forces, maximal muscle elongation, high velocities, multiple joint movements, closed-chain exercise and unilateral exercises, or as many of these as possible. Because the hamstrings are not the only muscle groups susceptible to muscle strain injuries in the lower body, exercises should be designed with the hip flexors, plantar flexors and hip adductors in mind.”
The player mounts a box of 12 to 36 inches and then steps off to land in a squat position. Allow for full flexing of the hips, knees and ankles. Place hands on knees and push up into a standing position; don’t jump out of the bottom position. This should be 10 reps per set.
ECCENTRIC LOADED LUNGE DROPS
The player rises on the toes while taking a lunge stance, with or without resistance. Quickly drop onto the ground with your feet landing flat and balanced. Then resist the downward forces into a deep lunge position while maintaining good posture. It’s important to keep good posture in the bottom position. Slowly lower yourself to the ground until the back knee is touching the ground, thus allowing the muscles a break from the contraction, before standing up. Do no more than five drops with each leg.
ECCENTRIC SINGLE LEG DEADLIFTS
Standing straight holding a plate or dumbbell at the waist with one leg straight and one slightly behind, lower the dumbbell to the ground while raising the back leg to 90 degrees. Reset and repeat. Perform the eccentric phase of this exercise all the way to the ground and then relax and reset. Maintain a good posture with a neutral
spine.
ECCENTRIC FORWARD PULLS
The player starts leaning back while pulling a rope as in a tug-of-war position but with one leg straight forward and one bent. Bend down while maintaining this position throughout the exercise and slowly pull the rope backward. Swap legs and repeat. This exercise actively stretches the hamstrings with hip flexion and knee extension. Repeat without getting up from the starting position. Do 10 to 15 reps
maximum.