Abstract
There is evidence that a knee flexor exercise, the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE), prevents hamstring injuries. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop, and to determine the reliability of, a novel NHE test device and, further, to determine the effectiveness of a 10-week low volume NHE program on NHE performance. Twenty female football (soccer) players, aged 16–30 years, participated in this study. From a kneeling position on the device, with the ankles secured under a heavy lifting sling, participants leaned forward in a controlled manner as far as possible (eccentric phase) and then returned to the starting position (concentric phase). A tape measure documented the forward distance achieved by the participants in cm. Participants completed three separate occasions to evaluate test-retest reliability. Additionally, 14 players performed a low volume (1 set of 5 repetitions) NHE program once weekly for 10 weeks. No significant test-retest differences in NHE performance were observed. The intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.95 and the coefficient of variation was 3.54% between tests. Mean improvement in the NHE performance test by the players following training was 22% (8.7 cm), p = 0.005. Our test device reliably measured NHE performance and is easy to perform in any setting. Further, NHE performance was improved by a 10-week low volume NHE program. This suggests that even a small dose (1 set of 5 repetitions once weekly) of the NHE may enhance NHE performance.
Highlights
Hamstring muscle injury is the most common muscle injury in many sports including football [1,2,3] and track and field [4]
No significant test-retest differences were observed in Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) test performance by the participants
NHE test performance significantly improved in the players following 10 weeks of NHE intervention
Summary
Hamstring muscle injury (and reinjury) is the most common muscle injury in many sports including football [1,2,3] and track and field [4]. As the NHE has recently been recognized to decrease the risk of hamstring injuries among athletes by half [12], it could be said that a large amount of scientific evidence supports the use of this exercise to prevent hamstring injuries. It is an elusive exercise, as there is no consensus on how to use it effectively in clinical practice when it comes to e.g., dosing, and further, today there is no simple and practical field-test to evaluate NHE performance. Alternative testing methods, which use the NHE itself to the dynamometry-based hamstring assessment tools, are currently lacking
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