The Curls You Need To Be Doing
These days in training, everyone is looking for their trainer or strength coach to be able to do 3 things
- Improve Speed and Endurance (Anaerobic and Aerobic Capacity)
- Improve Strength and Power
- Decrease Likelihood of injury or reinjury
If you have been in the fitness industry for any period of time, then you have noticed that the industry likes to focus on the amazing lifts that people are capable of doing. However, if you ask an experienced trainer or strength and conditioning expert, often times the movement and or lift that will benefit the athlete the most is not one of the flashiest.
This is case and point with the Nordic Ham Curl. In fact, other than a few videos of athletes like Saquon Barkley performing them in a training video, it doesn’t get a tremendous amount of publicity. However, you would be hard pressed to find programs that don’t have them in it.
WHAT DOES IT WORK?
The Nordic Hamstring Curl trains the posterior chain, but more importantly the hamstring muscles.
The hamstrings generally refer to the three muscles — biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus at the back part of the thigh. These muscles stabilize the knee by preventing anterior translation of the tibia while also flexing the knee.
The hamstrings are the muscles that enable us to move our legs powerfully and efficiently. They are the essential muscles for running, jumping, decelerating, climbing and even walking. Strengthening the hamstring muscles help us to do these things better.
Additionally, the hamstring muscles are vulnerable to injury and strain, particularly among athletes and sprinters. Strengthening the hamstrings with training exercises can reduce the risk of injury significantly. A recent study by the National Library of Medicine found that “there is a reduction in the overall injury risk ratio of 0.49 (95% CI 0.32 to 0.74, p=0.0008) in favor of programs including the Nordic Hamstring Exercise”.
BENEFITS OF THE NORDIC CURL
Nordics can help prevent hamstring injuries due to the eccentric emphasis, which shifts the hamstrings’ maximum force potential to larger muscle lengths compared to traditional barbell exercises such as the RDL, Deadlift, and Glute bridge exercises.
Not only will this exercise increase the strength and resiliency of the hamstring muscles, it will also increase stability through the range of motion of knee flexion.
HOW TO PERFORM THE NORDIC CURL
The beauty of the Nordic Ham Curl is it can be performed with NO EQUIPMENT. All you need is a partner.
Starting Position
The athlete will start in the kneeling position with their partner holding down their feet. The athlete will then get into a “stacked” position (Shoulder over hip, and hip over knee in a straight line).
Performing the Exercise
We recommend that you give your athletes an eccentric tempo in order to ensure that the time under tension enlists the desired stress response. If the athlete just falls to the ground they will not get adequate work done.
Starting in the stacked position, the athletes will allow their hips and chest to fall to the floor ensuring to not lose the stacked position. They will control down for the desired tempo or until they can no longer control themselves down.
For beginners, once their chest is on the ground they can walk themselves back into the starting position. However, for your stronger athletes we encourage that they lightly push off the ground with their hands while trying to pull themselves up concentrically with their hamstrings.
TAKE AWAY
If you are wanting to add in the Nordic Ham Curl exercise into your program there is a few things to keep in mind.
- Don’t just throw the exercise in at the end of a workout. As this exercise places a lot of eccentric load on the hamstring muscles and your athletes will not get the best bang for their buck if they are gassed.
- A common mistake when performing this exercise is bending at the hips. Bending at the hips will not do much to strengthen the hamstrings. As it releases most of the tension in the hamstring muscles. As well as people trying to do too much volume (Repetitions/Load Volume).
- Stay away from high repetitions. Stick with anywhere between 2 and 6 reps. The focus should be INTENT of the exercise. 2 reps at a 4 sec eccentric will be much more beneficial than trying to have your athletes perform 8 reps. Remember, “time under tension builds muscle”.
