The Nordic Hamstring Exercise: What the Evidence Shows

One exercise carries more evidence in hamstring injury prevention than any other: the Nordic hamstring exercise. It is simple, it needs no equipment, and it targets exactly the mechanism that tears hamstrings in football. Its weakness is that it is uncomfortable, and discomfort is the main reason programmes built on it fail.

Understanding what the research actually showed, and what it did not, is useful for anyone deciding how to schedule it in an professional squad.

What the exercise is

The Nordic hamstring exercise is performed from a kneeling position with the ankles fixed by a partner or a strap. The player lowers his torso toward the floor as slowly as he can, resisting the movement with the hamstrings, then catches himself with his hands and pushes back up.

The valuable part is the lowering phase. The hamstrings are working while lengthening, at long muscle length, at high force. That is a different stimulus from a leg curl, and it is much closer to what happens in the final part of a sprint stride.

What the trials found

The best-known trial, conducted in Danish professional and amateur football, introduced a ten-week pre-season progression followed by weekly maintenance sessions. It reported a substantial reduction in new hamstring injuries, on the order of half.

A later study in amateur football with high compliance reported reductions of a similar or larger magnitude when a specific number of sessions was completed. The consistent finding across the literature is that the effect depends heavily on how much of the programme was actually performed.

Why compliance is the whole story

Squads that complete the programme see the benefit. Squads that perform it enthusiastically for a month and then drop it see very little. The reasons for dropping it are predictable: it is sore, it is unglamorous, and it competes for time with technical work.

Clubs that make it work usually fold it into an existing strength slot, keep the volume low enough to be sustainable, and accept that players will need to build tolerance over several weeks. Making it a punishment or a test tends to reduce adherence rather than increase it.

The effect on sprint performance

Eccentric hamstring strength also transfers to running. Studies have reported improvements in sprint performance and in the ability to tolerate high-speed running after Nordic programmes, which makes the intervention more attractive to performance staff who are sceptical of injury-prevention work on its own.

• Programme it as strength work, not as prevention work, so it is defended in the weekly plan.
• Progress the volume before maximising the intensity.
• Keep the maintenance dose after the season starts.
• Use it alongside load management rather than instead of it.

What the evidence does not show

The Nordic programme is not a complete hamstring solution. Injuries still occur in squads that perform it properly, and the effect is smaller for the proximal tendon injuries that carry the longest absences. It also does not replace the sprint exposure a player needs to be prepared for maximal speed.

The honest summary is that the Nordic hamstring exercise is the best-supported single intervention available for the most common injury in football, and that its realistic value is a meaningful reduction in injury rates rather than immunity. Combined with load management and progressive sprint exposure, it forms part of the package described in injury prevention training.

Building tolerance without breaking the squad

The first sessions produce significant delayed soreness, particularly in players who have never performed the exercise. That soreness is not an injury, but it does affect training quality the following day, which is one reason clubs avoid scheduling the introduction in a congested week.

A sensible introduction starts with low repetitions and generous rest, accepts that some soreness will occur, and increases the volume only once the previous dose is tolerated. Players with a history of hamstring injury are usually progressed more cautiously than the rest of the squad rather than exempted entirely.

What else the literature suggests

Trials and cohort studies have also examined whether the exercise reduces the severity of injuries that do occur and whether it changes the distribution of injury locations within the muscle. The findings are less consistent than the effect on overall injury rates, and the practical reading is that the programme reduces how often hamstrings tear rather than guaranteeing that any tear will be minor.

That distinction is worth keeping in a squad conversation, because it sets realistic expectations. The programme is a meaningful risk reduction with the best evidence in the sport, not an insurance policy.

How it fits into a professional week

A typical arrangement places Nordic work at the end of a strength session or at the end of training on a moderate day, avoiding the day before a match and avoiding the heaviest training day. Volume is trimmed in congested weeks rather than dropped altogether.

The pattern mirrors how clubs treat other maintenance work: a minimum effective dose sustained across the season, with the option to increase it when a player is at higher risk. That is a practical answer to the compliance problem, and it is the version of the programme that tends to still be running in May.

Information only. This guide is for general information about injuries in professional football and does not replace assessment, diagnosis or treatment by a qualified clinician.