Nordic curls cut hamstring injuries in half

The Nordic curl is a hamstring move where you lower slowly under load, letting the muscle lengthen as it works. Across athletes who sprint and cut, doing it cut hamstring tears roughly in half. The more often they did it, the better it worked.

Why it works

Working the hamstring while it lengthens under load builds strength and adds length to the muscle fibers. Longer, stronger fibers hold up better in late swing phase, the moment just before your foot lands when the hamstring stretches hardest and most tears happen.

What it means in practice

If you run tempo, threshold, or interval sessions at faster paces, Nordic curls or similar eccentric work earn a place in your strength routine. Aim for 2-3 sessions per week, 3-6 sets of 5-10 reps. The loading is heavy on the lengthening phase, so beginners should start with an assisted version.

The evidence

• van Dyk, N., Behan, F.P., Whiteley, R. (2019). Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8459 athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine.

  Adding the Nordic hamstring exercise to injury-prevention programs cut hamstring injuries by roughly 51%, a pooled risk ratio of 0.49 (95% CI 0.32-0.74, p=0.0008). Pooling only the 8 RCTs gave RR 0.52 (95% CI 0.32-0.85, p=0.0008). Removing the 8 high-risk-of-bias studies left RR 0.55 (95% CI 0.34-0.89, p=0.006), so study quality did not drive the result. The effect held across multiple sports, both sexes, and varied age groups.

  n=8459

• Andrews, M.H., Shield, A.J., Lichtwark, G.A. et al. (2025). Hamstring Injury Mechanisms and Eccentric Training-Induced Muscle Adaptations: Current Insights and Future Directions. Sports Medicine.

  Eccentric training that builds knee flexor strength lowers hamstring strain risk, and the effect is strongest when athletes stick with the program. This review argues the field leans too hard on architectural change (resting fascicle lengthening) and pays too little attention to how the muscle actually behaves under load. Non-contractile and neural adaptations stay under-studied.

Why we call confidence high

Van Dyk's 2019 meta-analysis found the Nordic hamstring exercise cut injury risk by about 50%. A 2025 narrative review by Andrews in Sports Medicine points the same way. The effect is well established in football players, so the reach to recreational runners is reasonable but the evidence base leans football.

Where it applies

Adult athletes who run at high speed, including soccer and rugby players and faster-paced distance runners.

Does not apply to: recreational joggers who never run faster than aerobic pace; runners with current acute hamstring symptoms.