POWER UP YOUR HAMSTRINGS
THE NORDIC CURL IS BILLED AS THE ULTIMATE HAMSTRING SAVIOUR. BUT IS ITS REPUTATION DESERVED ASKS PETA BEE?
Top football clubs such as Leicester City use the NordBord to help their players avoid hamstring injuries
HAMSTRINGS are as large as they can be limiting. Running the length of the thigh from the back of the knee to the hip, the stringy muscles and tendons are engaged in bending the knee and straightening the hip, relied upon heavily for any movement involving power and speed.
With each running stride or jump, the strain on the hamstring is considerable and, if insufficiently prepared, they will buckle beneath it, a pull or tear being the painful consequence.
Statistics show that hamstring strains are the most common non-contact injury in elite sport and, for athletes in all events, hamstring protection is paramount. Yet it remains a neglected focus for some. “It’s very overlooked for many athletes,” says physiotherapist Philip Coleman of the Running Physio clinic in Newbury.
“In sports like football, where hamstring injuries are rife, it has become a prime area of attention in training, but while many sprinters do have adequate hamstring-strengthening programmes, others don’t. And many distance runners think they are immune from tears, which is completely wrong.”