Injury Prevention EN

Nordic Hamstring Curls: The Exercise That Cuts Hamstring Injuries in Football

Updated: July 29, 2026

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Hamstring strains are among the most common injuries in football, sidelining players for weeks and recurring at frustratingly high rates. A 2025/2026 scoping review published in the Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation examined randomized controlled trials on the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) and confirmed what sports medicine researchers have argued for years: this simple eccentric strengthening drill is one of the most effective tools available for preventing hamstring injuries in football players.

What the research found

The review, led by researchers from the University of Bologna and the University of Salento, pooled evidence from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PEDro, and the Cochrane Library. Across the trials analyzed, the Nordic hamstring exercise was associated with:

Up to a 60% reduction in new (first-time) hamstring strain injuries.
Up to an 85% reduction in recurrent hamstring injuries — a notably larger effect than for first-time injuries, which makes sense given that eccentric strength deficits are a well-documented risk factor after a prior strain.

A related industry newsletter from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) puts the overall injury-reduction range at 50-70% across studies, reinforcing the consistency of the effect.

Why compliance is the real obstacle

The exercise works — the bigger problem is that teams don't do it consistently. The AOSSM newsletter cites tracking data from UEFA Champions League clubs showing that only 17% of teams were fully compliant with a structured NHE program between 2012 and 2014. By the 2020/2021 season, that figure had risen to just 29%. In other words, even at the highest level of professional football, most teams still are not doing enough eccentric hamstring work to capture the injury-prevention benefit the research promises.

The scoping review's authors point to this evidence-to-practice gap as the central issue and recommend that clubs integrate NHE into routine training sessions year-round, paired with athlete education about why the exercise matters — not just handed out as a preseason checklist item.

How the Nordic hamstring curl is typically performed

The standard version of the exercise is a partner- or strap-assisted eccentric movement:

Kneel on a padded surface with a partner (or a fixed strap/anchor) holding your ankles firmly against the ground.
Keeping your hips extended and torso straight, slowly lower your body forward toward the floor, resisting the fall for as long as possible using your hamstrings.
Use your hands to catch yourself and cushion the final part of the descent.
Push back up to the starting kneeling position, or reset by hand, and repeat for the prescribed number of reps.
Programs typically start with low volume (a few reps, once or twice a week) and progress gradually, since the exercise produces significant muscle soreness in unaccustomed athletes.

Because technique and progression matter for both safety and effectiveness, this exercise is best learned under the guidance of a coach or physical therapist rather than attempted from a written description alone.

The takeaway

The evidence for the Nordic hamstring exercise is about as strong as injury-prevention research gets in team sports: fewer first-time strains, and a much larger drop in repeat injuries. The limiting factor isn't the exercise itself but whether teams and players actually stick with it. For amateur and recreational players, the message is the same one elite clubs are still catching up on — consistency matters more than intensity.