Hamstring injuries: the one exercise with real evidence

Hamstring strains are the single most common injury across football, soccer and most running sports, and they have among the highest recurrence rates of any injury. There is also unusually good evidence about how to prevent them, which most club players have never been shown.

The Nordic hamstring exercise

Multiple large studies and meta-analyses have found that programs including Nordic hamstring curls reduce hamstring injury rates substantially — roughly halving them in several trials. That is an unusually large effect for a single exercise, and it is why it appears in nearly every professional program.

Why it works

Hamstrings are injured during the late swing phase of sprinting, while lengthening under high load. The Nordic trains exactly that — eccentric strength at long muscle length. Most conventional hamstring exercises do not.

Doing it properly

Kneeling with the ankles held, lower the torso forward as slowly as you can control, catch yourself, and push back up. Two sets, a handful of reps, twice weekly. It is genuinely hard at first and produces real soreness for the first week or two, which is normal and settles.

Load management still matters

No exercise offsets a sudden spike in sprint volume. Nordics reduce risk; they do not eliminate the effect of going from no running to full match intensity in a fortnight. See muscular strains.

If you have already torn one

Recurrence risk is highest in the first few weeks back, and almost always relates to a return-to-play progression that was rushed. A tested, graded return matters more than any single exercise — we can structure that and reassess weekly through it.

What a first appointment looks like

We start with what actually happened and what the demands of your sport are, then assess the injured area alongside the joints and muscles above and below it — because the painful structure is often not the limiting one. You get a diagnosis, a realistic timeframe, and a plan that accounts for your training and match schedule rather than assuming you can stop. If we think you need imaging or another practitioner, we will say so at that first visit rather than after six sessions.

Booking in

We are at 5/6-8 Langmore Lane, Berwick, with street parking directly outside and same-week appointments most weeks. Initial consultations are 60 minutes and $149, with private health rebates processed on the spot via HICAPS. No referral is required, and we also work with WorkCover, DVA and Medicare care plans where they apply.

Book an initial consultation at RISE Sports & Spinal in Berwick. Clear diagnosis, hands-on treatment, and a plan that actually gets you better.