The Role of the Nordic Hamstring Curl in the Rehabilitation of Hamstring Injuries: A Narrative Review

Background: Hamstring injuries are common in sports requiring high speed and power, such as soccer, football, and field. Prevention and rehabilitation strategies are essential to address the economic and performance-related consequences of hamstring injuries in sports. A stateof-the-art review provides a comprehensive and up-to-date summary of knowledge on hamstring muscle injuries in athletes. Purpose: To review the literature to verify the effectiveness of Nordic hamstring curls exercise in managing and preventing hamstring injuries during sports activity. Method: Electronic databases used for relevant trials: Google Scholar, Pubmed, Cochrane, NCBI, Science Direct, and CINAHLI. All the articles are taken from 2017 to 2022. On Nordic hamstring curls in sports, players were kept as inclusion criteria. One hundred forty articles were searched, which includes NHE in sports players. After screening, 39 studies were finally included in the review. Result: A total of 39 studies were finally included in the review, of which 17 were Randomized controlled trials, 16 were Systemic Reviews, 2 were Quasi-experimental Studies, and 4 were Observational studies. The hamstring injury rate was substantially lower in groups that included the Nordic Hamstring curl exercise in their daily regime. NHE significantly increases eccentric strength, eccentric peak torque, H: Q ratio, muscle fascicle length, and muscle architecture. Conclusion: There was a significant relation between hamstring injuries and Nordic hamstring curl exercise. NHE is found to be effective in the prevention and rehabilitation of hamstring injuries in athletes. Clinicians should be encouraged to incorporate NHE into their prevention strategies, and players and coaches should be more aware of and encourage the use of NHE. Keywords: Hamstring Injuries, Nordic hamstring exercise, Nordic curl, eccentric strength, injuryprevention.