Kinetic and Electromyographic Responses to Traditional and Assisted Nordic Hamstring Exercise

Burrows, AP, Cleather, D, Mahaffey, R, and Cimadoro, G. Kinetic and electromyographic responses to traditional and assisted Nordic hamstring exercise. J Strength Cond Res 34(10): 2715–2724, 2020—The Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) is performed to increase hamstring strength, elicit morphological changes, and reduce injury risk. However, to date, the NHE assisted by the means of an external resistance has not been investigated. Thus, this study compared the eccentric knee flexor strength, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and electromyographic responses of the biceps femoris (BF) and semitendinosus (ST) when performing the NHE under assisted or unassisted conditions. Sixteen professional soccer players (aged 19.4 ± 2.2 years) performed 5 sets of 3 NHE unassisted and with assisting loads (5–20% of the body mass) using the Keiser machine. Eccentric knee flexor strength was measured from the subjects' dominant limb. Peak surface electromyography (sEMG) of the BF and ST was recorded from the dominant limb; the ratio was also calculated. Subjects rated the intensity of each condition of the NHE on a ten-point RPE Borg scale. All assisted conditions displayed significantly lower (p
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research
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