...
Hamstring strains are one of the most prevalent injuries that occur in sports involving high-speed running. Hamstring strain injuries account for 37% of all muscle injuries in sports [1, 3] and have increased by about 4% annually in the last decade [23]. Recently, eccentric Nordic Hamstring Exercise (NHE) has attracted a lot of attention in the world of biomechanics and sports science for its potential in reducing muscle injury risk among athletes and non-athletes alike [34]–[67]. To understand the mechanism behind the preventive action of NHE against injury, it is important to understand what physical stimuli NHE applies to the muscle, and how the muscle responds.
Many studies have focused on the second half of this question— how the muscle is responding. Several investigate the changes in bulk force and torque outputs after NHE training to characterize the muscle response [78], [89]. A few others have investigated muscle level adaptations through volume changes of individual hamstring muscles [89] and fascicle length changes in the biceps femoris muscles [910] after NHE training. However, there is little work that has emphasized the stimulus causing these changes. Van Hooren et al. characterized the force in the knee flexors during a rep of NHE [1011]. Therefore, with our work, we aim to recreate these findings and expand on them by characterizing the power and workloads experienced by the knee flexors during NHE
...
Modeling
We used OpenSim 4.0 [1112] with a custom static optimization code in MATLAB R2021a (Mathworks, Inc., Natick MA, USA) for the simulation. We modeled the lower extremities and torso using the musculoskeletal model described by Arnold et. al., [1213] with 20 degrees of freedom and 42 musculotendon actuators spanning the pelvis and lower extremities. This model was linearly scaled to match the anthropometric measurements from the static Motion Capture trial. Model scaling automatically adjusted the muscle optimal fiber lengths and moment arms, and tendon slack lengths.
...
We thank Reed Gurchiek, Nicos Haralabidis, Nick Bianco, Jon Stingel, Carmichael Ong, and Scott Delp for providing countless hours of technical support and encouragement. We also thank Kristen Steudel and Katie Marusich for their experimental data.
References
...
- Oleksy, Ł, Mika, A.
...
- , Pacana, J.
...
- , Markowska, O.
...
- , Stolarczyk, A.
...
- , Kielnar,
...
- R.
...
- ,
...
- 2021. Why Is Hamstring Strain Injury so Common in Sport Despite Numerous Prevention Methods? Are There Any Missing Pieces to This Puzzle?
...
- Frontiers in Physiology 12, 586624.
- Ekstrand, J., Bengtsson, H., Waldén, M., Davison, M., Khan, K. M., Hägglund, M., 2022. Hamstring injury rates have increased during recent seasons and now constitute 24% of all injuries in men’s professional football: the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study from 2001/02 to 2021/22. British Journal of Sports Medicine 57, 292-298.
- Ekstrand, J., Waldén, M., Hägglund, M., 2016. Hamstring injuries have increased by 4% annually in
...
- men's professional football, since 2001: a 13-year longitudinal analysis of the UEFA Elite Club injury study
...
[3] “Four Weeks of Nordic Hamstring Exercise Reduce Muscle Injury Risk Factors in Young Adults - PubMed.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28459795/ (accessed May 31, 2023).
...
- . British Journal of Sports Medicine 50, 731-737.
- Al Attar, W. S. A., Soomro, N., Sinclair, P. J., Pappas, E., Sanders, R. H., 2017. Effect of Injury Prevention Programs that Include the Nordic Hamstring Exercise on Hamstring Injury Rates in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine (Auckland) 47, 907-916.
- van Dyk, N., Behan, F. P., Whiteley, R., 2019. Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8459 athletes
...
- . British Journal of Sports Medicine 53, 1362-1370.
- Ribeiro-Alvares, J., Marques, V., Vaz, M., Baroni, B., 2018. Four Weeks of Nordic Hamstring Exercise Reduce Muscle Injury Risk Factors in Young Adults. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 32, 1254-1262.
- van der Horst, N., Smits, D., Petersen, J., Goedhart, E. A., Backx, F. J. G.
...
[6] “Effect of Injury Prevention Programs that Include the Nordic Hamstring Exercise on Hamstring Injury Rates in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - PubMed.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27752982/ (accessed May 31, 2023).
...
- , 2015. The Preventive Effect of the Nordic Hamstring Exercise on Hamstring Injuries in Amateur Soccer Players : A Randomized Controlled Trial. The American Journal of Sports Medicine 43, 1316-1323.
- Pollard, C. W., Opar, D. A., Williams, M. D., Bourne, M. N., Timmins, R. G., 2019. Razor hamstring curl and Nordic hamstring exercise architectural adaptations: Impact of exercise selection and intensity
...
- . Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 29, 706-715.
- Cuthbert, M., Ripley, N., McMahon, J. J.
...
- , Evans, M.
...
- , Haff, G. G.
...
- , Comfort,
...
- P.
...
- ,
...
- 2020. The Effect of Nordic Hamstring Exercise Intervention Volume on Eccentric Strength and Muscle Architecture Adaptations: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses
...
- . Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) 50, 83-99.
- Pincheira, P. A.
...
- , Boswell, M. A.
...
- , Franchi, M. V.
...
- , Delp, S. L.
...
- , Lichtwark,
...
- G. A.
...
- ,
...
- 2022. Biceps femoris long head sarcomere and fascicle length adaptations after 3 weeks of eccentric exercise training
...
- . Journal of Sport and Health Science 11,
...
- 43-49.
- Van Hooren, B., Vanwanseele, B., van Rossom, S., Teratsias, P., Willems, P., st, M., Meijer, K., 2022. Muscle forces and fascicle behavior during three hamstring exercises
...
- . Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
...
- 32,
...
- 997-1012.
- Seth, A., Sherman, M., Reinbolt, J. A.
...
- , Delp,
...
- S. L.
...
- ,
...
- 2011. OpenSim: a musculoskeletal modeling and simulation framework for in silico investigations and exchange
...
- . Procedia IUTAM 2,
...
- 212-232.
- Lai, A. K. M., Arnold, A. S., Wakeling, J. M., 2017. Why are Antagonist Muscles Co-activated in My Simulation? A Musculoskeletal Model for Analysing Human Locomotor Tasks
...
- . Annals of Biomedical Engineering 45, 2762-2774.