Nordic hamstring test
Hamstring strain is the most common injury in soccer, and one of the most common in AFL and rugby. Eccentric hamstring strength is the single best-evidenced thing you can change about your risk of it — and this test measures exactly that.
The Nordic hamstring test measures eccentric hamstring strength as the angle from vertical at which you lose control while lowering. A lower angle is stronger. Track your own trend rather than chasing a target number.
Eccentric hamstring training has the strongest evidence base of any hamstring injury-prevention intervention. It reduces risk; it does not eliminate it.
The point of the test
Eccentric hamstring strength, expressed as the angle from vertical at which you lose control of a slow Nordic lowering. A lower angle means you held on further down, which means you are stronger.
Why it is in the Train Smart battery: Eccentric hamstring strength — the best-evidenced hamstring injury screen there is.
How to run it
Ankles held, lower yourself as slowly as you can. Record the angle between your body and the FLOOR at the moment you lose control. Lower is stronger — it means you held on closer to the ground.
- What you need
- A partner to hold your ankles, or a Nordic bench · A padded surface for your knees · A phone camera side-on, if you want to measure the angle properly
What is a good score?
We are not going to publish a precise-looking table for this test. Reported ranges vary too much with protocol, equipment, level, age and sex for a single table to be honest, and most of the tables in circulation for it are uncited copies of each other.
The comparison that actually changes your training is against your own last score. That is not a consolation prize — it is what the monitoring literature supports, and it is what Train Smart does: re-test every four weeks under the same conditions and let the trend, not the percentile, drive the program. The papers behind that are here.
What people get wrong
Most of the variation between two tests is protocol, not fitness. These are the faults that make one score incomparable to the last.
- Hinging at the hips.
- The single most common fault. The body must stay in one line from knee to shoulder — folding at the hip makes the movement easier and the number meaningless.
- Dropping rather than lowering.
- The score is where you lose control. Falling early on purpose or "riding it down" both produce a number that is not about your hamstrings.
- Testing it cold.
- This is a maximal eccentric effort on a muscle that strains easily. Warm up properly, and do not test it the day before a game.
- Confusing this with the injury itself.
- A poor break point is a risk factor, not a diagnosis, and a good one is not a guarantee. It is one input.
How to actually move the number
The exercise that improves it is the exercise itself. Petersen and colleagues' 2011 cluster-randomised trial in men's soccer is the reason the Nordic curl appears in nearly every prehab block in Train Smart — it is not a mobility warm-up, it is a loaded strength exercise with trial evidence behind it.
The practical version:
- Start with an assisted Nordic — a band, or a partner supporting your chest — and take 3–5 seconds to lower.
- Two to three sets of 4–6 reps, twice a week, is enough. This is not a high-volume exercise.
- Expect real soreness for the first fortnight. It settles; that is the adaptation.
- Progress by lowering more slowly and further before you progress by adding reps.
Train Smart schedules it automatically in every football-code and running-sport program, and rotates the rest of the prehab block so the same three moves are not repeated every session.
The movements that build a Nordic hamstring test
Testing tells you where you are; these are what change it. Each one carries the coaching cues, the sets and reps Train Smart prescribes it at, and ranked alternatives — and in the app the weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Why it is programmed |
|---|---|
| Romanian Deadlift | Posterior chain for driving legs |
| Jefferson Curl (light KB) | Loads spinal flexion and hamstring length together, then holds there — the range you land and bend in, owned rather than avoided |
| Nordic Curl | Hamstring injury prevention — the #1 AFL injury |
| Nordic Hamstring Lower | The most-evidenced hamstring exercise there is, done as a slow lower into a hold rather than a fall |
| Trap Bar Deadlift | Foundational power output |
| Hang Power Clean | Triple extension = sprint acceleration |
| Hang Power Snatch | The fastest lift in the gym — trains rate of force development directly |
| Power Clean | Whole-body explosive power |
More: hamstring exercises
Nordic hamstring test — questions
What is a good Nordic hamstring break point?
Do Nordic curls actually prevent hamstring injuries?
How often should I do Nordic curls?
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