Enter the Nordic hamstring exercise

Tonight it's the World Cup Final in Rio, bringing to a close a month of frantic footballing action. Interestingly, aside from the skills and tactics, the finals have shown how sports medicine and, in particular, on the field advances in treatment, continue to push forward athletes' performance. A common injury amongst the players (and other athletes that high-speed stride, such as in basketball, baseball, marathons or even brisk walking) are hamstring strains and tears.

Thus news from Denmark on the advent of the Nordic hamstring exercise proves welcome. The New York Times has recently published a good article on the development of this stretching regime and a study of its benefits by the Sports Orthopaedic Research Centre in Copenhagen. Read more here.