Enter in the Nordic Hamstring Curl! This exercise is one of the best exercises for you and your hamstrings. It will get you stronger, faster and injury free! You might be saying this is too good to be true, but looking at the research, it was shown to reduce hamstring strains by 51%. This is due to the eccentric, or lowering, focus of the exercise which in turn is lengthening through resistance all leading to increased sprint speeds.
There have been a few examples of incredible feats in the sports world by just incorporating Nordic Hamstring curls into an athletes exercise program. One of them is the story of Martin St. Louis, an undrafted hockey player in the late 90’s who ended up winning a Stanley Cup in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning! This made him the only other player since Wayne Gretzky to win the Art Ross Trophy (Leading scorer award), the Hart Trophy (NHL MVP) and the Stanley Cup all in the same year! St. Louis had a long career ending in 2015 making it into the NHL Hall of Fame 2018! Now did all this happen from only the Nordics, probably not, but it definitely had something to do with it! Success leaves clues! Check out St. Louis doing a full Nordic Curl here!
Not all of us should start by trying to do a full Nordic Curl, but just work on lowering yourself to an 18 inch box. If you’ve been in the gym lately I’m sure you’ve seen myself or the student athletes jamming their feet under the dumbbell rack and slowly lowing to the box and even some coming back up! This is a humbling exercise and you will feel direct activation from the hamstring. It is always good to start slow and with no pain. As you progress you slowly move the box down until you can control it all the way to the ground. A good place to start is 8 reps once per week to whatever box height your body can handle at a slow lowering speed.
Now what does this mean for us golfers?! You guessed it, SPEED! If this exercise can improve your sprint speed, by allowing your bodies decelerators to work harder, it will for sure increase your club head speed! More strength and length in the hamstrings will lead to little, to no early extension, more ground forces and more separation, which all equal more consistent powerful golf swings! This will be one of the main exercises we focus on if you are joining our SPEED Class starting up on February 28th! We still have a few open spots, make sure you claim your spot today and start your journey to pain free, injury free, lasting SPEED! Email me at kyle@thegolfperformancecenter.com to join today!
