151 The nordic hamstring exercise: awareness, implementation and opinion of worldwide athletes

Background The Nordic hamstring exercise is an effective program in reducing the hamstring injuries, which is one of the most common non-contact lower limb injuries, especially in sports requiring acceleration, maximal sprints, and sudden change in direction of running, as sprinting, soccer, and rugby. Objective To assess the awareness, implementation, and opinion of the worldwide athletes about the Nordic hamstring exercise in preventing hamstring injury. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting An online survey for different sports. Patients (or Participants) A total of 1142 male and female athletes from different sports (American football, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, cricket, CrossFit, cycling, soccer, gymnastics, handball, ice hockey, ice skating, judo, ju-jitsu, karate, korfball, lacrosse, modern pentathlon, netball, rugby league, rugby union, running, skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tchoukball, tennis, trampolining, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling) completed the survey. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) The questionnaire consisted of questions relating to the awareness level, implementation rate and opinion of the Nordic hamstring exercise. Main Outcome Measurements The primary outcomes were awareness level, implementation rate, and opinion of the effectiveness of the Nordic hamstring exercise in hamstring injury. Results A total of 641 (56%) of the athletes were aware of the Nordic hamstring exercise, 519 (45.4%) were implementing the Nordic hamstring exercise in their current practice. Athletes who implemented the Nordic hamstring exercise reported a positive opinion about the program efficacy, with a score of 8.4 ±1 out of 10. Conclusions Many athletes were aware of the Nordic hamstring exercise and implementing it in their training routine, as they found it effective in decreasing the hamstring injury rates. However, further work needs to be done to educate athletes about the importance of implementing the exercise and its effectiveness in preventing hamstring injury to enhance implementation.