Every time I post an opinion about posterior chain training my Twitter feed explodes. In Europe, and particularly in the soccer world, the topic of posterior chain training brings about strong reactions.
Let me state in the beginning that this is not meant to be an anti- Nord Bord piece. I am only offering my opinion to help those in similar situations to me. As both a coach and a business owner I would find it hard to justify a $40,000 purchase for any single use piece of equipment. $40,000 buys a lot of weights. In fact you could outfit a nice facility to train your entire team for $40,000.
I have written extensively both in my books and in article form about my thoughts on posterior chain training. As with anterior chain training ( squats etc.) I favor unilateral exercises. I love the one leg straight leg deadlift as it trains the glutes and hamstrings in their hip extensor role. I also like bridge and hip lift variations as they put more emphasis on the glutes due to the shortened hamstring.
My third favorite exercise category is the closed chain leg curl variations like stability ball and slideboard leg curls. They are really just a bridge progression as you need to master bridging to correctly execute a slideboard leg curl.
I have never been a big fan of the glute ham raise. I know that sounds strange because I posted about a 20 minute staff in-service on the lift
I actually have a healthy fear of the exercise as we have found it to be a big soreness producer. I used to avoid glute hams as I have always felt that they might do more harm than good, particularly when used as an in-season lift. However, I must admit we are experimenting with some progressions that may allow us to use variations of the glute ham raise more extensively.
The major difference between the slideboard leg curl and the glute ham raise is that in the glute ham raise the load is essentially a large percentage of the body's weight. I think you need to be very good at the leg curl variations before moving on to glute ham raises. I guess I see glute ham raises as a progression from slideboard or stability ball leg curls.
Another reason I am not a huge fan of the glute ham raise and its variations is that there is a huge coaching / learning curve in the exercise and, it is more frequently done wrong than right. This is similar in many ways to the Olympic lifts but, I'm willing to invest far more time in Olympic lifting than in the glute ham raise.
Recently, glute ham raises seem to have been “rebranded” as Nordic Leg Curls and, promoted as a cure-all for hamstring strains.
I have a problem with this on a bunch of levels. I hate when an exercise we have been doing for years suddenly gets a new European name and, then becomes a trendy, one-size-fits all solution.
Just to clarify, we do not do Bulgarian Lunges, we do Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats. Yes, I know they are the same exercise but, I don't believe they are Bulgarian?
History Lesson 1: In the 1980's a Bulgarian weightlifting coach, Angel Spassov, came over to the US and began to promote the Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat as a big part of the training of the very successful Bulgarian weightlifters. This was a great thing as it promoted more interest in unilateral training. It was a bad thing as the exercise began to be incorrectly referred to as a Bulgarian Lunge. The reality is the exercise is neither Bulgarian, nor a lunge and was being done all over the world prior to the Spassov visit.
In much the same way, we don't do Romanian Deadlifts or RDL's, we simply do the same version of the Straight Leg Deadlift we have done for decades.
History Lesson 2: Much like it's Bulgarian counterpart, the Romanian Deadlift was a “rebranding” of a commonly used exercise. In this case another European weightlifting coach, Dragomir Cirosilan ( sp.), emigrated to the US, eventually becoming one of our Olympic coaches. Dragomir popularized the version of the deadlift that he felt was critical to the development of weightlifters ( a semi-straight leg, arched back version) and, the Romanian Deadlift was born.
These history lessons lead us to the Nordic Leg Curl.
History Lesson 3: Also in the late 1970's and early 1980's, Dr Michael Yessis began translating lots of Russian training information in his Soviet Sports Review and Yessis Journals. This led Yessis to either invent or discover what he called the Glute-Ham-Gastroc Raise, a unique posterior chain exercise. This led to the development of various pieces of equipment to perform the exercise and lots of “versions” of the Yessis concept. One of these was a manual version that somehow got attributed to the Finn's and Swedes and, became the famous Nordic Leg Curl.
My feeling is that Nordics or Nordic Leg Curls are just variations of the same glute ham raise we read about 30 years ago. Thank god Yessis gave them an appropriate name, not Russian Leg Curls. Other wise we would have had a tri-fecta of Eastern European rebranding.
The recent love and admiration of the Nordic Leg Curl has led to the wonderful, one size-fit's-all solution that Nordics will cure us of the plague of hamstring strain.
No need for an intelligent strength program that balances anterior and posterior chain and, a desire to work a complicated muscle from differing angles and positions, just the simple solution “do Nordics”.
The more complex solution might lie in the Shirley Sahrmann thought that "any time a muscle is injured, look for a weak synergist"? Our feeling is the solution to the hamstring epidemic is stronger glutes, not necessarily stronger hamstrings. The reality is that a secondary extensor ( in this case the hamstring) will continue to fail when coupled with a weak prime mover ( glute max).
Bottom line,
“ if it seems too good to be true, it probably is”
Anonymous
Doesn't it seem too good to be true that by reinventing up an exercise from 30-40 years ago and, giving it a new name we suddenly have a one size fits all solution?
This brings us to the last part of my thought, the Nord Bord. Every story always has room for a little entrepreneurial spirit. I'm not sure when the Nord Bord was invented. I'm not necessarily anti-Nord Bord. However, I am skeptical about expensive machines and the claims that come with them. Correct me if I am wrong but, the Nord Bord is a machine to perform and evaluate the Nordic Leg Curl that retails for about $40,000 US. The machine has sensors that can provide data about what is occurring in the exercise.
As a business owner, I can only tell you that I will not be buying any machine that does one exercise for $40,000. If I was still in the team environment, I would still be skeptical of the $40,000 machine that at best might be a piece of the puzzle.
History Lesson 4: In the late 70's and early 80's Cybex developed a similar technology for knee rehab. First we had the relatively inexpensive Othotron and then the absurdly expensive Cybex Isokinetic System. This is similar to the Nord Bord in the sense that it was expensive, research backed, and a must –have for every therapist. Over time, every pro team and every college had to have a Cybex and, you couldn't return to play until you passed your Cybex test. Does any of this sound familiar? As they say, history repeats itself. As it turns out, much of the Cybex research was funded by, guess who, Cybex. And, there proved to be lots of questions about the research, results etc. Right about this time some poor therapists ( those who could not afford the then $25,000 Cybex) began to have outstanding rehab results by getting people off the machines and, on their feet. The next fad ( closed kinetic chain training) was born and has continued to dominate the rehab world for decades. The sad part about the closed chain idea is that there was no big machine to sell. The happy side is that we all learned functional anatomy.
The moral of the story is in the quote above.
“If something seems too good to be true, it might be”
If the pitch ends with “and you need this really expensive piece of equipment” then, caveat emptor ( buyer beware).
If you are being encouraged to buy the equipment by a therapist who touts the research, buyer beware. I think those of us in our twenties, thirties and forties need to learn strength and conditioning history and realize that often “ the more things change, the more they stay the same”.