Nordic Hamstring and Repeated-sprint Ability in Football (Soccer) Players

June 13, 2018 updated by: Lasse Ishøi, Hvidovre University Hospital

The Efficacy of a 10-week Intervention, Using the Nordic Hamstring Exercise, on Repeated-sprint Ability in Football (Soccer) Players - a Randomized Controlled Trial

The purpose of the study is to investigate the efficacy of a 10-week intervention, using the Nordic Hamstring exercise, on repeated-sprint ability in male sub-elite football players. The primary outcome measure is total sprint time during 4x6 sprint of 10 meters measured using dual-beam photoelectric cells. Additionally, eccentric knee flexor strength is measured using the Nordbord hamstring strength measure. The hypothesis is that strength training of the knee flexor muscles elicited by the Nordic Hamstring exercise will result in enhanced repetitive sprint-ability expressed as a decrease in total sprint time. Furthermore, baseline data is used to assess to correlation between eccentric hamstring strength and active hamstring flexibility AND sprint performance.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

35

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Denmark
      • Copenhagen, Denmark
        • Both the intervention and testing included in protocol will be conducted in the facilities of the included football clubs in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

17 years to 35 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Sub-elite Danish football player
  • Age 17-35.
  • Able to participate fully in competitive football activities at the time of testing

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Hamstring pain resulting in loss of training and matches 2 months prior to study initiation.
  • Specific systematic strength training of the hamstring muscles (>1/week) in the preceding 2 months before study initiation.
  • Specific systematic sprint training (>1/week) in the preceding 2 months before study initiation.
  • Longstanding injury (>6 weeks) in the lower extremities in the preceding 6 months to study initiation.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Nordic Hamstring
The Nordic Hamstring group performs a progressive strengthening program (Mjolsnes et al., 2004) comprising of the Nordic Hamstring exercise during a period of 10 weeks. The training load increases from one session per week in week 1 to 3 sessions per week in week 3-10. Number of sets and repetitions progressively increase from 2 to 3 and 5 to 12, respectively. The exercise program is performed in the end of a regular football training session.
Other: Nordic Hamstring
Other Names:
  • Hamstring lowers
  • Nordic lowers
  • Hamstring Curl
Other: Control
The control group are asked not to perform the exercise or any other specific strength training for the hamstring muscles and to continue to play football as usual.
Other: Control

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Total sprint time measured during 4x6 sprints of 10 meters. The sprints are performed every 15s and the sets are separated by 3 minutes of rest.
Time Frame: Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Single sprint times (best sprint time, sprint time during last sprint).
Time Frame: Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Maximal eccentric knee flexor strength measured using Nordbord device
Time Frame: Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Eccentric knee flexor strength endurance measured during 12 repetitions of the Nordic Hamstring exercise using Nordbord device.
Time Frame: Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Active range of motion of hamstring muscles measured using inclinometer.
Time Frame: Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Measured prior to and after the intervention period (at week 0 & 10)
Correlation between eccentric hamstring strength and active hamstring flexibility AND sprint performance.
Time Frame: Measured prior to the intervention (at week 0)
Measured prior to the intervention (at week 0)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Hvidovre University Hospital

Collaborators

University of Southern Denmark
Aspetar

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Lasse Ishøi, Hvidovre University Hospital. University of Southern Denmark
  • Study Chair: Per Hölmich, Hvidovre University Hospital. Aspetar
  • Study Chair: Per Aagaard, University of Southern Denmark
  • Study Chair: Kristian Thorborg, Hvidovre University Hospital
  • Study Chair: Thomas Bandholm, Hvidovre University Hospital
  • Study Director: Andreas Serner, Hvidovre University Hospital. Aspetar

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 2, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 2, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

February 5, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 14, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 13, 2018

Last Verified

June 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • NHE-2016-LI

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

All individual data regarding primary and secondary outcome measures.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data are available indefinitely at https://www.dropbox.com/s/8g2hve95csz42zp/IPD.xlsx?dl=0

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

No access criteria.

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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