Sunday, October 1, 2017

Saturday

     Warmed up down to the soccer field and went through my routine. Then 6 X ~20 meter flying strides. It felt great to sprint and my upper hamstring was 100%. Jogged home and then did a brief set of Nordic hamstring curls which I firmly believe is why my hamstring feels so good. Nordic hamstring curls are a way to target hamstring in a purely eccentric fashion and eccentric work has been shown to stimulate the rebuilding of collagen in tendons. One of the main recommendations for rehabbing a compromised Achilles tendon is eccentric calf "raises" (it's actually not a raise though, that's a concentric contraction, rather it's a lowering of body weight) for the same reason. Nordic curls are based off the same concept. I've found it tough to really target my upper hamstring with the appropriate load. RDL's (romanian deadlifts) don't seem to hit my upper hamstrings as much but Nordic absolutely does and it's revealed a huge weakness of mine. In the weight room I can do fairly big loads on concentric leg curls. Sets of 10 reps single leg using 100+ pounds. My first try at Nordics however I couldn't do even a single HALF rep. My hamstrings failed just 8 inches into the movement. It's almost certainly why I have the issue with the upper hamstring to begin with.
 Here's one of many articles that talk about the Nordic curl. The Simplifaster.com blog and podcast  has become my favorite resource for training.

     Then I did 4 X 30 meter tire pulls up a moderate grade. Then I jogged a 1/2 mile easy. Not a very exciting workout but I think I'm doing what I need to improve weaknesses which right now, October, is where I need to be focused.

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