Prevention of hamstring strains in elite soccer: an intervention study

• Main Authors: A. Arnason, T. E. Andersen, I. Holme, L. Engebretsen, R. Bahr
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: training (Bennell et al; 1998; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.497.1190; http://www.klokeavskade.no/upload/Publication/Arnason_2007_SJMSS_Prevention of hamstring strains in elite soccer.pdf

The purpose was to test the effect of eccentric strength training and flexibility training on the incidence of ham-string strains in soccer. Hamstring strains and player exposure were registered prospectively during four conse-cutive soccer seasons (1999–2002) for 17–30 elite soccer teams from Iceland and Norway. The first two seasons were used as baseline, while intervention programs consisting of warm-up stretching, flexibility and/or eccentric strength training were introduced during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. During the intervention seasons, 48 % of the teams selected to use the intervention programs. There was no difference in the incidence of hamstring strains between teams that used the flexibility training program and those who did not [relative risk (RR)5 1.53, P5 0.22], nor was there a difference compared with the baseline data