Research

Mixed

The Nordic hamstring exercise preferentially recruits the semitendinosus muscle rather than the biceps femoris long head.

Include Nordic hamstring curls in your routine for overall hamstring strength and injury prevention, but understand they primarily target the semitendinosus. To ensure balanced hamstring health, combine them with hip-extension exercises like the 45° hip extension to target the biceps femoris long head.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
the Nordic exercise preferentially recruits the semitendinosus.
Matthew N. Bourne et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2016

Why this rating

Confirmed by both sEMG ratios and fMRI T2 changes with high statistical significance.

Source

Impact of exercise selection on hamstring muscle activation

Matthew N. Bourne et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2016

DOI 10.1136/bjsports-2015-095739

cross_sectional · n=24Cited 230×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →