Poor hamstring strength-endurance is a risk factor for hamstring injuries. This study investigated the effectiveness of the single-leg Roman hold and Nordic hamstring curl in improving hamstring strength-endurance. Twelve Gaelic footballers (mean +/- standard deviation age, height and mass were 25.17 +/- 3.46 years, 179.25 +/- 5.88 cm, 85.75 +/- 4.75 kilo) with a history of hamstring injury were randomized into 2 groups that performed 6 weeks of either Nordic hamstring curl, or single-leg Roman chair hold training. The single-leg hamstring bridge (SLHB) was measured pre- and post- intervention. The Roman chair group showed a very likely moderate magnitude improvement on SLHB performance for both legs (23.7% for the previously injured leg (90% confidence interval 9.6% to 39.6%) and 16.9% for the non-injured leg (6.2% to 28.8%)). The Nordic curl group showed a likely trivial change in SLHB performance for the non-injured leg (-2.1% (-6.7% to 2.6%)) and an unclear, but possibly trivial change for the previously injured leg (0.3% (-5.6% to 6.6%)). The Roman chair group improved very likely more with a moderate magnitude in both the non-injured (19.5% (8.0% to 32.2%)) and the previously injured leg (23.3% (8.5% to 40.0%)) compared to the Nordic curl group. This study demonstrated that 6-weeks single-leg Roman chair training substantially improved SLHB performance, suggesting that it may be an efficacious strategy to mitigate hamstring (re-) injury risk. Conversely, 6-weeks Nordic curl training did not substantially improve SLHB performance, suggesting this may not be the intervention of choice for modifying this risk factor.

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