Professor David Opar

David completed his Undergraduate degree in Human Movement at RMIT University in 2008 and was appointed as an Associate Lecturer at RMIT in 2009. David commenced his doctoral thesis (PhD) at the Queensland University of Technology in 2010 in the area of hamstring strain injuries. He was conferred his doctorate in 2013. At the beginning of 2013 David joined ACU as a Lecturer in the School of Exercise Science.

David's research focuses on hamstring strain injuries, specifically how best to identify individuals at risk of this injury and how rehabilitation practices can be improved. From his research, David also co-invented the NordBord, which is a field measure of eccentric hamstring strength.  

My research focuses on hamstring strain injuries (HSI), in particular how to mitigate the risk of HSI and how best to rehabilitate these injuries. Our research group, the ACU Hamstring Injury Group, runs projects that cover a number of disciplines in the field of exercise science, for projects that covers the spectrum from lab-based all the way through to applied and field based projects, at the recreational and elite levels of sport.  

• The prediction the risk of muscle strain injuries, particularly hamstring strain injuries, in elite athletic populations.
• Development of field testing devices to allow assessment of muscle function more accessible.
• Impact of hamstring muscle architecture on performance and injury risk.
• Neuromuscular function and implications for injury and reinjury.
• Association between prior hamstring injury and future anterior cruciate ligament injury.

• Sports Medicine Australia
• American College of Sports Medicine