Glute ham raises
The glute ham raise is one of my favorite lower body accessory movements for building stronger hamstrings. The glute-ham raise is a great posterior chain exercise to develop strength and hypertrophy, in the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.
Benefits of the glute-ham raise
How to do a glute-ham raise
Ideally, you'll use a machine at a gym, but I have done them with someone holding my feet and on the floor with my feet under something (anything I could find).
You want to try and maintain a straight line through your knees, hips, shoulders, and neck throughout the exercise. The one drawback of the glute hame raise is it's so hard they struggle to do one rep with decent form, with the two most common flaws are extending the lumbar spine and breaking at the hips. You shouldn't feel your lower back too much if you're doing the exercise correctly.
What if you can't do a single rep?
Benefits of the glute-ham raise
- One of the main benefits of the glute-ham raise is it's one of the few ways to work out the hamstrings without putting a lot of compressive force on the spine. A great benefit of the glute-ham raise is it strengthens without loading the spine. Your lower back gets used a lot if you do squats and deadlifts, and while exercises like Romanianian deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts and good mornings are great exercises, it's good to have an that doesn't stress the lower back as much. It's also a good option for people who have back issue.
- The glute hame raise works the hamstrings through their full range of motion.
- The glute-ham raise is very knee-friendly. You're unlike;y to experience any knee pain when doing it. Some people experience knee pain when their knee is directly on the pad. If this is a problem for you, just set it up so your knee is lower at the back of the pad.
- Injury prevention. Many athletes have muscular imbalances between their quads and hamstrings which can increase the risk of injuries. Using the glute-ham raise to strengthen the hamstrings can address any imbalance.
How to do a glute-ham raise
Ideally, you'll use a machine at a gym, but I have done them with someone holding my feet and on the floor with my feet under something (anything I could find).
- Start with the torso perpendicular to the floor.
- Squeeze the hamstrings, glutes, and abs, and lower under control until the torso is parallel to the floor.
- From there, return to the starting position by pushing the toes into the foot plate and pulling up with the hamstrings. Be sure to keep the glutes contracted.
You want to try and maintain a straight line through your knees, hips, shoulders, and neck throughout the exercise. The one drawback of the glute hame raise is it's so hard they struggle to do one rep with decent form, with the two most common flaws are extending the lumbar spine and breaking at the hips. You shouldn't feel your lower back too much if you're doing the exercise correctly.
What if you can't do a single rep?
- Try going slow on the eccentrics and then use your hands to push your self back to the top like in the video below.
- My favourite way to start is by using a cable to help complete a full rep like in the video below. Holding a double-rope cable attached to the weight stack counterbalances your body weight, making it a perfect beginner move for strengthening the hamstring and build up to doing a full unassisted rep as you can gradually decrease the assistance as you get stronger.
- Increase the number of sets and reps you can do with your bodyweight. This will be enough for most people for a long time.
- Add weight ether by holding it, or by wearing a weighted vest.
- Do slow eccentrics as I mentioned before, but this lift yourself without using your hands.