Goal: Full Nordic Hamstring

That’s pretty much it! I’m impressed! Could you elaborate on what you mean by getting stronger with the bosu ball?

Thanks, glad I could help :slight_smile:

What I mean is that when you are new to this movement you should use a bosu ball under your knees instead of a flat pad.

As you have experienced yourself a nordic hamstring is at it’s heaviest at the lower portion of the range of motion, especially the bottom and the turn-around point. What a bosu ball does is that it makes the nordic hamstring act very much like a GHR in a machine (although heavier) by making the leverage easier at the bottom. The further down you go with a bosu ball, the further forward will the pivot point move.

I have another clip here showing the nordic hamstring done with a bosu ball, for higher reps. Notice how the pivot point moves from the knees at the top, to the lower portion of the quads at the bottom.

The way I learned the movement was basically this:

  • I started in march 2010 by doing negatives with partial ROM (I began with a pad but quickly realised the benefits of a bosu ball and switched)
  • When I could do the negative I focused on getting past the turn-around point at the bottom.
  • After this I did low rep sets with sloppy form
  • The way I went from there was focusing on progressing on form, instead of reps. I kept the mentality that 1 good rep is better than 3 bad ones. Yeah, I would push myself, but I would also stop before complete breakdown of form.
  • When I could do reps with good form I started increasing the amount of reps per set.
  • Finally, when I did about 15 strict reps with the bosu ball I switched it out with a pad and maxed out at about 5 good reps, which is where I’m at now.

I kept volume pretty constant and fairly low; only doing 3 - 5 sets per week. When I could do higher reps I was as low as 2 sets per week. I did deadlifts, romanian deadlifts and all sorts of other leg work in addition, so that’s why. If you don’t do weights for lower body you can def. get away with more volume :slight_smile:

Thank you for clarifying! Do you feel like this has had much carryover to other activities?

Week 4 Day 16 Wed Jan 5
16 CB
8 EL
8 CT

Thought this might interest you, it’s from Chris Sommer’s book on gymnastic conditioning: “Building the Gymnastic Body”

“As an interesting aside, a friend of mine, Roumen Gabrovska - the former Bulgarian Women’s National Team Coach from the 1970s to 1980s, once saw a girl do 12 [Nordic Hamstrings] by herself, full range of motion with no assistance from her hands whatsoever. If that is not humbling enough, the Bulgarian Men’s record for repetitions performed with no assistance is 25.”

[quote]rumblefish wrote:
Thank you for clarifying! Do you feel like this has had much carryover to other activities?[/quote]
I don’t do much other activities than lifting and sitting on my ass and studying :stuck_out_tongue: I definitely feel like the nordic hamstring has helped my deadlift a lot though, and it has packed a lot of beef on my hamstrings. The back of my legs used to be really flat compared to the front, but now they look more balanced.

Friday did 12 full assisted reps. Monday did 24 full assisted reps.

[quote]cyberwar wrote:

[quote]rumblefish wrote:
Thank you for clarifying! Do you feel like this has had much carryover to other activities?[/quote]
I don’t do much other activities than lifting and sitting on my ass and studying :stuck_out_tongue: I definitely feel like the nordic hamstring has helped my deadlift a lot though, and it has packed a lot of beef on my hamstrings. The back of my legs used to be really flat compared to the front, but now they look more balanced.
[/quote]

That’s definitely the biggest difference I’m noticing thus far. Hamstrings have started to fill out from their previously flat state. Have yet to really go do any sprinting, gonna keep waiting on that.

[quote]Meteoroid Rage wrote:
Thought this might interest you, it’s from Chris Sommer’s book on gymnastic conditioning: “Building the Gymnastic Body”

“As an interesting aside, a friend of mine, Roumen Gabrovska - the former Bulgarian Women’s National Team Coach from the 1970s to 1980s, once saw a girl do 12 [Nordic Hamstrings] by herself, full range of motion with no assistance from her hands whatsoever. If that is not humbling enough, the Bulgarian Men’s record for repetitions performed with no assistance is 25.” [/quote]

That is insane.

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Wed did 12 full assisted reps and 12 top half eccentrics

So between the Packers in the playoffs and my birthday the last few days have been a shit show. I think it was last Friday I did 24 top half eccentrics. Sunday I did maybe 8 if I remember correctly and yesterday (Tuesday) I did 12. Just focusing on the top half lately 'cause it’s the hardest part now and I feel like I’m getting the most payoff for my time.

Also got a fancy new iPhone recently and have been using one of the free interval timer apps for conditioning workouts. Amazing how just timed beeping can get me to actually spend time doing soft tissue work, mobility exercises and conditioning. If it weren’t for the four day bender I think I’d be feeling great.

Roll Pack.

12 full assisted reps, 12 top half and 12 bottom half on Friday Jan 21

did 8 top half reps on monday. 16 top half and 16 full assisted reps today. definitely getting easier.

32 top half reps yesterday (friday)

16 top half reps monday

16 top half 16 bottom half wednesday

This is the wierdest training log I have ever seen! How long until you can get some weights back in your hands? Also, I think my buddy does single leg GHRs is that next on your list one leg nordic hamstring?

ha it is a weird log! I’m really just using it as a way to keep track of the total number of reps it takes me to get to being able to do a full nordic hamstring curl now (dating it and shit got old). My volume has dropped way off since school started and now I’m lifting/running again so it’s harder to get as many of these in. I can do single leg GHRs on a GHR bench pretty easily, dunno if a single leg nordic curl is ever gonna be possible for someone of my size tho!

Did 20 top halfs yesterday

Rumble, are you still working on this? How’s it coming?

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