Jilly, I am having some trouble with pm’s, as it seems to be the case that I can read yours but am not able to reply. One of the forum moderators is helping me to figure out what the issue is, but I promise to pm you as soon as the issue is resolved.
[quote]swivel wrote:
Yo Momma wrote:
I got this GHR from ExRx. Looks just about perfect to me.
to me that’s more like a hyper than ghr.
the hyper-part is when he’s bent @ the waist- no glute/ham effort there- and then it’s like his glutes and hams are engaged for a splitsecond when he’s extended but he’s got the knee-pad so low his knees drop and shorten the lever, effectively lightening the load, as he goes up. what’s the point of increasing load (hands behind the kneck) if you’re just going to decrease it by allowing the fulcrum to slide ?
[/quote]
Actually, the guy in the exrx video is doing a true glute-ham raise vs. the ones in the video above which I tend to think of as “natural” GHRs. When the knees drop (which is the proper form when using that bench) what you are doing is drive your hips forward and actually using your glutes. Having done both naturals and on a GHR bench, it’s completely different.
I had some of the same points of confusion, but I had Cressey show it to me once and according to him (and Tate), your knees do drop to a degree because otherwise, you are just not going to be engaging your glutes properly.
Jilly, I think your form is actually quite good and I’m impressed with your ingenuity in that set up!
Kuz
No worries here, Bushy! 
[quote]Jillybop wrote:
It’s taken me a while, but I finally figured out a way to do glute ham raises in my home gym using my oval ball, decline ab bench and iron woody band.
GHRs are such a great exercise I really wanted to find a way to include them, but other variations hurt my knees too much.
Just thought I’d post the pics and video in case it helps someone else.
I had to add the wooden board because my feet didn’t quite reach the wall behind me, but someone with longer legs might not need it. Before I thought to use the band around the ball, I had trouble with the ball slipping out from under me.
[/quote]
Hi Jillybop!
Awesome post and congrats on the great job building your own GHR! That takes some amazing creativity.
maybe you should sell that set up on some TV infomercial?
I would love for you to post the pics and the video over at MWA.
I definitely agree that GHR are a fantastic exercise. Helped me tremendously with the glute-ham tie-in area.
Thanks Jillybop!
Olesya
[quote]Olesya Novik wrote:
I definitely agree that GHR are a fantastic exercise. Helped me tremendously with the glute-ham tie-in area.
[/quote]
Olesya,
Out of curiosity - Were you doing them on an actual GHR bench or doing them from the floor with your ankles locked into place? The reason I ask is that I do the latter and I feel like I fry my hamstrings, but have a very difficult time getting any glute activation from that movement. When I did the GHRs on an actual GHR bench, it all came together beautifully… just not from the floor.
Thanks in advance.
Kevin
[quote]Kuz wrote:
Olesya Novik wrote:
I definitely agree that GHR are a fantastic exercise. Helped me tremendously with the glute-ham tie-in area.
Olesya,
Out of curiosity - Were you doing them on an actual GHR bench or doing them from the floor with your ankles locked into place? The reason I ask is that I do the latter and I feel like I fry my hamstrings, but have a very difficult time getting any glute activation from that movement. When I did the GHRs on an actual GHR bench, it all came together beautifully… just not from the floor.
Thanks in advance.
Kevin[/quote]
At first I was doing a modified version on the floor on my knees with someone holding my ankles and rolling out the oval ball that Jillybop has in the picture.
Unforunately the gym I go to does not have a GHR machine. I modified an ab bench to perform the movement and find this to even be superior to the GHR machines I have used.
As soon as I can find a pic I will post it up.
[quote]Kuz wrote:
Actually, the guy in the exrx video is doing a true glute-ham raise vs. the ones in the video above which I tend to think of as “natural” GHRs. When the knees drop (which is the proper form when using that bench) what you are doing is drive your hips forward and actually using your glutes. Having done both naturals and on a GHR bench, it’s completely different.
I had some of the same points of confusion, but I had Cressey show it to me once and according to him (and Tate), your knees do drop to a degree because otherwise, you are just not going to be engaging your glutes properly.
Kuz[/quote]
ok now i’m confused …the knees are going to bend, that’s given…isn’t that enough to activate the glutes ? shouldn’t they start slightly bent and progress to a more acute bend rather than straight to a slight bend ? shouldn’t the exrx guy either raise his feet or lower the pad or probably both ? if i set the machine up that way i wouldn’t feel a thing.
[quote]swivel wrote:
Kuz wrote:
Actually, the guy in the exrx video is doing a true glute-ham raise vs. the ones in the video above which I tend to think of as “natural” GHRs. When the knees drop (which is the proper form when using that bench) what you are doing is drive your hips forward and actually using your glutes. Having done both naturals and on a GHR bench, it’s completely different.
I had some of the same points of confusion, but I had Cressey show it to me once and according to him (and Tate), your knees do drop to a degree because otherwise, you are just not going to be engaging your glutes properly.
Kuz
ok now i’m confused …the knees are going to bend, that’s given…isn’t that enough to activate the glutes ? shouldn’t they start slightly bent and progress to a more acute bend rather than straight to a slight bend ? shouldn’t the exrx guy either raise his feet or lower the pad or probably both ? if i set the machine up that way i wouldn’t feel a thing.[/quote]
It’s entirely possible I did a horrible job of explaining myself. lol
Maybe I need to go back and look at the exrx video again, but I was just thinking about the fact that the knees do tend to dip a bit when doing a GHR on an actual GHR bench. If they dipped a lot, I agree - you would not feel a damn thing.
If you look at Wendler in these photos, you can tell his knees do bend and slide down the pad a little bit in comparing the before and after photos:
http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=33904&tid=105
I am going to e-mail Cressey and see if he can get in here to weigh in a bit…
[quote]Kuz wrote:
It’s entirely possible I did a horrible job of explaining myself. lol
Maybe I need to go back and look at the exrx video again, but I was just thinking about the fact that the knees do tend to dip a bit when doing a GHR on an actual GHR bench. If they dipped a lot, I agree - you would not feel a damn thing.
If you look at Wendler in these photos, you can tell his knees do bend and slide down the pad a little bit in comparing the before and after photos:
http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=33904&tid=105
I am going to e-mail Cressey and see if he can get in here to weigh in a bit…[/quote]
it’s also entirely possible that i’m a pin-head…seriously my head is about to explode trying to comprehend the angles and the movement in the videos without having a machine right here…ultimately the proof is in the pudding; there’s no mistaking it when you feel it working. Cressey’s 2 cents would be awesome.
Jilly, I’m still having no luck sending pm’s(although I am able to read them), but if you’d still like to discuss the GHR and reverse hyper, drop me a pm and let me know if you have an e-mail that I may contact you through or some other acceptable form of communication.
And my humblest apology for not being able to shoot you a pm.
Adding a little more from over at elitefts:
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/pumping_the_posterior.htm
Here is Dave’s exact description:
“To do a GHR, you’ll start with your body in a horizontal position on the bench with your toes pushed into the toe plate. Your knees will be set two inches behind the pad and your back will be rounded with your chin tucked. You then push your knees into the pad and curl your body up with your hamstrings while keeping the back rounded. As you approach the top position, squeeze your glutes to finish in a vertical position.”
I think the pushing of the knees into the pad is the piece that makes a big difference (for me at least) in glute activation on the movement. You cannot get that when doing them from the floor.
I’m not a fan of rounding in anything, but I do agree completely with the idea that you have to get your hips through at the top to use your glutes; terminal hip extension/posterior pelvic tilt is where they’re most active.
[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
I’m not a fan of rounding in anything, but I do agree completely with the idea that you have to get your hips through at the top to use your glutes; terminal hip extension/posterior pelvic tilt is where they’re most active.
www.EricCressey.com[/quote]
Very cool - thanks Eric. So it sounds like your knees might drop a bit, but not overly so and it might just be a bit of side effect to that hip drive.