What’d you like about it? More comfortable? Felt the muscles working better?
Thanks though!
Harder to cheat. Forces your legs straight, while the strap allows you to bend at the knees and reduce the lever arm.
Has it still been successful 3 years later?
Blowing out my ACL gave me a few months to chill out, haha. I get an occasional twinge, but it is less and less frequent each day.
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Some thoughts on reverse hypers:
Stuart McGill, the world’s leading specialist in spinal health and the guy who Duffin and Carroll are getting their information from, has said that the reverse hyper can actually lead to injury due to the repeated spinal flexion which causes degeneration of the intervertebral discs and can lead to herniation. However, due to individual differences in some people’s anatomy, there are those who won’t or are less likely to have any issues from using the reverse hyper. Those are usually the same people who can pull max deadlifts with a rounded back and never get injured. Just something to consider.
I don’t think I have ever agreed with anything from Dr McGill, haha.
Why is that? It seems to me that it’s impossible to really argue against what he is saying since nobody has done anywhere near the number of experiments or collected as much data as him. He didn’t say that the reverse hyper is bad for everyone, which is what some people seem to take away from this, the point is that it can be dangerous for a lot of people so it is a high risk exercise. Apparently there are several lawsuits against chiropractors who used the reverse hyper on their patients and fucked them up even worse. If it works for you then that’s cool, it obviously does work for some people, but prescribing it across the board is simply wrong.
I imagine because his focus is on spinal health and mine is on lifting as much weight as possible.
Maybe the problem is that you don’t know much about McGill. He fixed Brian Carroll’s back, he was totally fucked up after his 1185 (or whatever it was) squat and had several issues including spinal fractures. I don’t follow Brian Carroll so I don’t know exactly what he is doing now, but he is definitely back in action. Blaine Sumner had ongoing issues after herniating discs in his back and even bombed out at the World Games last year as a result. He spent some time working with McGill, as well as Louie Simmons, and squatted an easy 1050 in training the other day. There are plenty of other powerlifters he has worked with. He is not a strength coach or powerlifter, but his methods and ideas are definitely applicable to strength sports.
Only what I have read from him, of which I never seem to be aligned with his thoughts.
From what you are saying it sounds like you don’t like McGill because he has failed to confirm your pre-existing opinions.
I apologize if you feel that way after reading what I have written, because it was not my intent. I do not like or dislike Dr. McGill. I have never met the man. I am saying that my training has pretty much never agreed with what he has written, so it does not surprise me that this has happened once again with the reverse hyper.
There’s no need to apologize. If you look at what he says (beyond what you have already read) he doesn’t condemn nor require and particular exercise or style of training. He talks about “qualifying the athlete”, meaning that some things may be appropriate for some people and certain situations while inappropriate for other. The reverse hyper is a perfect example, he says that there is a high risk for injury and there are other approaches to strengthening and rehabbing the lower back but also doesn’t deny that it has worked well for some people. So you might be training in a fashion that he would not prescribe, but he doesn’t actually oppose it either and the main thing is that it is working for you and not leading to further injury.
Just to give you an example, McGill advises against sit ups and crunches due to the repeated spinal flexion and also because they can cause tight hip flexors which are a common cause of back pain. However, he concedes that spinal flexion exercises such as those are necessary for combat sports because it may be necessary to move in such a way when fighting on the ground with an opponent on top of you. It’s not that the exercise is bad, it’s just high risk and unnecessary for most people but is beneficial to others.
If you are wondering how I know so much about McGill, I bought one of his books after injuring my back and read several articles of his.
Good talk guys.
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Stu Mcgill is at one end of the spectrum on the spinal flexion debate. A quick google of ‘spinal flexion’ and his name is all over the place.
I use Westside’s reverse hyper regularly and like T3h, I get a great low back pump w/o heavy loading. I started using the reverse hyper the first day I walked in the gym 4 years ago and have a solid deadlift today (conventional) I believe to be in part due to religious use of the reverse hyper. I’m not rehabbing a back injury even though I have scoliosis and have suffered 15 years of low back pain that kept me from racing motocross and later mountain biking. Today my back has never felt better.
Based purely on my personal experience and with an understanding is that there is no definitive answer on the flexion issue, I’ll keep doing reverse hypers 2x week.
Mcgill is a great resource but his views are his.
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It seems like you are missing the point too. He doesn’t say that nobody should use the reverse hyper, it’s just a high risk for the general population but obviously works well for some people. It’s hit and miss, you won’t know until you try. Some people who use the reverse hyper will herniate discs deadlifting or squatting and blame that particular lift, but the reverse hyper would have cause degeneration of their discs to the point that one heavy deadlift with a rounded back was enough to cause injury. If you have been using the reverse hyper for years and don’t have back pain or disc issues then there is no reason to worry, but if you have herniated discs or are new to lifting then it’s likely that there are better options.
What flexion issue are you talking about? Loaded flexion definitely can lead to spinal injury, although some people’s spines can tolerate more. As for the reverse hyper, Louie Simmons has mistakenly stated that it does not apply compressive forces to the spine when in fact it does. When your feet swing forward and your back rounds, it expands the space between vertebrae at the back of your spine but compresses the front. There is no load from the top down like in a squat or deadlift, but there is compressive force on the spine (in a flexed position) and also shear force when your back and legs are extended.
I don’t really see what there is to debate here, it looks to me as though anyone who disagrees with McGill does so because they don’t understand his argument. The reverse hyper has helped some people with injuries and back pain but has also caused injuries and back pain. McGill has done plenty of experiments, many with pig spines, on the effects of repeated flexion and the conclusion is that every spine will herniate at some point, it’s just a question of when. Intervertebral discs do regenerate of course, and those with a higher tolerance for spinal flexion who don’t overdo it (such as yourself, it appears) can possibly continue using the reverse hyper for years without issue.
This argument is kind of like saying that such and such person used cocaine every day and was still able to have a successful career and raise a family and had no health issues. Meanwhile there are hundreds of addicts begging, stealing, and prostituting themselves in every major city.
I would strongly suggest spending the money for a nice one from westside/legend fitness. It is a night and day difference in terms of quality. The rouge bargain one is awful.
Also, loading the spine in flexion drastically increases intervertebral shear. The vertebrae are designed to hand compression forces pretty well. Flexion under load is bad 100% of the time.
Our core musculature is designed for the following:
-Fight unnecessary movement
-Fight the force of gravity
-Enforce good postural control and position
That’s about it. None of those involve trunk flexion, unless you are working on anti extension. In which case, you still aren’t moving out of a neutral lordotic posture.
There are a few articles/interviews with McGill on this site, I suggest you guys take a look. This one part sums up our discussion here:
But one thing’s for certain: McGill is the latest victim of the straw man technique. If you’re going to argue with a professor who has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, you better bring your A-game.
Really appreciate your post man. This topic is about 6 years old now and just got bumped, but I ended up buying the Rogue model back in 2014. It’s served me well so far, but I’ve never had anything else to really compare it to.