From what I’ve seen in videos and pictures of athletes and bodybuilders, I don’t see anyone going balls to the wall on the glute-ham raise or the 45’ hyper. Some high-ranked high school football player whose bigger and faster than me on Joe DeFranco’s website is praised for doing Glute-Ham raises with some mini-bands on his back. Johnnie Jackson does Glute-Ham raises while holding a 100 pound plate across his chest. There some other examples I’ve seen and heard of, but that’s pretty much it.
What I’m getting at is even though using mini-bands or a 100 pound plate to do the glute-ham raise sounds impressive, it’s a far cry away from what these guys are capable of.
So how hard do you guys work on the glute-ham raise bench? Are you holding the heaviest dumbbell you can handle behind your head and cranking out 8-12 reps of hell? Or are you all taking it easy? Should I be doing the same?
I have a 45 degree hyper bench and I routinely go as heavy as I can while keeping the reps between 8-12. Usually I do them one leg at a time though, so as to keep the majority of the stress on the glutes and hamstrings and off of the spinal erectors.
So far, the best I’ve done is somehwere around 3 x 8 per leg with a 65 lb barbell on my shoulders. Not great, but I really haven’t been using it that long.
The reason is because they are movements largely predicated on form and at times is wise to use strict form while at times you can go a little looser and get more benefit. Also the bench you are doing them on makes a big difference. You can use a properly made GHR and get maybe four or five reps and then go hop on an imitation piece of crap and rep out 15 with no problem.
Also, some people may get a lot out of one assistance exercise while others might not see that much benefit. But most people will get something out of a “bigger” movement like a squat.
[quote]RJ24 wrote:
I have a 45 degree hyper bench and I routinely go as heavy as I can while keeping the reps between 8-12. Usually I do them one leg at a time though, so as to keep the majority of the stress on the glutes and hamstrings and off of the spinal erectors.
So far, the best I’ve done is somehwere around 3 x 8 per leg with a 65 lb barbell on my shoulders. Not great, but I really haven’t been using it that long. [/quote]
[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
Work as hard as you want to work on it. Who cares about someone else’s effort? Want to go to failure? Then go to failure.[/quote]
I’ve worked very hard on the 45 degree hyper at one point. I would hold plates behind or at the my head rather than to my chest(to worsen leverage substantially). Best was a 45lb plate held at the top of the head for sets of 8.
Obviously if you are stronger you might need to hold a bar on the back… or you could hold a dumbell at the top of the head(be CAREFUL!)
It really helped increase my power snatch. At least 20lbs.
Like Doug Adams said, it all depends on what you are after. I preferred to use short rests, sometimes drop sets, etc to avoid having to use very heavy weights.