[quote]B A S T A R D wrote:
I prefer plain old back raises/hyperextensions with lots of added weight for the hamstrings.
I found GHRs to be far too easy after a while and adding weight to them just makes them very awkward rather than more difficult/stimulating.
I think one of those Bret Contreras articles showed that Hyperextensions had one of the highest hamstring recruitment of all exercises, even higher than GHRs.
GHRs are still a great exercise though, just make sure you’re doing them correctly with the pad closer to the hip rather than the knee. Placing the pad near the knee causes too much of the stress to be felt in the backs of the knees & takes the focus off the muscle bellies.[/quote]
Do you think you could find that report. I absolutly love Back extensions feels so great haveing chains on your back and humping a pad until you cant feel anything. Would love to read what Bret has to say on them.
[quote]BIG-GEORDIE wrote:
Thanks for the replies and advice guys. I tried them again tonight, i moved the foot plate a bit closer and placed my knees a tad lower on the pad and it seemed to make them slightly eaiser as i managed a bigger rom tonight, im going to keep plugging away as often as i can untill i can do full reps. My hamstrings are sore today but not as much i thought they would be. Im just pleased to join a gym that has a GHR as all of the gyms in my area apart from this one do not have one. [/quote]
Good to see another Geordie on the boards, where are you training bud?
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Ive just started training at the functional strength institute gym in battle hill, its a awesome gym. Im loving the glute ham machine, i can bang reps out now. Where do you train?
i have seen people do an attachment on their power racks as well. i plan on doing a reverse hyper/GHR attachment for mine this spring. slowly building up the parts for that and other equipment
I was thinking of building one out of wood and attaching it to my garage wall, but I haven’t seen many designs out there. [/quote]
I’ve seen home-built GHRs, rack-mount GHRs, and home GHRs.
We have the CFF GHR at my team’s gym and it’s great. You can to situps and back extensions on it too, unlike the home ghr from Orlando Barbell/EliteFTS. If I had to train exclusively at home, I’d almost certainly buy one. As for right now, I don’t lift at home often enough to justify the expensive and space being taken up.
I was thinking of building one out of wood and attaching it to my garage wall, but I haven’t seen many designs out there. [/quote]
Yeah, I’ve built one for myself. It’s the kind that you fit in a rack, and since my rack is right next to the wall I only build the knee pads, just push my feet against the wall. There’s a crossbar on the back of the rack, but honestly I’ve never really used it, pushing against the wall with my feet seems to be enough.
If you want I can put up a picture of it, but in the meantime a few tips:
The pad usually isn’t a full semicircle.
Split pad. The split only needs to be an inch or two deep, but I strongly recommend it.
Buy additional wood so you can shift the pad as required.
I went with the get rxd unit because I wanted something free standing. Imo definitely worth the money to get a nicely designed ghd. There’s a Dave Tate video somewhere outlining what makes one well designed. I think a lot of crossfitters are driving the demand, but their main use of the unit is for situps.
[quote]B A S T A R D wrote:
I prefer plain old back raises/hyperextensions with lots of added weight for the hamstrings.
I found GHRs to be far too easy after a while and adding weight to them just makes them very awkward rather than more difficult/stimulating.
I think one of those Bret Contreras articles showed that Hyperextensions had one of the highest hamstring recruitment of all exercises, even higher than GHRs.
GHRs are still a great exercise though, just make sure you’re doing them correctly with the pad closer to the hip rather than the knee. Placing the pad near the knee causes too much of the stress to be felt in the backs of the knees & takes the focus off the muscle bellies.[/quote]
Do you think you could find that report. I absolutly love Back extensions feels so great haveing chains on your back and humping a pad until you cant feel anything. Would love to read what Bret has to say on them.[/quote]
I was actually mistaken, weighted back extensions have higher mean hamstring activation but less peak activation. Back extension is 92.5 mean activation & 137 peak activation vs 82.1 & 164 for the GHR.