For those of you who do reverse hypers, how much weight do you use? Could you post what you work with normally compared to what you normally squat or deadlift? I’m just trying to get an idea of what the ratios should be, and I don’t know anyone else personally who does reverse hypers with any kind of weight.
For me it seems to work out to about less than a quarter of what I can deadlift. The weights can’t get too high because of the extremely long lever arm your legs make.
I may not be representative though, as I am still very weak…
I don’t have a reverse hyper machine at my gym, so I usually just lean my upper body on a GHR-thingie and raise my legs. Problem is, I don’t know how to attach weight to my feet/legs. Dumbbells wont work, they fall off when the legs are perpendicular to the floor. Perhaps some loose rubber bands will work?
I will use from 3 plates per side to 5 plates per side depending what is on the machine and how lazy I am feeling. My normal weight is 4 plates per side.
Best comp squat is 565 and comp dl 500.
Just throw some plates on there and get after it. If its too hard, take a couple off. If its too easy, put more on.
I agree with Mattwray. I have 4 plates on each side (reverse hyper pro). I have read more than one time that the guys at westside just use whatever weight happens to be on it at the time they use it. Every few months I add a little weight and since I have dedicated reverse hyper weights (meaning they never come off) it stays at whatever weight is on it.
I typically do mine at the end of a lower body workout for 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps. If my back has been hurting, I’ll use it whenever because I know it will provide relief. But I feel I don’t use it enough.
There are plenty of articles about using it everyday because of it’s restorative effects. Louie told me that his guys do reverse hypers before squatting to help warm themselves up. I have done this and it does seem to help but I forget to do it all the time, probably because my hyper is in the garage (wouldn’t fit through the door) and the rest of my stuff is in another room.
oops numbers…I don’t compete so I don’t have any official numbers but I DL about 500 and squat about 375. I am built to DL with long arms so I have a crappy bench.
[quote]escot4 wrote:
For those of you who do reverse hypers, how much weight do you use? Could you post what you work with normally compared to what you normally squat or deadlift? I’m just trying to get an idea of what the ratios should be, and I don’t know anyone else personally who does reverse hypers with any kind of weight.[/quote]
In addition to this, what kind of set/rep parameters do you guys use for the Rev Hyper? I just found a gym that has one and wanted some ideas on loading and volume.
[quote]ultimatethor wrote:
In addition to this, what kind of set/rep parameters do you guys use for the Rev Hyper? I just found a gym that has one and wanted some ideas on loading and volume.[/quote]
Don’t worry about the sets and reps. Just hop on and get some work in. Tracking volume, especially on assistance exercises really doesn’t matter a whole lot; just make sure to work hard and do the exercise with a purpose.
Maybe you want to really work your back so you hit several sets with a heavier weight. But another day you’ve trashed your back doing GMs or heavy pulls or squats, so you just wanna hop on and hit some lighter sets to get some blood in there.
Sometimes a few sets will feel good, sometimes you can hit 5-6 sets before you feel you’ve worked your back enough. There is no ideal set/rep scheme; it all depends on how you are feeling on each individual day and what you want to accomplish.
Thanks guys. That’s what I needed to hear. I’m pretty weak, and last time I did reverse hypers was with 110 lbs. total (sets of 10), but I can definitely do more. I’ll start increasing the weight much faster than I have been.
I hadn’t seen anyone at my gym use more than a plate before, but I had a feeling that serious lifters used a lot more.
[quote]stevebc wrote:
I don’t have a reverse hyper machine at my gym, so I usually just lean my upper body on a GHR-thingie and raise my legs. Problem is, I don’t know how to attach weight to my feet/legs. Dumbbells wont work, they fall off when the legs are perpendicular to the floor. Perhaps some loose rubber bands will work?[/quote]I bought some kind of cheap latex bands yesterday, I hope they don’t break 
Gonna try them out today…
i dont have access to one but i would just keep adding plates until you do a max set of 8 or nine reps and figure from there.
I only use it for when I’m starting to feel beat up. I use between 1-3 plates a side and have deadlifted 507 @ 181.
I try and peak the top of the motion.
Matt,
How much momentum do you use? I pull in the high sixes both sumo and conventional and could never really use more than 2 or 3 plates a side for sets of 10.