[delldell]

delldell on August 20, 2003 at 11:32 pm #8534

I've read some info on reverse hypers and they sound like a really important exercise for my goals. The problem is I don't have access to a machine and they seem really easy unresisted. Do you have any suggestions on how to do them resisted, or if I should do a portion of them really slow, etc.
Also on GHR, I don't have a GHR bench so I wanted to know if I should do them with my feet hooked on the bar on the bottom of a smith machine, or someone should hold my legs down, or what?
Any other hamstring & glute exercise recommendations other than RDLs and squats?

[matt]

matt on August 21, 2003 at 12:07 am #21762

Reverse hypers are an excellent exercise for the posterior chain, but it's not the end of the world if you can't do them. One way I used to do them (before I had access to the real machine) is to use the ankle strap on a low pulley. Hook the strap around one leg and stand on the other leg. Then bend over till your torso is parallel with the ground. Next keep your knee straight and bring your leg up until it is parallel with the ground. I hope I explained that good enough. It's really easier than I made it sound. Another way is to use a tall plyo box. Lay across the box and find way to put wieght around your ankles. I used to wrap log chains around my ankles until it got to be to much of a pain.
Also, good mornings are an excellent exercise for the posterior chain as well. I have all of my athletes do them.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on August 21, 2003 at 2:02 am #21763

[i]Originally posted by delldell[/i]
Any other hamstring & glute exercise recommendations other than RDLs and squats?

In addition to Matt's suggestions you could also do Glute-Ham Raises done the following way: strict back / hip extension and when your back is parallel to the ground flex your knees so that you're essentially doing a leg curl. This is one of the few exercises that will work the hamstring as both a hip extensor and leg flexor. When this gets too easy you could hold a weight or do them one leg at a time.

Straight leg deadlifts, lunge variants, and any pressing exercise where their is extreme hip flexion and knee flexion at the lowest point will also work the hamstring muscle group pretty well.

ELITETRACK Founder

[delldell]

delldell on August 21, 2003 at 4:14 am #21764

What would I do those GHR's on? Lunges/split squats were definitely going to be done. Do any of you all have experience with pull-throughs? It's used by WSB as an assistance exercise so I was thinking of doing those sometimes.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on August 21, 2003 at 6:34 am #21765

You could do GHR's on a GHR machine or old Roman Chair.

I've done pull throughs and think they're a nice exercise. Basically just a variant of an RDL / SLDL.

ELITETRACK Founder

[delldell]

delldell on August 21, 2003 at 8:53 pm #21766

I don't think I have a GHR machine. I've never even seen anything other than GHR benches. I don't know what you mean with the Roman chair. I used those for leg raises before, but I don't see how you could do GHR's. So if I'm doing RDLs, are pull-throughs even necessary. I'm going to do 3 weeks each of RDL & GM and I'm looking for an auxiliary exercise so I don't want to be redundant. It'd be so simple if they had a reverse hyper instead of all these other crappy machines.

[matt]

matt on August 21, 2003 at 10:09 pm #21767

I would not do Pullthroughs and RDL's. Choose one or the other. In a normal leg workout I have found that 1 Oly. lift, 1 squating movement, 1 single leg movement, and some form of hip extension is sufficient.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on August 22, 2003 at 9:41 pm #21768

Nice suggestions Matt. I too don't think you'd need to do both RDLs and pull-throughs, especially in the same session. They would however be good to alternate as hip extension exercises for different mesos or even micros.

ELITETRACK Founder

[delldell]

delldell on August 25, 2003 at 10:24 am #21769

So what should I do as auxiliary after 3×5 RDL? 2 sets of 8 of ?

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on August 25, 2003 at 1:13 pm #21770

I think you could go as high as 2-3 x 10 (ligher) and as low as 4-5 x 4 (heavy) and do everything in between.

ELITETRACK Founder

[delldell]

delldell on August 25, 2003 at 9:52 pm #21771

Are you talking about rep ranges for RDL's? I was asking about another auxiliary.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on August 26, 2003 at 10:41 am #21772

Sorry about that…..I was talking about rep ranges for RDLs. When you asked this question:

"So what should I do as auxiliary after 3×5 RDL? 2 sets of 8 of ?"

Do you mean you want to do another auxillary exercise after RDLs in the same workout. If this is the case, you could do a unilateral exercise like step-ups.

ELITETRACK Founder

[delldell]

delldell on August 26, 2003 at 10:04 pm #21773

hmm well I was doing step-ups as a squatting exercise on wednesday on your oly/squat/press routine. So on friday I was doing RDLs and I don't know what for auxiliary. I might be able to set up GHRs, but should I just do 1-leg curls–I know not the best of choices.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on August 27, 2003 at 2:36 am #21774

In that case, I don't really think you need to do another assistance exercise. RDLs should be enough if you're doing an Olympic movement and a squating movement. If you felt like you had to do another exercise single leg leg curls would be ok. I think they're only a big problem exercise if you were to do a lot of them or if you used them as your primary posterior chain exercise. GHRs would be better though especially at the end of a workout because they unload the back and help to decompress the spine.

ELITETRACK Founder