Glute-Ham Raise
Move · Resistance Training · Movement, Typed Supps
Your hamstrings have to bend the knee and hold the hip straight at the same time, which is why almost nobody can do one at first.
Stage by stage
- Set-up (Both hamstring joints loaded): Anchored ankles and extended hips force the hamstrings to produce knee flexion torque while holding hip extension against a long torso lever.
- Lowering (High-force eccentric contraction): The resistance moment arm grows as the torso approaches horizontal, which is why this half is achievable and why it causes marked soreness.
- Coming back up (Active insufficiency caps force): A biarticular muscle cannot shorten fully at both joints at once, so partial ranges and assisted reps are a mechanical constraint rather than weakness.
- Months later (Eccentric knee flexor strength): Control of fast eccentric loading improves; the strongest injury-reduction evidence is for the Nordic curl, with the GHR sharing its mechanism.
Muscles trained
- Primary: hamstrings
- Secondary: abs, glutes, lower back
Intensity
5 METs (Resistance (weight) training, squats, slow or explosive effort).
Time to effect
- Weeks: Most beginners can only manage a partial range at first — the eccentric (lowering) portion is usually much stronger than the concentric pull back up.
- Months: Full-range strength closes that gap considerably, and the hamstrings' ability to control fast eccentric loading — relevant to sprinting and change-of-direction sports — improves alongside it.
Related supplements
Common myth
"Leg curls and glute-ham raises train the hamstrings the same way." In reality: A leg curl only trains knee flexion; the glute-ham raise also demands hip extension throughout, which is why it is widely used in sprint programs where hamstring injuries usually happen near the hip.
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