Glute-Ham Raise

What the glute-ham raise actually trains

A glute-ham raise is a bodyweight posterior chain exercise performed on a dedicated bench, where your feet are anchored and your thighs rest on a pad, and you lower your torso and then pull yourself back up by bending the knees.

It is the one common gym exercise that trains both hamstring jobs in a single rep. The descent and the first part of the rise are hip extension, driven by the glutes and the hamstrings. The second part of the rise is knee flexion, driven by the hamstrings alone. That combination is unusual and it is the whole argument for the exercise.

Bourne and colleagues found that exercise selection changes which hamstring muscles work hardest, with knee dominant exercises biasing semitendinosus and hip dominant exercises biasing biceps femoris long head. Most programmes cover that with two exercises; this one gets closer to doing it in a single movement.

The erector spinae work hard as well, holding the spine in position as the torso descends, and the calves contribute through the gastrocnemius at the knee.

Its second useful property is that it is scalable in a way the Nordic curl is not. The pad supports your hips, the hip extension phase gives you momentum into the knee flexion phase, and you can hold a plate once bodyweight is easy. That makes it programmable rather than a one rep party trick.

The costs are honest ones. It needs a specific bench that many gyms do not have, and it is much harder than it looks the first time.

Setting up and executing

Set the foot plate so the pad sits just below your hip crease. Too high and your hips cannot flex; too low and you will slide forward all set.

Place your feet flat against the plate with the heels anchored under the rollers, and lie face down with your thighs on the pad.

Cross the arms over the chest, or hold them behind your head if you want it harder.

Start with your body straight from knees to shoulders. Lower by letting the hips extend, continuing until your body is straight and horizontal or slightly below.

Reverse by squeezing the glutes to straighten the hips, then bend the knees and pull your torso up with the hamstrings. That transition is the hard part and it is where the exercise earns its name.

Finish upright without arching the lower back, and lower again under control.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Pad set in the wrong place ruins the movement before it starts. The pad is your fulcrum, and a couple of centimetres in either direction changes which part of the range you can access. Just below the hip crease, every time.

Folding at the hips on the way up is the fault that turns a glute-ham raise into a back extension with extra steps. If you get upright by bending at the waist and swinging, the knee flexion never happened. Keep the line from knees to shoulders and let the knees do the second half.

Hyperextending the lower back at the top loads the lumbar spine in extension for no benefit. Cholewicki and colleagues' work on spinal loading during heavy lifting is a reminder that the spine tolerates load best in neutral, and there is nothing to gain from arching past straight here.

Dropping through the descent skips most of the value. Roig and colleagues found eccentric training produced greater strength gains than concentric, and the lowering phase is where you are strongest and where the tension is highest.

And adding weight before you control bodyweight is the impatient error. A plate on the chest magnifies every gap in the movement, especially at the transition.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

Moderate reps, moderate volume, generous rest.

For muscle gain, three sets of six to twelve with two minutes rest. For strength, four sets of four to eight with three minutes, adding a plate once bodyweight reps are clean. In a fat loss phase, three sets of eight to fifteen with ninety seconds.

If you cannot complete a rep, that is the normal starting point rather than a failure. Use a band looped around your chest and anchored in front of you, or a partner's hand, and remove the help gradually. Alternatively perform only the descent, controlling it for four or five seconds, and climb back up with your hands.

Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable growth to going all the way, which is convenient here because failure means being stuck horizontal.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, though the eccentric demand means this exercise buys fewer weekly sets than a machine curl does.

Where it fits in your split

After the squatting or hinging in a lower body session.

On push, pull and legs it goes on legs day. On a bro split it comes second or third on hamstring or leg day. On an upper and lower split, once a week paired with a hinge. On a full body programme it is a good single choice when hamstring time is limited, since it covers both functions. On a bodyweight programme it is the main posterior chain movement available.

The exercise sits neatly between two others. It is more scalable and more complete than a Nordic curl, and less loadable and less long length focused than a seated machine curl.

That suggests a straightforward structure. Use a hinge for heavy hip extension, a seated curl for loadable knee flexion at long muscle lengths, and a glute-ham raise for the combined eccentric work, spread across a week rather than crammed into one session.

Avoid scheduling it immediately before heavy squatting or sprinting, since the eccentric demand produces meaningful soreness and short term strength loss. Once or twice a week suits most people.

Variations worth knowing

The assisted glute-ham raise uses a band anchored in front of you or a partner's hand on the chest, and is the correct starting point for most people rather than an admission of weakness.

The weighted version, with a plate held to the chest, is the natural progression once bodyweight reps are clean, and holding the plate overhead extends the lever further still.

A back extension on the same bench, with the knees kept straight, isolates the hip extension half and is a useful lighter alternative.

The Nordic hamstring curl removes the pad and the hip support entirely, which makes it far harder and almost purely eccentric.

The reverse hyperextension fixes the torso and moves the legs instead, training hip extension with less spinal loading.

And the seated leg curl covers knee flexion at long hamstring lengths with proper progressive loading, which is the one thing this exercise cannot give you.

What the evidence says

Bourne and colleagues examined hamstring activation across exercises and found knee dominant and hip dominant movements load different parts of the group, which is the case for an exercise combining both in one rep.

Maeo and colleagues found greater hamstring hypertrophy after training at long muscle lengths, which is the honest limitation here: the hip is extending as you rise, so the hamstrings are shortening rather than lengthening at the knee flexion phase.

Roig and colleagues reviewed eccentric versus concentric training and found greater strength gains from eccentric work, supporting the emphasis on controlling the descent.

Schoenfeld and colleagues compared concentric and eccentric actions for hypertrophy and found eccentric work at least as effective, which reinforces the same point for size.

Cholewicki and colleagues studied lumbar spine loading during heavy lifting and found the demands rise sharply with spinal position, which supports finishing each rep straight rather than arched.

Schoenfeld and colleagues on weekly volume and Refalo and colleagues on proximity to failure supply the programming, with the eccentric cost meaning fewer weekly sets here than on a machine.

Common questions

I cannot do a single rep. Is that normal?

Completely. The glute-ham raise is far harder than it looks and being strong at squats predicts very little about it. Start with band assistance or a partner's hand, or perform slow descents only and push back up with your hands. Most people need several weeks before an unassisted rep appears.

How is this different from a Nordic curl?

The bench supports your hips, which lets you use hip extension to start the movement and makes the knee flexion phase achievable. That makes it easier to complete, easier to progress and easier to load with a plate. A Nordic removes all of that and is almost purely an eccentric exercise. If you have the bench, this is the more programmable of the two.

Should I feel this in my lower back?

Some erector spinae work is expected, since they hold your spine in position through the descent. If your lower back is the limiting factor rather than your hamstrings, you are probably arching at the top or folding at the hips on the way up. Keep the body straight and finish neutral rather than extended.

Do I still need leg curls?

Yes, if hamstring size is the goal. The hip extends as you rise here, so the hamstrings are shortening at both ends through part of the range, and Maeo and colleagues found training at long muscle lengths produces more growth. A seated curl covers that position and lets you add weight in small increments.

How do I make it harder once bodyweight is easy?

Move your hands from your chest to behind your head, then hold a plate to your chest, then hold the plate overhead. Slowing the descent to five seconds also works and costs nothing. Adding sets is the last resort, since the eccentric demand accumulates quickly.