If you want to build up your glutes and hamstrings, the glute-ham raise is one of the best exercises you can do! It takes a good amount of lower body strength to do properly, and requires a specific piece of equipment.
That can make it hard for some people. Maybe your gym doesn’t have the right equipment.
Maybe it does, but the machine is being used every time you want to use it. If you go to a commercial gym after 5 pm, it’s pretty common for it to be extremely busy.
That’s when most people get off work and have the time to get to the gym. The gym by my house is always packed, so trust me, I get it.
That doesn’t mean there’s no glute ham raise alternative. There are several other exercises you can throw in for a great workout!
That’s what I’m going to cover with you today. After you read this, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from to sub in when you need them!
In This Article:
• What is the Glute Ham Raise?
• What Muscles Does the Glute Ham Raise Work?
• Top 6 Glute Ham Raise Alternatives
• Additional Tips
What is the Glute Ham Raise?
If you’re wondering why it’s called the “glute ham raise,” you’re not alone. I myself at one time didn’t know.
It’s called the glute ham raise because it works your glutes and hamstrings. Using those muscles, you end up raising and lowering your body.
To do this exercise, you need a specific piece of equipment called the “glute ham developer.” It’s a pretty versatile piece of equipment; you can do more than one thing on it, but it was designed for this exercise.
It has a large, rounded thigh pad in front of a platform for your feet. There are also pads that go above and below your lower legs to lock your feet into place.
How to do a Glute Ham Raise
1. Adjust the GHD so that when your feet are locked in, the thigh pad touches right above your knee.
2. After that, lock your feet in place and start upright with your knees bent. Your body should stay in a straight line from your head down to your knees throughout the entire movement.
3. Brace your core and engage your glutes as you slowly lower your body down until your torso is parallel with the floor. This should feel like you’re slowly releasing your body down with your hamstrings.
4. When you reach parallel, squeeze your hamstrings to pull your upper body back to the upright position. If it helps, feel like you’re trying to pull your heels to your butt. Just make sure your hips stay extended the whole time.
5. Repeat for reps.
Let’s talk more about the muscles we’re working in this exercise, and how they work. That way, we can better choose a good glute ham raise alternative.
What Muscles Does the Glute Ham Raise Work?
I already went over most of them, but we’re going to dive into their function a bit more, too.
Glutes
Your glutes are made up of 3 muscles:
• Gluteus maximus
• Gluteus medius
• Gluteus minimus
These muscles all work together to extend your hips during the glute ham raise. In everyday life, they also help to pull your thighs away from your midline and externally rotate them, too.
Hamstrings
Your hamstrings are also made up of 3 muscles:
• Semitendinosus
• Semimembranosus
• Biceps femoris
These muscles primarily work together to force knee flexion. Usually this means pulling your heel to your butt.
In the glute ham raise, they’re pulling your entire upper body back toward your heels. That’s a lot more weight to pull, so they are a bit more difficult.
It’s an amazing exercise for your hamstrings, though!
Erector Spinae
The erector spinae muscle group is also made up of 3 muscles:
• Iliocostalis, most lateral
• Longissimus, the intermediate column
• Spinalis, most medial
These muscles run along both sides of your spine and work to extend it. In the glute ham raise, they isometrically contract to keep your back straight and keep it from rounding forward.
Now that you know more about which muscles are getting worked, let’s dive into the exercises!
Top 6 Glute Ham Raise Alternatives
The glute ham raise primarily works knee flexion, as well as hip and spinal extension. So, a glute ham raise alternative needs to work those same things.
Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is an incredible exercise for your hamstrings, glutes, and erector spinae. It’s a little less knee flexion and more hip extension, but it works those muscles very well.
This might be my favorite glute ham raise alternative. You can really load up some heavy weights over time!
You’ll have to do a traditional deadlift to get to the starting position, which is standing.
How to do Romanian Deadlifts:
1. Walk up to a loaded barbell so that it touches your shins. Squat down and grab the bar with a shoulder-width grip.
2. Pull up on the bar just enough to get tension on it, and pull yourself into a deep squat. Brace your core, pull your shoulders back, and chest out.
3. Your back should remain straight throughout the movement.
4. Press your heels into the ground, pull up on the bar, and use your quads and glutes to stand up. Ideally, you want your knees and hips to extend at the same time.
5. Once standing, the exercise can start. Unlock your knees and bend your hips as you push them back as far as you can.
6. Your knees will have a soft passive bend, but should not push forward during the movement. Keep pushing your hips back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
7. Once you feel that stretch, and the bar is below your knees, squeeze your hamstrings and glutes to stand back up.
8. Repeat for reps.
Nordic Hamstring Curls
This is almost the same movement, which makes it a perfect glute ham raise alternative. The main difference is that you can do this from the ground instead of on a GHD machine.
This requires something heavy to go above your heels, and a pad to go beneath your knees. For these instructions, we’ll use a barbell to lock your feet in.
How to do Nordic Hamstring Curls:
1. Set up a barbell on the ground with a 45-pound plate on each side. Place some weight plates on the ground on either side of each plate to stop it from rolling. It also helps if you have a pad or towel to wrap around the center of the bar for comfort.
2. Place a pad on the ground for your knees, and lock your feet under the barbell. We’ll start with your knees bent and in the upright position.
3. Keeping your body in a straight line from your knees to your head, slowly lower your body toward the ground. Resist gravity by engaging your hamstrings for control.
4. When you reach the ground, use your hamstrings to pull your body back up to the upright position. If it’s too difficult, use your hands to give a little push off the ground for help.
5. Repeat for reps.
Kettlebell Swings
This is a similar movement to the RDL, but it brings an explosive aspect to it. It emphasizes the glutes a little more, but definitely works your hamstrings and erector spinae a great deal.
How to do Kettlebell Swings:
1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and hold a kettlebell with both hands between your legs.
2. Bend your knees slightly and hinge at your hips while keeping your back straight. Hinge until your torso is close to parallel with the ground, and pull your arms back towards your body.
3. From the bottom, keep your back straight as you drive your hips forward to stand up.
4. As you come up, allow your arms to swing the kettlebell up to chest level. The movement of your arms and the kettlebell should be due to the momentum, so keep your arms loose.
5. From the top, allow gravity to pull the kettlebell down as you push your hips back and get back into the bottom position.
6. Repeat for reps.
Reverse Hyperextension
This is an awesome exercise for your glutes, and still targets your hamstrings and erector spinae. It’s a great glute ham raise alternative!
There is a machine specifically made for this exercise if you want to add resistance. It has a flat top meant to hold your torso with handles to hang onto.
It also has straps that your feet go under so you can pull the weight up. If you don’t have one of those machines, you can always hang off a bench and lift your legs.
For these instructions, we’ll do them for the machine.
How to do Reverse Hyperextensions:
1. First, add whatever amount of resistance you’d like. Then step into the foot straps, lean over the pad, and grab the handles. Your hips will be bent at about a 90-degree angle, with the pad right at the edge of your hips.
2. Brace your core and pull your legs back against the straps to lift the weight until your body forms a straight line. You should really feel your glutes working as you do this.
3. Pause at the top and squeeze your glutes for a second. Then slowly lower back to the starting position.
4. Repeat for reps.
Foot Elevated Glute Bridge
This is a great exercise that mainly targets your glutes and hamstrings. Your erector spinae and core will also get some work.
You can do this with your bodyweight, but you should be able to use a dumbbell on your hips. You’d be surprised how strong your glutes are!
How to do Foot Elevated Glute Bridges:
1. Grab a dumbbell and set it next to a bench. Lie down facing the bench, and put your heels up on it.
2. Your knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle. Grab the dumbbell and place it on top of your hips.
3. Brace your core, and press your heels down into the bench as you squeeze your glutes. Your hips will lift up off the ground.
4. Be sure not to over-arch your back, and your hips should be fully extended at the top.
5. Squeeze your glutes hard at the top for a second, then slowly lower back to the ground.
6. Repeat for reps.
Band Pull Throughs
This is another variation similar to the RDL, but it uses a band. The great thing about resistance bands is that the more they stretch, the higher the resistance gets.
All you need is a heavy resistance band and a pole to tie it to.
How to do Band Pull Throughs:
1. Grab a resistance band and wrap it around the backside of a pole at roughly knee height. Pull one end through the other and pull it tight.
2. Face away from the pole, and reach through your legs to grab the band with both hands. Take a step away from the pole to add some tension to the band when fully bent over.
3. Start with your hips bent and a slight bend in your knees. Your torso should be near parallel to the ground. This is the starting position.
4. Squeeze your hamstrings and glutes to stand up straight while pulling the band further from the pole.
5. Squeeze your glutes hard for a second, then slowly return to the starting position.
6. Repeat for reps.
Additional Tips
If your goal is to be as athletic as possible and build up the muscle in your lower body, these are all AWESOME exercises to add to your workouts! Glute ham raises are great too, but you can sub these in when you need to.
To see the best results, you not only need great exercises, but you need these things too:
• Progressive workouts over time
• Optimal recovery
• Proper nutrition
Sounds obvious to some, but not everyone understands exercise science on that level. It takes a lot of knowledge to do everything right.
For instance, our bodies adapt to our training. So we can’t keep doing the same glute ham raise alternative exercises in the same way over and over.
Our bodies just get used to them. When we see results, that’s our body adapting to our training. We have to continuously challenge our bodies in new ways to force new adaptations. That could be with new exercises, using more weight, doing more sets, etc.
It’s important to note that there are several other muscles in your legs you need to be working too. Trust me, you don’t want to only work on the posterior chain like you do with these exercises!
We also have to factor recovery and nutrition in. We don’t build muscle in the gym. In fact, we do the opposite.
We break down our muscles when we work out. We rebuild them bigger and stronger during recovery.
So that means we need plenty of sleep, water, and proper rest between workouts. Technically, this also includes nutrition.
Our muscles are made of protein. So we’ll need to make sure that every day we get enough of it.
When it comes to building muscle, we also need enough calories. It takes energy for our bodies to create new muscle tissue.
If you also want to lose body fat, then you’re going to really have to dial in your nutrition. You have to eat more calories than you burn to build muscle effectively.
… But you have to eat fewer calories than you burn in order to lose body fat. You can still build some muscle in a calorie deficit, but it can’t be too big of one.
In either case, it’s a good idea to work with an expert who understands exercise science and nutrition on a deeper level. It can get pretty expensive, though.
Working with a nutrition coach might cost you a couple of hundred dollars a month on the low end. A good personal trainer might charge you $100 per hour.
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