Why I don’t use the Glute-Ham Raise

by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS

Working in the collegiate athletic setting, glute-ham raises are a staple in the weight room.  I always find it interesting that everywhere that I travel to teach at clinics, universities, Crossfit boxes, performance facilities and health clubs, I rarely find rows of glute-ham machines in any facility that isn’t a collegiate strength and conditioning facility.  Many facilities have one or two of them tucked in a corner, but just about every large college strength facility has a row or two of them in a very prominent place.  I’m not exactly sure why there is such a love affair with them in the collegiate setting and conversely such a non-love affair in the rest of the world that treats and trains the human body.

I acknowledge that many of my college strength coach friends will disagree with me when I say this, but I don’t like or use the glute-ham raise, even though I’m in the college setting.  I don’t use them with my injured or healthy athletes and when I was serving as a strength coach and had them in my weight room, they were the first things to get moved out (along with the hip sled).

Before we jump into the reasons why, let’s talk about the role of the hamstring-glute complex for a minute.

The hamstrings are a 2 joint muscle, originating on the pelvis and inserting on the tibia.  Because of it’s length and origin/insertion, it can both flex the knee and extend the hip.  The natural tendency is to train the hamstrings as a knee flexor and a hip extensor.  The problem with that philosophy is that the primary role of the hamstring during athletic movement is to actually decelerate the lower leg as it contracts eccentrically during gait.  Thus, if we train the hamstrings in knee flexion, it should occur eccentrically to replicate the deceleration of the lower leg.

The hamstrings also have the ability to extend the hip, but they aren’t designed to.  They are designed to assist the glutes in this effort and act as a stabilizer and synergistic muscle in hip extension.  We must keep in mind that the glutes are the primary hip extenders in an optimized movement pattern.

Extend the hips with the glutes.

Decelerate the lower leg with the hamstrings.

There are a lot of variations of the glute-ham raise.  Most commonly, athletes start in the upright position with their feet locked in and knees bent to 90 degrees.  They eccentrically lower themselves down until their legs are straight.  At that point, they flex at the waist until their trunk is bent to 90 degrees at the waist.  Then they concentrically extend the hip until they are back to neutral and then flex the knees, pulling them back to the starting position.

Here are the reasons that I’m not a huge fan of this movement:

• It’s incredibly difficult for a lot of athletes (especially young ones) to do a glute-ham raise correctively and effectively.  I can appreciate the eccentric nature of the beginning of the movement, because the hamstrings are supposed to contract eccentrically while running.  The problem is that most people can’t control the movement well enough to lower themselves under control.  They start off well, but as their lever arm becomes longer, they lose control and accelerate towards the floor.  This can be helped with spotters and/or larger pads on the glute-ham machine, but that isn’t always a good or easy option.  Also, what many athletes do on the way back up is to use their hip extension portion of the movement to create enough momentum to get them past the weak spot in the strength curve (legs straight).  I prefer to see my athletes and patients control movements efficiently throughout the entire range of motion and that just isn’t possible for most people that I work with.
• Because of the way we use the hamstrings in running, I don’t care for the portion of the raise that requires knee flexion and extension.  Many of the same people that would never think to use a lying leg curl machine because they “aren’t functional” have rows of glute-ham machines in their weight room.  What’s the difference between the two?  They are both promoting knee flexion.  The only difference is which end is fixed, the foot or the trunk?  I would define both as open chain movements, so is their any real “functional” difference between the glute-ham raise and a lying leg curl for knee flexion?  And, if we can agree that they aren’t that much different and we want to train knee flexion, I can make the argument that a machine may better because I can vary the load to fit the needs of the client more efficiently to adjust for strength, endurance, and tempo.
• When we look at the hip extension portion of the movement, I don’t mind it nearly as much because it does promote hip flexion, much in the same manner as a good morning or RDL.  But, if I have to choose between a standing hip extension movement where I can teach my clients to feel and “root” into the ground with their feet and also promote trunk posture, shoulder packing and grip strength under a load, I will go for that instead of an open chain glute-ham raise.
  

  

What do I use to train the posterior chain?

• Romanian Deadlift (RDL):  I use RDLs a ton with lots of variations.  I train them heavy, light, with bands, without bands, single leg, double leg, you name it.  It strengthens the hamstrings eccentrically while teaching hip extension through the glutes.
• Good Mornings:  Again, mix it up.  Challenge trunk and shoulder stability under load.  Use different implements like sandbags, kettlebells, and so on.  Make it interesting.  Good mornings offer the same advantages of the RDL with a postural variation.
• Sleds:  Pushing sleds can be a great functional variation of a leg press that can be used to teach hip extension.

Overall, I don’t hate the glute-ham raise or people who love to train with it.  I just don’t think it makes as much sense to use it as a lot of other people do, so I choose not to perform it with my patients and clients.  If you do, just keep it safe, attainable, and controllable.