Archive for the ‘Hamstring Exercises’ Category

Working On Your Hamstrings!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

The exercises for the hamstring are usually neglected by a lot of people who don’t pay much attention to it. However, Glute Ham Raises are one of those exercises which will give you the workout of your life. These are some of the muscles which are usually a little feeble and could do some good working out. Here are some ways to do the exercises with some effort.
There are a few ways to do the ham raises. You can use the following gear to do the raises:

  • glute ham machine
  • barbell
  • secure bar

There are many steps that you need to follow for doing this.

Steps to do the ham raises:

Follow the instructions very carefully and you will soon be really fit:

  • Take a bar which can hold your weight down to the ground really firmly. You can also get a gym partner to keep your feet down while you are at it. It should be a really secure gear and about six inches or something like that.
  • You have to do this facing down. Kneel down and have your toes touch the ground. Keep your feet under the bar. The bar has to secure your heels. This exercise is best suited as glute ham raises at home.
  • Go down while keeping yourself at a ninety degree angle. Keep lowering yourself as the exercise progresses.
  • Now go back up slowly. Use your thighs to get back up to a position where you are kneeling again.
  • Always try and use your hands to support yourself in case you fall.

This is how one does natural glute ham raises.

Doing another kind of glute raise:

For some variation, there is another kind of raise that you can do. For that, place your thighs against the padding of the hump. Keep the lower legs between the braces. Put the feet up against the platform. Flex the hips. Keep the weight plate against the upper chest or nape of the neck. Rise up slowly and do that till your upper part of the body are parallel to the direction of the legs. Always keep your hip really straight. Keep lowering your body while doing these weighted glute ham raises. Keep bringing your torso down too by using your hips. Repeat this exercise then.
If you are having problems using so much weight, you can do this without putting so much weight as well until your body is attuned to it.

However, the best way to do this is by doing the exercises without a machine. This will be good for the beginners who have not adjusted to the weight as yet. It is also natural and natural exercises always have better effects than the machine induced ones. Machine exercises might give off a faster effect but the natural ones have a better long standing effect on the body. Thus glute ham raises without machine are always greater!