Got Built?

Glute Ham Raises are among the most effective training modalities available for hamstring work. With no attached weights or moving parts, you would think more gyms would invest in this simple, basic piece of athletic equipment.

However, there are a few pretty major problems with GHRs:

1. They’re hard as hell
2. They train the back of the leg, not the front. For those (curl jockeys) who only train what they can see, hamstring work doesn’t exactly rank very high on the agenda
3. Most people have never heard of them. In fact, my beloved and now defunct Olympic gym HAD one, but sold it when they got tired of patrons asking: “what’s THAT?”

In fact, the only place in the Lower Mainland I’ve seen a GHR was at the Varsity gym up at SFU – The Bog. I still remember looking in at it the first time I realized they HAD one. I gazed through the locked door into that gritty, dusty gym, imbued with the sweat of a thousand men and a light shone down, as if from Heaven itself. I could almost hear the Angels sing as I looked, incredulously, at the wonder before me.

I HAD TO MOUNT IT. But how?

See here’s the thing: the Bog is off-limits to all but Varsity athletes.

So I started fantasizing about chatting up the coach: “Okay, if I can name that weird looking hump over there, will you let me use it? I can even tell you the thing beside it is a reverse hyper bench…”

I did manage to sneak in a few times, but I rarely drive up to campus now that gas costs more than designer water again.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to fake one ever since.

I’ve used a few substitutes – the incline hyper bench for example. And I’ve tried to do the natural GHRs – you know, the ones off the floor… I also tried to do them at the lat pulldown machine, as I had read about on the internet. But both were ridiculously awkward.

Then one day, while training with my buddy Habib at the Marpole gym I tried one more time to find a place to do them. I grabbed a BOSU ball and wandered around, looking for something to hook my feet under. Habib suggested the padded lever on the leg-extension and the product of our unholy union was born:
The Bosu GHR - Look how easy they are!