Glute Ham Raise Sit Up

How to Perform the Glute Ham Raise Sit Up

Set up on a GHD machine with your feet secured under the foot pads and your glutes positioned on or slightly off the seat pad.
Begin in an upright seated position with your arms crossed over your chest or extended overhead.
Lower your torso backward, extending your spine over the back of the pad until your body is roughly parallel to the floor or slightly below.
Allow a controlled stretch through your abdominals and hip flexors at the bottom of the movement.
Explosively contract your abs and hip flexors to bring your torso back up to the starting position.
Touch your hands to your toes or the foot pad at the top if possible for a full contraction.
Control the descent on each rep and avoid bouncing at the bottom.

Going too deep too quickly without building up to it

Start with a smaller range of motion and gradually increase depth as your core strength and flexibility improve.

Relying on momentum instead of muscle contraction

Focus on initiating the upward movement with your abs rather than swinging your arms for momentum.

Hyperextending the lower back excessively

Only extend to a comfortable range — do not force excessive spinal extension, especially if you have lower back issues.

✓Trains the abs through a full range of motion including the stretched position.
✓Builds powerful hip flexor and core strength for athletic performance.
✓Develops the ability to generate force from a stretched position.

●Start with partial range of motion if you are new to this exercise.
●Keep your glutes engaged throughout to protect your lower back.
●This exercise is common in CrossFit — scale the volume gradually to avoid rhabdomyolysis in the abs.

Strength

4-5 sets of 8-10 reps (bodyweight or holding a plate)

Hypertrophy

3-4 sets of 12-15 reps (bodyweight)

Endurance

2-3 sets of 20-25 reps (bodyweight)

Join 2,000,000+ lifters tracking their workouts with Stronger. Available on iOS and Android.