Key Takeaways

– The kettlebell goblet squat is often used to teach good squat technique, as it helps you to keep an upright torso and sit back with your hips.

– The goblet squat trains the core and upper back in addition to the lower body.

– If you have trouble doing the kettlebell goblet squat, a landmine squat could be a more effective alternative. Adding a curl at the bottom of the movement, or doing it as more of a lunge pattern at a 45-degree angle may help too.

We’ll start by showing you how to execute the kettlebell goblet squat with great form, tell you all the muscles it works and how, and then provide some alternative exercises you can use to become a sound and strong squatter.

Let the game begin!

How To Perform The Kettlebell Goblet Squat

(See 02:00 in the video.)

Step 1. Hold a kettlebell in front of your chest by the sides of its handle. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think: “proud chest”), and tuck your elbows in close to the bell—try to get your forearms as vertical as you can. Stand with your feet between hip- and shoulder-width apart, and turn your toes out a bit—up to 30 degrees if you need to.

Step 2. Tuck your tailbone and draw your ribs down so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core. Actively twist your feet into the floor, but don’t let them move. Think of your legs as screwdrivers, or that you’re standing on grass and trying to twist it up beneath you. You should feel the arches in your feet rise and your glutes tighten, creating tension in the lower body.

Step 3. Keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis, push your hips back and squat down, as if sitting down into a chair. Squat as low as you can while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned. Push your knees apart as you descend. You should feel most of your weight on your heels to mid-foot area. If you feel your lower back beginning to round, stop there, and come back up. Keep your torso as vertical as possible—you shouldn’t have to lean forward or work extra hard to hold the bell upright. Avoid bending or twisting to either side.

Step 4. Drive through your feet as you extend your hips and knees to come up.

Benefits of the Kettlebell Goblet Squat

(See 01:00 in the video above.)

First and foremost, the goblet squat is an excellent teaching tool for learning the classic squatting movement pattern correctly. When most people begin squatting, whether with their bodyweight or a barbell on their back, they have trouble sitting back on the descent and activating the muscles of their hips. They tend to lean forward excessively to maintain balance, and that can lead to a range of problems: squatting too shallow, rounding the lower back, letting the knees collapse inward, allowing the heels to rise off the floor, etc.

In the goblet squat, you hold a load in front of your body, and it acts as a counterbalance. As a result, you’ll feel more comfortable opening your hips and sitting back with them—you don’t feel like you’re going to fall backward when you begin the descent, because the weight of the kettlebell is gently pulling you forward. This allows you to squat deeply with an upright torso, and that makes it possible to activate the greatest amount of muscle throughout your legs, while minimizing shear forces on the spine. As you descend, your elbows naturally travel inside your knees, which is a reminder to push your knees out to make room for the elbows. Doing so helps your knees to align with your toes, and that prevents the knee pain so often associated with knees that collapse inward.

Positioning the kettlebell in front of the torso makes your core brace your spine more or less automatically, so you can argue that the goblet squat builds strong abs as well. Furthermore, holding the weight in front of the chest asks a lot of the shoulder and upper back muscles, and fighting to maintain good shoulder alignment strengthens your posture. This can pay big dividends if you go on to train more challenging types of squats, such as the back squat and front squat. It can also help make you stronger at presses and pullups/rows too.

Due to the vertical torso position, the goblet squat is much easier on the lower back than a back squat is. If you recently injured your low back doing back squats, or just can’t get the hang of them, the goblet squat is a great squat variation to regress to in order to clean up your form. In this regard, it has a lot in common with the front squat, and goblet squats are often used to build up to training front squats. With the lighter loads used, however, the goblet squat is more user-friendly and easier to master.

Because the goblet squat is relatively easy to master, it works well in circuits and other fast-paced workouts that train the whole body. You can pick up a kettlebell, knock out a set, and move on to the next thing. Only the most advanced athletes or lifters could be as efficient with back squats and other barbell variations, so it’s no wonder why the goblet squat is popular in exercise classes and for home-gym training.

Muscles Used In the Kettlebell Goblet Squat

(See 06:45 in the video.)

The kettlebell goblet squat is really a full-body exercise, but it’s treated mainly as a lower-body lift. Here are the muscles it recruits, from the top down.

Upper back (traps, rhomboids)

Deltoids

Lats

Wrist flexors and extensors

Rectus abdominis, and deep core muscles

Spinal erectors

Quadriceps

Glutes

Hamstrings

Calves

While the goblet squat does work a lot of muscle, it’s not a great choice for someone looking to make big muscle gains—at least not long-term. It will certainly help to improve your squat technique and strengthen your back, legs, and core, but as you progress your loading on the goblet squat, you will reach a point where your upper body can’t support the weight anymore, while your legs still feel strong. At this stage, it’s wise to advance to front squats or back squats, which will let you go heavy enough to ensure that your quads gets trained to the fullest.

However, that isn’t to say that goblet squats can’t be done with heavy weight, especially if kettlebells or dumbbells are all you have to train with. Some lifters have done reps with well over 100 pounds, which makes for an impressive test of overall body strength. But the difficulty and awkwardness of getting such heavy weight into position makes moving on to a different type of squat a more practical progression.

How To Stretch Before Doing The Kettlebell Goblet Squat

(See 07:39 in the video.)

The kettlebell goblet squat is as beginner-friendly a squat as there is, but it still requires mobility in some key muscle groups to perform correctly. You can loosen up your ankles, hips, and quads beforehand with these drills from Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Fitness Education. Perform one round of each movement below in sequence. Do reps of each move for 30 seconds, and then repeat for 3 total rounds.

Ankle Roll On Edges of Feet

Step 1. Stand with feet about shoulder-width apart and place your hands on your knees. Begin circling your knees outward (left knee counter-clockwise; right knee clockwise) while rolling on the outer edges of your feet. Raise  your heels as your knees come forward, and move slowly and smoothly.

Step 2. Perform your reps in one direction, and then repeat in the opposite direction. If you have trouble keeping your balance, hold onto a sturdy object for support.

Bent-Knee Hip Circle

Step 1. Hold onto a sturdy object for support. Tuck your tailbone under and draw your ribs down, so that your pelvis is level with the floor, and brace your core. Raise one leg in the air in front of you with your knee bent. Allow a soft bend in the leg that’s supporting you. 

Step 2. Rotate your leg 90 degrees out to your side, and then begin turning your toes toward the floor as you draw the leg behind your body. Return your foot to the floor. That’s one hip circle.

Step 3. After 30 seconds, switch legs.

Kneeling Hip Extension

Step 1. Kneel on the floor in a tall position—shoulders and hips stacked over your knees. Your toes can be pointed into the floor. Place your hands on your ribs and pelvis and draw your ribs down so that the two areas pull closer together. Your pelvis should be level with the floor. Brace your core, and squeeze your glutes.

Step 2. Keeping a long spine, begin leaning back slowly, so that you feel tension in your quads. Go as low as you can control, and then extend your knees to kneel tall again. Over time, work to lower yourself a little further.

Kettlebell Goblet Squat Variations

(See 13:09 in the video.)

If you have a tough time maintaining an upright torso while you squat, or your squat lacks depth, try the 45-degree goblet squat, which uses more of a lunge pattern to stretch out your hips and train a tall posture.

45-Degree Goblet Squat

Step 1. Hold the kettlebell in the goblet squat position and place one leg 45 degrees out and behind you, as if stepping back into a deep lunge.

Step 2. Squat, driving your front knee over the center of your foot and lowering your body as far as you can. Complete your reps and repeat on the opposite side. Aim for 3 sets of 5 on each leg. Then test out your goblet squat and see if it feels better.

Kettlebell Goblet Squat With Curl

This movement helps you get more comfortable in the bottom position of the squat. At the bottom, you extend your arms in front of you and then curl the weight back up. No, it won’t build your biceps, but it will get you more time in that deep squat position so you can focus on keeping your torso upright, your knees out, and your pelvis neutral.

Step 1. Set up as you did to perform the regular kettlebell goblet squat.

Step 2. Squat down. When you’re as low as you can safely go, hold the position. Extend your elbows, lowering the weight until it’s just above the floor.

Step 3. Curl the kettlebell back up to your chest, and come back up out of the squat. That’s one rep. Do 3 sets of 5 reps.

Kettlebell Goblet Squat Alternatives

(See 16:35 in the video.)

If you don’t have a kettlebell, a barbell and plates will allow you to get a similar effect to the goblet squat, and offer some other advantages as well.

While the goblet squat is ideal for beginners, some people will find that they still have trouble keeping their torso upright while performing it. In this case, using a barbell in a landmine unit can be a great solution. With a landmine squat, the load is held in front of the body the same as it is with a goblet squat, but the bar is anchored to the ground and travels on an arc. This all but guarantees that you’ll stay tall while you squat, because if you bend too far forward, the bar will poke you in the chest.

Step 1. Load one end of a barbell into the cylinder of a landmine. (If you don’t have a landmine, the corner of a room can suffice; just protect the walls with a towel.) Hold the opposite end of the bar with both hands and stand in your squat stance. Twist your feet into the floor to create tension in the lower body as described in the goblet squat directions above.

Step 2. Lower into the squat as deeply as you can, and then extend your hips and knees to come back up.

Read more about safe, user-friendly squatting in our guide to the landmine squat.

The post Kettlebell Goblet Squat: How To Do It & Get Ripped appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The cable crossover works the pec major and minor muscles, and can be set up to emphasize the upper, middle, and lower divisions of the pecs.

2. The cable crossover works the pecs hardest in their shortened position, and offers more tension throughout the whole range of motion than does a dumbbell flye.

3. Avoid lunging into the movement or using your bodyweight to complete your reps. The crossover works best when you allow it to isolate your chest properly.

What Is A Cable Crossover and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:26 in the video above.)

A cable crossover is just another name for a cable chest flye. “The benefit of using a cable versus dumbbells is constant tension,” says Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB pro bodybuilder and trainer in Austin, TX (@jonnyelgato_ifbbpro). That means that the weight on the cable stack is providing resistance throughout the exercise’s entire range of motion, and that makes the target muscles work harder. “When you use dumbbells,” says Catanzano, “as you raise the weight over your chest, the resistance drops off the pecs. When your arm is directly over your chest, your joints are bearing the load, not the muscles, and there’s no force pushing outward against your arm.” Therefore, the dumbbell flye isn’t an ideal exercise for chest development compared to a cable.

“Another big advantage to the crossover is that you can attack the chest muscles in the shortened position,” says Catanzano. In almost any kind of chest press, your pecs work hardest at the bottom, when they’re stretched out and lengthened. The crossover is hardest at the end of the range of motion when your pecs are the most shortened. This makes the cable crossover a nice complement to pressing exercises, helping to develop the chest more completely.

Yet another feature of the crossover is the ability to adjust the angle of the cables to zero in on one area of the chest over another. Assuming your cable station has adjustable pulley heights, you can set the pulleys low to target the upper chest, high to target the lower chest, or at shoulder level to emphasize the middle-pec fibers in mere seconds. To be clear, you can’t completely isolate one area of the chest over another—all the the regions of the pecs will work in any pec exercise you perform—but the crossover height settings will activate more muscle fibers in one region over another.

Catanzano also argues that the arcing flye motion and cable setup can be easier on the shoulders than dumbbell flyes or pressing movements, which often force you to go deep into shoulder extension to get the best activation of the pec muscles. “There’s a lot less shear force on the shoulder joints,” says Catanzano, “and that lets your chest do more of the work.”

How To Do The Cable Crossover: A Step-By-Step Guide

(See 02:43 in the video.)

Step 1. Attach a single-grip handle to each pulley on a cable station, and set the pulleys at about chest level. Grasp a handle in each hand and step forward from the machine a bit so that you feel tension on the cable, and your chest gets a bit stretched. You should be far enough away that the weights do not rest on the stack when your arms are extended at your sides.

Step 2. Stagger your stance for balance. You should feel rooted into the ground enough so that if someone tried to shove you, you’d be braced and stand your ground. Extend your arms at your sides and bend your elbows slightly (this will take stress off the elbows and prevent you from hyperextending them).

Step 3. Move your arms in front of your body, straightening your elbows as you go. Squeeze your chest as you perform the motion, and stop when your hands are directly in front of your sternum and touching each other.

Step 4. Control the weight as you draw your arms back, bending your elbows again. Perform 3–5 sets of 10–15 reps.

Note that we’re not asking you to cross one arm over the other. While the move is called a “cable crossover,” Catanzano says there’s no extra benefit in crossing your arms. If anything, the extra range of motion may be unnecessarily fatiguing, and it transfers the stress of the exercise to your shoulders and away from your chest muscles.

That’s how you do the classic, standing cable crossover. However, for an even better chest hit, it’s a good idea to do your crossovers lying against a bench if you can access one. Not having to balance yourself will leave you more energy to devote to training your chest, and it’s easier to get in and out of position with heavy weights.

Cable Crossover Upgrade

(See 05:07 in the video.)

Set a bench to 90 degrees and adjust the pulleys to shoulder height from where you will sit on the bench. Now you can perform the crossover with 100% focus on your chest. This upgrade applies to all versions of the cable crossover, which we’ll show you further down.

TIP: Whether doing your crossovers standing or seated, there will come a point when you’re so strong that it becomes difficult and even dangerous to start the exercise from the stretched (arms out) position. In this case, it’s OK to press the cable handles to full extension in front of your chest (as if you just did a bench press) and start the exercise from there, lowering the weight and going into the stretch to begin the first rep. This prevents you from starting the exercise in your weakest position, and will help you avoid shoulder injuries and muscle pulls in your pecs.

What Muscles Does The Cable Crossover Work?

(See 05:32 in the video.)

“A lot of people think that the cable crossover targets the inner chest, but it doesn’t really work like that,” says Catanzano. “What you’re feeling is a huge contraction right along where the muscles insert on your sternum,” so while the inner part of the chest is certainly working hard, the entire muscle is activated. Crossovers won’t necessarily get you a more defined, striated inner chest like bodybuilders show on stage, but you can be sure they’ll stress your pecs in ways they don’t get from bench presses, increasing your chances of getting the fullest chest your genetics allow.

Specifically, the cable crossover targets the pec major and minor muscles, and as we mentioned above, you can emphasize one division of the pec major over another. Crossovers done with the cables set at shoulder/chest level target the sternal head of the pec, the so-called “middle-chest” fibers. Setting the pulleys low to the floor will cause you to do the flye motion with more of a 45-degree angle, and that works the upper part of the pec—the clavicular head—harder. Doing just the opposite—that is, setting the pulleys above shoulder height—will cause you to bring your arms lower to the floor when you flye, and that works the lower chest (the costal head) best.

Chest Cable Crossover Variations

(See 08:01 in the video.)

You can make certain areas of the chest work extra hard depending on how you set the cable pulleys.

Lower-Chest Crossover

Target: costal head of the pecs, pec minor

Set the pulleys to eye level or as high as they’ll go. Perform as you would the regular crossover, but bring your arms from shoulder level down in front of you to about where your belt buckle would be. You should feel the exercise along the outside of your pecs, especially as your arms come back up and the muscles get stretched.

Upper-Chest Crossover

Target: clavicular head of the pecs

Set the pulleys to their lowest level. Perform as you did the regular crossover, but bring your arms from hip level up to in front of your face. Your arms should move at about a 45-degree angle.

Note that both the upper and lower-chest crossovers can be done seated on a bench as well.

Cable Crossover Alternatives

(See 13:26 in the video.)

We poo-poo’d the dumbbell chest flye above because the tension drops off as you finish the range of motion, but it still provides a pretty good chest stimulus, and it’s a fine option if you don’t have cable pulleys to use instead.

TIP: if you do dumbbell flyes, try cutting off the range of motion before your arms are perpendicular to the floor. In other words, come up only three-quarters of the way. You’ll do better to emphasize the bottom position of the exercise, when the pecs are stretched, since that’s where the dumbbell flye works you hardest.

Banded flyes are another option. If you have resistance bands, attach them to a sturdy object and use them the same way you would cables. As the bands stretch, they’ll provide more resistance to your flye motion, emphasizing the shortened position of the pec muscles just like cables do. “If you only have one band, just work one side at a time,” says Catanzano, “applying all the same tips and tricks I go over in the video.”

Suspension Trainer Flye

If you work out at home or on the road (aka in a hotel room), you may have a suspension trainer. In that case you can do a flye-pushup combination that works the same muscles as the crossover, plus a lot of core, upper back, and shoulders for stability.

Step 1. Attach the suspension trainer to a sturdy object and set the handles to about thigh level (you can lower the handles to make the movement harder, or raise them to make it easier).

Step 2. Keeping your body straight and rigid, extend your arms outward and lower your body until you feel a stretch in your chest. Bend your elbows as needed, and then extend your elbows as you flye your body back up.

Pro Tips: How To Avoid Common Mistakes with the Cable Crossover

(See 05:45 in the video.)

Mistake #1: Lunging into it

While your aim should be to be as balanced and stable as possible, some people tend to lean forward as they flye their arms forward, pushing their bodyweight into the movement. That brings your shoulders into the exercise more than it should, and relieves your chest of a lot of the work, so focus on keeping your body upright and stationary.

Mistake #2: Bending your elbows too much

You need a little elbow bend when your arms are extended out at your sides, but a bend of 90 degrees or so is too much, and finishing the movement like at—bringing your hands together in a bear-hugging motion—won’t make your pecs work optimally. “Straightening your elbows as you flye will cause your chest muscles to fully shorten at the end position,” says Catanzano, accomplishing the main feature of the cable crossover.

Mistake #3: Not setting the pulleys to the correct height

If you set the pulleys well above shoulder height for a regular, middle-chest focused crossover, you’re just going to put more stress on your shoulders and take it off your chest. Make sure the pulleys are in the right position for the area of your chest you most want to target. When in doubt, set them to chest level, whether standing or sitting down on a bench.

How To Warm Up Before The Cable Crossover

(See 10:49 in the video.)

Try these moves to prepare your chest, shoulders, and elbows for safe and strong crossovers.

Single-Arm Cable Press-Through

Sets: 2 Reps: 10–12 (each side)

Step 1. Set the pulley at shoulder level and grasp the handle with one hand. Stagger your stance and face the opposite cable, gripping the column for support.

Step 2. Press the cable forward, squeezing your pec, as if you were bench pressing. Allow your elbow to bend fully and drag behind your body a bit on the way down. That’s one rep.

Cable Internal Rotation

Sets: 2 Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Set the pulleys just above shoulder height and hold a handle in each hand. Raise your upper arms so they’re parallel to the floor and bend your elbows 90 degrees. Step forward and stagger your stance.

Step 2. Slowly rotate your forearms forward while keeping your upper arms raised. Don’t let your arms move forward at the shoulder; just rotate. Slowly rotate back again. Go very light and move carefully. This exercise warms up the rotator cuff, the sensitive muscles inside your shoulder joints.

Straight-Arm Adduction

Sets: 2 Reps: 10–12 (each side)

Step 1. Lower the cable height to around hip level for both pulleys. Grasp one handle and hold on to the opposite side’s column for support.

Step 2. Keeping your arm straight, bring your arm in front of your chest, squeezing at the top. The movement is basically a one-arm flye, but from a lower position so the stretch isn’t as great and you can get your pecs used to performing the range of motion.

Who Should Do The Cable Crossover?

(See 15:11 in the video.)

Catanzano recommends the crossover to aspiring bodybuilders or anyone whose goal is to better their physique. “It’s an isolated movement, so it’s not going to benefit athletes or powerlifters as much, but that doesn’t mean those people shouldn’t do them,” he says. “Someone who probably shouldn’t do crossovers is a person with shoulder injuries. The crossover is probably safer than a dumbbell or machine flye, but I might still avoid it. You could do some presses or pushups instead until your shoulder is healed up.”

How Often To Perform A Cable Crossover Workout

(See 14:46 in the video.)

“The best time to do cable crossovers is obviously on a chest day,” says Catanzano. “Or, if you do push, pull, and leg days, or upper-lower days, do it in the push or upper session.” It’s best to do crossovers after a pressing or pushup exercise so you have some blood and warmth in your chest already and it doesn’t need a lot of extra warming up.

You can do crossovers one to three times a week for moderate sets and reps: 3–5 of 10–15, or less if you’re just getting familiar with the movement. Take your sets close to failure—the point at which you can’t do another rep with good technique due to fatigue—and you’ll deliver a mighty stimulus for gains.

Balance out your chest work with the rear-delt cable flye.

The post How To Do The Cable Crossover For A Stronger Chest appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Summary

– The glute-ham raise trains the hamstrings‘ two key functions simultaneously.

– Sets of 5–8 reps may be appropriate to start; later, the glute-ham raise can be trained with low-, moderate-, and high-rep ranges.

– The glute-ham raise movement can be approximated with the Nordic hamstring curl, and other variations that don’t require a glute-ham bench.

What Is the Glute-Ham Raise?

(See 00:23 in the video above.)

The glute-ham raise is a posterior-chain exercise. That is, it trains the muscles on the back side of the body that work together in unison. The hamstrings, however, get hit the hardest. The glute-ham raise is unique in that it works the hamstrings’ two functions—bending the knees and extending the hips—in one fluid movement, and through a full range of motion. We’ll explain in detail how to perform it below, but to get a sense of how the glute-ham raise is done, picture starting off with your torso parallel to the floor, and using the back of your legs to lift your entire body up until it’s perpendicular to the floor. (If that sounds hard to do, well… it is!)

There are only a handful of exercises that mimic the glute-ham raise movement (we’ll show you how to do some of them below, if you don’t have a glute-ham bench). Without them, you would need to perform multiple different exercises to achieve complete hamstring development. For instance, leg curls to work the knee flexion component, and Romanian deadlifts or kettlebell swings to train hip extension. So, glute-ham raises maximize efficiency. They also train the hamstrings in a very functional way that’s perfectly suited to faster running and overall lower-body explosiveness.

Think of how your foot strikes the ground during a sprint. Your hamstrings help to pull it underneath and behind your hips, and bend the knee, to propel your body forward. Powerlifters and weightlifters—guys and gals who need strong posterior muscles to lift the heaviest weights—also flock to the glute-ham bench. Glute-ham raises are a powerful assistance exercise for building up your numbers on the squat, deadlift, and clean.

And that’s why they were originally created. Glute-ham raises were first implemented by weightlifters in the U.S.S.R. sometime in the 20^th century. Soviet athletes dominated the world stage in many different sports for decades. In the 1970s, when American weightlifter Bud Charniga was studying up on Soviet training methods, he discovered the glute-ham raise, and brought it to the States. Unable to find a bench that would allow him to perform it, Charniga mocked up his own using a pommel horse and a car seat. Specially-designed glute-ham benches have since become staples in serious strength and conditioning facilities, and are used by different kinds of athletes of all levels.

How to Properly Execute A Glute-Ham Raise

(See 01:05 in the video.)

We asked Clifton Harski, Director of Education for the Pain-Free Performance Specialist (PPSC) certification, to explain how to do a perfect rep.

Step 1. Glute-ham benches have a foot plate that is adjustable, and many have adjustable ankle pads as well. The foot plate can slide closer to and further away from the big pad that your hips rest on, and the ankle pads can be elevated or lowered. You’ll have to take a few minutes to experiment with setups until you find one that’s comfortable.

Ultimately, you want the foot plate far enough away from the pad so that, when you climb onto the bench, your knees can hang below the pad. The height of the ankle pads should be set so that your shins are angled slightly upward when your feet touch the plate and your torso is vertical (the top of the movement).

When you slide your feet between the ankle pads, your toes should touch the foot plate. Make sure these pads are secure, as they’re about to support your bodyweight. Try to get your feet to point straight down at hip-width distance, but you may find that you need to turn your toes out a few degrees to perform the exercise. Use your hands on the big pad to push your body up until it’s vertical. Draw your ribs down, take a deep breath into your belly, and tuck your pelvis slightly so it’s perpendicular to your spine. Brace your core.

Step 2. From this tall kneeling position, slowly extend your knees to lower your body. When your torso is parallel to the floor, bend your hips slightly so that it dips a few inches below parallel. You want to use as big a range of motion as you can, but without taking tension off your hamstrings. For that reason, don’t bend so much that your head points toward the floor. And whatever you do, don’t let your lower back round. Stay rigid.

Step 3. Extend your hips and drive the balls of your feet into the foot plate, allowing your heels to rise off the plate. Push through the big pad and bend your knees to pull your body back to vertical. This should look similar to how your leg works when it’s running. (You drive off the ball of the foot while the hamstrings are extending the hips and curling the leg.)

You can cut the range of motion a little short, stopping slightly before vertical, if you like. This is a good technique for targeting pure muscle gain, as the tension won’t subside at either end of the range of motion.

The glute-ham raise is relatively simple to perform, but because it’s foreign to most people, it’s liable to pose some problems at first. If you notice your calves cramping up, it’s a sign that you’re setting up with your upper body too far in front of the pad. This is making your calves work harder than they should to pull you back up. Move the foot plate more rearward, and check to see that your knees are pointing out below the bottom of the pad at the top of the exercise. If your bench doesn’t adjust to the right position for you, fold a towel over the hip pad, or drape a rubber mat over it, to add a little more mass to the pad and position your body further back. An inch or two can make a big difference.

Another common mistake is lowering your body until your torso is perfectly parallel to the floor. This shortens the range of motion a little bit, but it’s also the hardest position in the range, and it puts you at the greatest leverage disadvantage. When you’re just starting out on glute-ham raises, it pays to lower your body a little deeper so your hips flex; then you can use a bit of stretch reflex to come out of the bottom position. This makes the lift safer and will allow you to get more reps.

Finally, avoid hyperextending your spine on the way up. As your hamstrings tire out, you’ll have a tendency to want to finish the lift by arching your back hard. This can cause injury, so remember to keep your ribs down and your core tight.

“The glute-ham raise can provide such a large overload directly to the glutes and hammies—without a substantial lower-back strength demand—that it can serve as the big strength move for those muscles for most people,” says Harski. “It can actually replace the deadlift for a period of time. It is important to train the posterior chain aggressively and often, but to do so while minimizing loading of the spine, specifically the lower vertebrae.” In other words, the glute-ham raise can play a key role in strengthening your lower body without risking injury to the lower back in the way heavy deadlifts and back squats can. While it’s a simple bodyweight movement, the glute-ham raise packs a similar punch to big barbell exercises.

Once you’re experienced with it, the glute-ham raise can be trained through several different rep ranges. You may need to use sets of 5–8 reps at first, because the exercise is so challenging, but within a few weeks, you will likely be able to do it for 8–12 reps, treating it like you would most other assistance exercises that are done with moderate weight for moderate reps. If you’re pretty strong on glute-hams, or want them to serve as a substitute for a big barbell lift such as the deadlift, you can add resistance by holding a weight plate to your chest or wrapping a band around the feet of the bench and the back of your neck, allowing you to train in the 5–8 rep range again.

As your own bodyweight becomes easier to manage, you can do glute-ham raises for sets of 20 or more reps, which can serve as a brutal finisher for your leg day.

What Muscles Do Glute-Ham Raises Work?

(See 03:28 in the video.)

The glute-ham raise focuses on the hamstrings, but the tension it creates on the back side of the body irradiates all the way up the chain. That means that the glutes get involved as well (as the name of the exercise would imply), along with the spinal erectors, which run from the pelvis all the way up to the neck. The ab muscles also have to work with your erectors to brace your spine, so it doesn’t flop over while you perform the raise. And don’t be surprised if you wake up with some calf soreness the day after doing glute-ham raises the first time, since the gastrocnemius activates to assist the hamstrings in flexing the knee.

If you really want to nerd out, tell your friends that you’re training your semimembranosus, semitendonosis, and biceps femoris, aka, the leg biceps. (These are the three hamstring muscles, from the medial side of the leg to the lateral side.) All three muscles originate on the lower portion of the pelvis and insert below the knee, which gives them a unique ability to bend the knee and extend the hips at the same time. Imagine doing a machine leg curl but without the machine to support your hips. You’d have to keep them from bending while you flexed your knees. In the glute-ham raise, you have to do this against the resistance of your bodyweight—which is far more than what you can load on a leg curl machine. Now you see why glute-hams are such a ruthless move for the hamstrings.

Can I Do the Glute-Ham Raise Without A Machine?

A glute-ham bench is the best option for performing the glute-ham raise movement safely, but if you don’t have access to one, you can mimic it with other equipment. The Nordic hamstring curl, typically done with a barbell or regular utility bench, is a challenging but suitable substitute exercise. That said, it is even HARDER than the glute-ham raise, and definitely not for beginners. However, if you’ve been training a while and are confident in the strength of your hamstrings, give it a go.

Nordic Hamstring Curl

Step 1. Load a barbell on the floor and wrap a pad or towel around it to protect your ankles. Place a pad or mat on the floor to save your knees. Kneel on the pad and secure your ankles under the bar. (You can also use a bench that’s secured to the floor, or the spotter bar in a power rack, or have a partner hold your ankles down).

Step 2. Tuck your pelvis so it’s perpendicular to your spine. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core. Have your hands ready at your sides so that you can catch yourself if you lose control on the descent. Bend your hips back so your torso leans forward a little—maintain this hip position throughout the set.

Step 3. Begin extending your knees, lowering your body toward the floor under control. When you feel you can’t maintain tension in your hamstrings anymore, let your body fall and break your fall with your hands. The range of motion won’t be great, but the extreme tension you create in your hamstrings will still make the exercise effective.

Step 4. Push off the floor and try to perform a glute-ham raise to return to the starting position.

You will probably only be able to manage a few negative reps at first (just the lowering portion of the movement). Build up to where you can perform full reps, and gradually increase your range of motion from there. (That is, aim to use less assistance from your hands over time.)

Harski says you can try using a physioball as well—the big inflatable ball most people use for situps and other ab exercises.

“Place the ball under your thighs and anchor your feet under a stable bench,” says Harski. Make sure the bench is secured to the ground—you may have to weight its feet down. The movement is done the same as the glute-ham raise and Nordic curl.

Yet another option is to use a Bosu ball, which looks like half a physioball (dome on one side, flat on the other). Kneel on the edge of the inflated dome side and press your feet against a wall, driving primarily through the balls of your feet. Perform the Nordic curl movement, using your hands on the floor to push yourself back up if you can’t make it through the full range motion.

Great GHR Alternatives

(See 03:57 in the “Perfect Your Glute-Ham Raise” video at the top.)

If you don’t have a glute-ham bench, and you aren’t inclined to build a DIY one, you can still work your hamstrings and glutes hard with exercises that train these muscles in a similar fashion and are doable at home.

Slider Hamstring Curl

(See 04:35 in the video.)

Sure, you’ve done hamstring curls, and they’re nowhere near as powerful as the glute-ham raise, but they can be with a small tweak. What we miss in an isolated hamstring curl is the hip extension we get in a glute-ham raise. One easy way to bring both knee flexion and hip extension together is to do a leg curl motion with furniture sliders, which allow you to drive your feet into the floor to raise your hips first, followed by sliding your feet toward your butt for knee flexion.

Sliders can be bought in any hardware store. They’re cheap, effective, easy to store and carry in a gym bag, and have a myriad of uses. The only catch is that you need to be on a smooth waxed floor, turf, or carpet to use them. Rubber flooring can cause too much friction and make the move overly difficult or even impossible.

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor and place the sliders under your feet. Bend your knees and slide the sliders in close to your butt. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor and take a deep breath into your belly. Brace your core. Drive the back of your arms into the floor at a 45-degree angle to your torso to add stability.

Step 2. Push through your heels to raise your hips up to full extension. Keep your core tight so you avoid arching your lower back.

Step 3. Slowly extend your knees, sliding your feet out in front of you as you lower your hips. Stop just short of where your butt would touch the floor. When your legs are extended, reverse the motion, curling your legs as you bridge your hips again.

Banded Rolling Hamstring Curl

(See 05:35 in the video.)

One way around the stickiness of sliders is to use a glute-ham roller or glider. It works the same as sliders but offers a platform to rest your feet on and wheels that roll it, making it usable on any flooring.

With any sliding leg curl variation you do, start by adding reps to progress the challenge. When you can do several sets of 10 or more, you’ll need to add resistance, which you can easily do by adding an elastic exercise band around your ankles. The band will amplify the concentric portion of the exercise (pulling the heels back), and make you work to stabilize yourself on the eccentric (extending your legs).

Step 1. Attach a light band to a sturdy object and wrap the open end around the back of your heels. Lie on your back on the floor and rest your heels on the roller.

Step 2. Perform the movement as you would the sliding curl described above.

Note: There are still more options that will allow you to perform the same sliding/rolling hamstring curl movement. A suspension trainer and a physioball can also be used.

Leg-Banded Ab Rollout

You’re probably familiar with rollouts done on an ab wheel. By adding a band around your feet, you can make a standard rollout into a posterior-chain exercise that nearly replicates the glute-ham raise while you train your core at the same time. The band forces you to maintain hip extension while you flex the lower leg, just as a glute-ham raise does.

Step 1. Anchor a band to a sturdy object and place a towel, mat, or pad on the floor to protect your knees. Kneel on the pad and hook the band around the back of your ankles. Curl your heels toward you to 90 degrees, so that there’s tension on the band, and you feel your hamstrings engage. Hold an ab wheel on the floor directly under your shoulders (or use a barbell loaded with light plates so it can roll, as shown above). Your body should form a straight line from your head to your knees, with your core braced.

Step 2. Roll the wheel forward, extending your hips while maintaining a tight core and alignment between your spine and your pelvis. Maintain the isometric hold in your legs. From the end position, draw the wheel back into the floor and return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

Back Extension and Leg Curl

If you don’t have the equipment to address both knee flexion and hip extension in one solid move, performing each of the movements separately is enough to ensure that you at least don’t skip training one of the hamstrings’ key functions. Though its name is something of a misnomer, the back extension exercise done on a 45-degree back extension bench trains hip extension. Do a few sets followed by leg curls—seated, standing, or prone—and you’re giving the hamstrings the one-two punch they need to grow and strengthen to their potential.

Back Extension

Step 1. Adjust the pad of a back extension bench so that it fits in the crease of your hips when you mount the bench. Get on the bench, and secure your feet under the ankle pads. Tuck your pelvis so it’s perpendicular to your spine, and brace your core. Your body should form a long, straight line.

Step 2. Bend only at the hips to lower your torso toward the floor. Stop before you feel your lower back is about to round forward. Squeeze your glutes as you extend your hips and return to the starting position.

Need more exercises for hamstrings? See our article with 8 exercises and 4 hamstring workouts.

The post How To Properly Do Glute-Ham Raises appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. Push day workouts include all the upper-body muscles that push weight away from you—the chest, shoulders, and triceps. If you choose include lower-body pushing muscles as well, you can train the quads and calves on a push day.

2. Push days make your training easy to organize. In your next session, you can do a pull day, training all the pulling muscles, and balancing out all the work you did for the push muscles.

3. The best push day exercises include presses of any kind, lateral raises, and triceps extensions.

4. You don’t have to do conventional push exercises to build muscle and strength. There are many alternatives that will allow you to work around injuries and range of motion problems, such as landmine pressing variations.

What Is A Push Day Workout?

(See 00:19 in the video above.)

A push day is any workout where you train the muscles that push things away from you. That usually means the chest, shoulders, and triceps, but some people like to include the quads and calves too, as they are the pushing muscles for the lower body.

Generally, you start a push workout by working the biggest muscles first, and finish up with the smaller ones. So a good upper-body push day might begin with some chest presses, and then go to shoulder presses or lateral raises, and end with triceps extensions or pushdowns.

If you’ve ever been confused about which exercises to use on which workout day, organizing your training into push, pull, and leg days makes it pretty obvious. If you train chest, shoulders, and triceps on push day, you’ve covered one half of the upper body and hit all the muscles that work together to push.

On your pull day, you would want to balance that out by doing back and biceps exercises (sometimes rear delts too)—i.e., moves that have you pulling the weight toward you. You can then round out the split with a leg day that covers the whole lower body.

Muscles Targeted On Push Day

(See 01:16 in the video.)

A typical push day is going to work your…

Pec major: the main chest muscle draws your arm in front of your body and up overhead.

Anterior deltoid: the delts assist in raising your arms in front of you and overhead.

Lateral deltoid: the outermost head of the deltoid, it raises your arm out to your side 90 degrees.

Posterior deltoid: the rear delt pulls your arm back and behind your body.

Triceps: the tris extend the elbow and help pull your arm downward from overhead.

If you choose to work your lower body as well, the pushing muscles of the legs are the quads, and calves. The quads extend the knee and the calves raise your heels up.

Our Favorite Push Day Exercises For Maximum Gains

(See 01:54 in the video.)

The best push day exercises are going to be ones that have a lot of potential for loading, so that you can get progressively stronger on them over a long period of time. That will allow you to keep building muscle over the long haul. They should also be exercises that you can perform safely and master the form on without too much trouble.

Some of our favorite push day exercises include the bench press, overhead press, triceps pushdown, and triceps extension. Any variation of these movements is fine. For example, you can do them with a barbell or dumbbells, cables or bands, and use a flat or incline bench.

Push Workout With Focus On Chest

(See 02:26 in the video.)

If you want to emphasize your chest on your push day, start it off with one or two chest exercises, and then move on to shoulders and triceps.

Here’s an example of a chest-focused push day.

1. Bench press

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–8

Step 1. Lie on the bench and arch your back, pulling your shoulder blades down and together. Grasp the bar just wider than shoulder width, and pull it out of the rack.

Step 2. Take a deep breath, tighten your glutes, and lower the bar to your sternum, tucking your elbows to your sides at 45 degrees on the descent. When the bar touches your body, push your feet into the floor and press the bar up at the same time.

2. Low-To-High Cable Flye

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–10

Step 1. Set the handles on both sides of a cable crossover station to the lowest pulley setting. Grasp the handles, and step forward to lift the weights off the stack so that there’s tension on the pec muscles. If you don’t have access to cable stations, use elastic resistance bands attached to a rack or other sturdy object.

Step 2. Stagger your feet for stability, and let your arms extend diagonally toward the floor, in line with the cables—but keep a slight bend in your elbows. Your palms will face forward. Keep your torso upright and stationary throughout the movement.

Step 3. Contract your pecs to lift the handles upward and in front of your body. The upward path of motion should be in line with the clavicular fibers of the upper pecs—think: diagonal.

Step 4. At the top of the rep, your hands should be touching each other in front of you at around face level, wrists in line with your forearms. Lower the weight under control, back to the start position.

3. Cable Lateral Raise

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–10

Step 1. Attach single-grip handles to the low pulleys of a cable crossover station. Cross the cables over so your left hand grasps the one on your right side, and vice versa.

Step 2. Stagger your stance for stability, and raise the cables 90 degrees out to your sides. Control the descent. You can mimic the move with resistance bands if you don’t have cables.

4. Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extension

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–10

Step 1. Grasp a pair of dumbbells and lie back on a bench. Hold the dumbbells over and slightly behind your head so that your elbows are behind your shoulders—you should feel your triceps tensing. This will keep the triceps engaged even when your elbows are locked out, as opposed to resting at the top position when your arms are pointing straight up over your chest.

Step 2. Keeping your upper arms where they are, bend at the elbows and lower the weights behind your head. Extend your elbows to come back up.

See “Professional Tips” below for more notes on how to do this workout.

Push Workout With Focus On Shoulders

(See 02:53 in the video.)

If you want to prioritize shoulder gains, start off with shoulder-focused exercises and then go on to your chest and triceps.

Here’s an example of a shoulder-focused push day.

1. Cable Rear-Delt Flye

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–10

Step 1. Set both pulleys at an adjustable dual cable station to the height of your head. Attach single-grip handles to the cables, and grasp the handles with your palms facing down or each other. Crossing one arm over the other, and stand with your feet between hip and shoulder-width apart. You may want to stagger your stance for extra balance. Step back a bit so you feel tension on the cables and a light stretch in your rear delts before you even begin the set.

Step 2. Brace your core. Now drive your arms straight out to your sides while keeping a slight bend in your elbows, as if reaching out for the walls around you. Stop when your arms are 90 degrees. 

Step 3. Lower the cables under control, and stop just short of where the weights touch down on the stack. You want to keep your rear delts working throughout the entire set, and letting the weight rest for a moment lets your delts rest too.

2. Cable Lateral Raise

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–10

Step 1. Attach single-grip handles to the low pulleys of a cable crossover station. Cross the cables over so your left hand grasps the one on your right side, and vice versa.

Step 2. Stagger your stance for stability, and raise the cables 90 degrees out to your sides. Control the descent. You can mimic the move with resistance bands if you don’t have cables.

3. Neutral-Grip Overhead Press

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–8

Step 1. Use a Swiss or football bar that allows your palms to face each other at about shoulder width. You can take the bar off a rack, or, if you don’t have one, simply pick the bar up off the floor and clean it to shoulder level. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Draw your ribs down, take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the bar overhead, pushing your head forward as the bar clears it so that the bar ends up just behind your head in the lockout position.

4. Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 1  Reps: 5–10

Step 1: Lie back on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand. If the weights are light enough, use your knees to kick them up into position as you lie back so you start the exercise with your arms locked out. (If they’re heavy, simply roll back and hold the weights at shoulder level). Starting in the top position will be safer for your shoulders and elbows, but if you’re an advanced lifter and very strong, you may not be able to get the weights up with that kicking motion. (You can also ask a buddy to help you get the dumbbells into position.)

Step 2: Slowly bend your elbows and pull your shoulder blades together on the bench, lowering the dumbbells until they are close to the sides of your chest and you feel a stretch in your pecs. In the down position, your elbows should be at a 45-degree angle to your torso—not straight out to the sides.

Step 3: Pause in the stretched position, and then press the dumbbells back up, flexing your chest as you push.

5. Cable Pushdown

Sets: 2  Reps: 5–10

Step 1. Attach a rope or cambered (angled) bar handle to the top pulley of a cable station. Angle your body slightly and put your bodyweight into the handle a bit to get stable and put tension on your triceps.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows at your sides, press the weight down and slightly forward, as if pushing yourself up out of a parallel-bar dip. This will allow you to go a little heavier and reduce some stress on the elbows.

Step 3. As you lower the weight, allow your shoulders and elbows to move back slightly so you feel like your muscles are coiling up like a spring. The movement is almost like lowering your body into a dip.

See “Professional Tips” below for more notes on how to do this workout.

Professional Tips: Progressive Overload and Adaptations to Prevent Injuries

(See 03:26 in the video.)

The beauty of a push day is that the name itself tells you what to do. That is, just do pushing exercises. Your push day is not a time to do more curls because you think your arms need work, or back exercises that you should be leaving for your pull day.

Just keep it simple and limit yourself to one, two, or at most three exercises for a given muscle group. Understand that there’s a lot of carryover between push exercises, so you don’t have to do so much work overall. This means that your chest exercises are going to work your shoulders, and any pressing you do is also going to hit your triceps, so don’t get carried away.

Focus on progressive overload in your workouts: regularly trying to increase the weight you’re lifting or the number of reps you can perform for each move you do.

In the workouts outlined earlier, what you should do is start out with a weight that allows you five reps, with maybe one or two in reserve. In other words, do your set with a weight that you could perform six or seven reps with, but stop at five. Try to add a rep every time you repeat the workout, and when you reach 10 reps, increase the weight by two and a half to five pounds and start back at five reps again.

Adding too much weight before you’re ready is asking for injury, and so is doing too much volume. You only need a set or two per exercise to get stronger, and getting stronger will lead to bigger muscles over time. See “How Often To Do Push Workouts” below.

Alternative and Complementary Push Exercises

(See 04:45 in the video.)

You don’t have to do all the so-called “standard,” basic exercises to build muscle. Nor do you have to do the old-school barbell lifts. As your training evolves through the years, your goals change, or you develop injuries that you need to work around, your selection of exercises will need to change as well.

Instead of using the bench press, you can target your pecs with dumbbell presses, cable chest presses, a variety of pushup exercises, and machines.

In place of overhead presses with a barbell, you can use a landmine press or a kettlebell press.

Here are some alternatives to a few of the exercises we laid out earlier, so you can customize your push day workout to your body’s needs.

Seated Incline Landmine Press

Use it in place of: incline bench press (barbell or dumbbell)

Works: upper chest

Using a landmine apparatus (basically just a cylinder to load the barbell into, and a swivel that allows it to move in any direction) lets you lift a barbell more like you’re throwing a lever. That arcing motion is often easier on your shoulders than pressing a bar straight up and down, so it’s a good alternative for people with injuries. This landmine press mimics an incline press for the upper chest. You just need a bench, weight collar, and V-grip handle (the kind you see on seated cable row machines) to do it.

Step 1. Set the bar in a landmine or wedge it into the corner of a room. Place a bench in front of it. Load the bar, and attach a collar to the bar just below where the V-grip handle will fit. Rest the end of the bar on the side of the bench. Now sit on the bench, place the bar in the crook of the V handle, and lift the bar into position in front of your chest with both hands. Sit with your hips and knees 90 degrees and your torso very tall. Brace your core.

Step 2. Press the bar upward to lockout. The resistance will drop off as you press the bar away from you, so the exercise will feel hardest at the bottom, but that’s right where you want it—when the upper chest is most active.

Half-Kneeling Landmine Press

Use it in place of: overhead press (barbell or dumbbell), incline press

Works: upper chest, front and side deltoids

Conventional barbell overhead presses can be hard on people who don’t have great shoulder mobility, or are coming back from shoulder injury. They can cause you to bend backward as you press upward, and it can be difficult to achieve a full range of motion at the shoulder. The half-kneeling landmine press allows you to use a neutral grip (palm facing in, rather than forward), which tends to feel better on the shoulder. It also frees up your shoulder blades to rotate fully, an action they don’t get to perform as well on bench-supported pressing exercises, and that supports long-term shoulder health as well as activation of more overall musculature. In short, the landmine variation is a very functional press, doable by almost anybody.

Step 1. Kneel on the floor with your left knee down and directly under your hips. Your right knee should be bent 90 degrees, and your stance about shoulder width. Tuck your tailbone under so your pelvis is level with the floor, and make sure you’re not kicking one hip out to the side. Pick up the bar and hold it at the end, about a fist’s space from your shoulder. Drive the downed knee into the floor so you feel your glute contract and help brace you.

Step 2. Press the bar up as high as you can while maintaining control, leaning forward at the top and reaching your arm up the best you can. Hold the top position for a moment.

Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Press

Use it in place of: overhead press (barbell or dumbbell)

Works: front and side deltoids, forearms and grip, core

If you struggle to perform any kind of press through a full range of motion without pain, the culprit is often a lack of stability. If you can train the rotator cuff and other muscles around the shoulder joints to clamp down on those joints, you may be able to press heavy and pain-free again soon. Turning a kettlebell upside down and lifting it with the bell pointing up is extremely hard to balance and control, making for a great stability challenge without the need for much weight at all.

Step 1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a light kettlebell by its handle. Clean it up, or simply pick it up into position at shoulder level. Draw your ribs down and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the bell straight overhead without allowing it flop over. Avoid bending or twisting to either side. You may find it helps to extend your free arm out to the side and squeeze your hand into a fist.

How To Stretch and Warm Up Before A Push Day Workout

(See 10:39 in the video.)

Use the following exercises to warm up and promote mobility before any push day workout.

1. Band Dislocation

The name sounds bad, and while it may feel like your shoulders are being wrenched out of their sockets for a split second, the dislocation is actually a great way to promote strength in the shoulders throughout a full range of motion.

Step 1. Hold an elastic exercise band with both hands outside shoulder width. Keeping your ribs down and core engaged, raise your arms overhead and behind you—don’t bend your elbows.

Step 2. Bring the band back over your head to the start position.

Standing T-Spine Twist

Step 1. Stand with feet at shoulder width and raise your arms out to your sides. Bend your arms and bring your fingertips together in front of you.

Step 2. Brace your core and your glutes and twist only your torso to one side. Try to avoid letting your hips move backward as you do. Extend your arm when you’re at your farthest point, and then come back to the starting position. Repeat on the other side.

Elbow Circle

Step 1. Hold your elbows against your sides, bend your arms, and point your thumbs behind you.

Step 2. Slowly rotate your arms away from you and toward the floor, making a big circle. Try to drive your shoulders back the whole time as well as your thumbs, so you really feel your elbows having to twist and extend.

How Often To Do Push Workouts

(See 13:19 in the video.)

Because a push workout is so comprehensive, you don’t need a lot of other workouts in the week to train your whole body. As we said earlier, you can do push, pull, and leg workouts and cover everything. In this case, you could do a push workout on Monday, a pull workout Tuesday, take Wednesday off, and then do a leg workout on Thursday. On Friday, you would repeat the cycle, starting with a push workout again.

You can vary the exercises you do when you repeat the workouts so things don’t get stale. If you’re an intermediate or more advanced lifter, it’s a good idea to have A and B options for each workout day.

Ultimately, it’s smart to train each muscle group twice in a seven-day period. So if you do a push workout on Monday, you should do another one by Friday or Saturday. That’s enough time to recover but not so much time that you begin to lose adaptations. A 2019 study showed that muscle growth stops about 48 hours after a resistance-training session, regardless of how much volume you do. So training a muscle more frequently is likely a better strategy than bombing it one day per week.

Now if you choose to put leg exercises, such as squats for the quads and calf raises for the calves into your push day, things have to change a little bit. You can do your leg work before or after your chest, shoulder, and triceps work on your push day, and then your pull day would have to consist of back, biceps, rear delts, glute, and hamstring exercises.

In this kind of split, you’re really doing two full-body workouts but they’re organized according to muscles that push and pull. Note that when it comes to legs, it’s very hard to train quads without there being some overlap with glutes, and vice versa, so you may want to take one day of rest in between push and pull workouts that train the upper and lower body together.

Looking for a good pull workout to balance your push day? See our guide to back and biceps training.

The post The Best Push Day Workouts For Muscle and Strength appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– A good upper-chest workout requires learning to better isolate the clavicular head of the pec major muscle.

– The best angle to set the bench for incline presses and flyes depends on the dimensions of your own sternum and ribcage.

– The path of motion that your arms travel is a critical factor in upper-chest training technique.

The Best Upper-Chest Workout for Getting Defined Pecs

Your pecs are sure to look fuller and more impressive when the region that attaches to the clavicle—called the clavicular head—is more prominent, but for some reason, the upper part of the chest doesn’t seem to respond like the rest of the muscle. You’ve heard it before: “If you want your upper chest to grow, do incline presses and flyes, bro.” The thing is, if you’ve been lifting for any length of time, you’ve probably already tried that. And if that was all there was to it, you wouldn’t be reading this now.

The truth is, putting your bench on an incline isn’t the only consideration for targeting the upper chest. The new, more scientifically-sound advice for boosting the upper chest is to base your training on your own individual anatomy, so we asked a trio of physique-training experts to tell you how to do that for a more balanced pair of pecs, top to bottom.

The 4 Best Upper-Chest Workouts

(See 01:28 in the “Best Upper-Chest Workout for Defined Pecs” video at the top of this article)

Here are four sample workouts (A, B, C, and D) you can do that prioritize the upper chest. Continue reading below to get the science behind why these exercises work, and our experts’ opinions on how to set up your own upper-chest workouts in the future.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout A

Here’s a solid routine that trains all the upper-body pushing muscles—chest, shoulders, and triceps. (What trainers call a “push workout.”) Still, the upper pecs are heavily emphasized, as you hit them directly with the first two exercises.

1. Dumbbell Incline Press with Semi-Pronated Grip

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–8

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle, depending on your sternum angle (see How Do You Target The Upper Chest? below). Grasp a pair of dumbbells and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad.

Step 2. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists in a semi-pronated (or neutral, palms facing in) position. 

Step 3. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up until your arms are just shy of full lockout. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

Step 4. As you press and lower the dumbbells, establish a natural, comfortable wrist position—something between neutral and semi-pronated. The dumbbells give you the freedom to adjust mid-set.

Perform as many warmup sets as you need until you reach a weight that’s heavy enough for your first work set. Choose a load that allows you to do 7 or 8 reps, but perform only 6. In your second set, reduce the load as needed so you can perform 6 reps again. Each week, try to add a rep to your first set until you can perform 8–10 reps. At that point, increase the weight by 2.5–5 pounds and repeat the process.

2. Low-to-High Cable or Band Flye

Sets: 2 Reps: 10–12 (or 12–15, if you use bands that don’t provide as much tension)

Muscles Worked: upper chest

Step 1. Set the handles on both sides of a cable crossover station to the lowest pulley setting. Grasp the handles, and step forward to lift the weights off the stack so that there’s tension on the pec muscles. If you don’t have access to cable stations, use elastic resistance bands as shown, attached to a rack or other sturdy object.

Step 2. Stagger your feet for stability, and let your arms extend diagonally toward the floor, in line with the cables—but keep a slight bend in your elbows. Your palms will face forward. Keep your torso upright and stationary throughout the movement.

Step 3. Contract your pecs to lift the handles upward and in front of your body. The upward path of motion should be in line with the clavicular fibers of the upper pecs—think: diagonal.

Step 4. At the top of the rep, your hands should be touching each other in front of you at around face level, wrists in line with your forearms. Squeeze the top position for 1–2 seconds, and then lower the weight under control, back to the start position.

3. Seated Lateral Raise

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10

Muscles Worked: lateral delts

Step 1. Sit up straight with your arms at your sides. (You may keep a slight forward lean if that feels better for your shoulders.)

Step 2. Raise your arms out 90 degrees with your palms facing down.

4. Overhead Banded Lateral Raise

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10

Muscles Worked: triceps, core

Step 1. Kneel down on the floor and wrap the center of a band around your ankles. Grasp the ends with both hands and reach your arms overhead, allowing the band to pull your elbows bent. Straighten up so that you’re in a tall-kneeling position, and brace your core.

Step 2. Extend the arms up overhead, and hold for a count of 2. Slowly return the arms back to the flexed position where you began. That’s one rep.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout B

This workout focuses on strength—specifically on the bench press—but since we want to prioritize the upper chest, we’ll perform a neutral-grip incline press instead of a flat one and use a Swiss or football bar.

1. Neutral-Grip Incline Bench Press

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–7

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Rack a Swiss bar (or football bar) at an incline bench press station. Lie back on the bench and grasp the neutral or semi-pronated grips (palms facing each other or a little angled) with hands just outside shoulder-width.

Step 2. Unrack the bar, and lower it under control to your upper chest with your elbows tucked in close to your sides, about 45 degrees from your torso.

Step 3. When the bar touches your upper chest, explosively press it straight up to full arm extension, keeping your elbows tucked in as you press.

Perform as many warmup sets as you need until you reach a weight that’s heavy enough for your first work set. Choose a load that allows you to do 6 or 7 reps, but perform only 5. In your second set, reduce the load as needed so you can perform 5 reps again. Each week, try to add a rep to your first set until you can perform 7–8 reps. At that point, increase the weight by 2.5–5 pounds and repeat the process.

2. Single-Arm Tate Press

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–12

Muscles Worked: triceps, core

Step 1. Hold a light dumbbell in one hand and lie back on a bench. Press the weight above you as in a dumbbell chest press so your elbow is locked out.

Step 2. With your palm facing toward your feet, allow your elbow to bend and slowly lower the weight toward the center of your chest. Stabilize your upper arm so only your forearm is moving. When the weight touches your chest, extend your elbow again. That’s one rep.

3. Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–12

Muscles Worked: upper back, lats, biceps

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to about a 60-degree angle and lie down with your chest against it. Your spine should be long and your core braced. Grasp dumbbells with your arms extended, and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart while the weights hang at arm’s length.

Step 2. Row the dumbells to your sides, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Lower under control.

4. Barbell Landmine Raise

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–12

Muscles Worked: lateral delts, core

Step 1. Set up a barbell in a landmine unit, or wedge one end into the corner of a wall. Grasp the very end of the sleeve (where you load the weight plates) and stand with feet shoulder-width apart with the end of the bar in front of your hips.

Step 2. Raise your arm up 90 degrees as you would in a normal lateral raise. Note that you’ll probably only be able to use the empty bar or very light weight. Don’t try to go heavy. Repeat on the opposite side.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout C

This routine alternates push and pull exercises to work the entire upper body as quickly as possible. It’s also extra joint-friendly, making it a great choice for older or very busy lifters who need to get in and out of the gym fast.

1. Converging Incline Machine Press

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–10

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Set up for the exercise by raising your upper arms to line up with the direction the clavicular fibers of your pecs run. (This should be roughly 45 degrees out from your sides.) Draw your elbows back and retract your shoulder blades—that’s the bottom end of your range of motion. Now set up in the machine so that you can duplicate that end range position, adjusting the seat height as needed.

Set the incline according to your sternum angle—less steep for a flatter sternum, and closer to 45 degrees for an angled one (we explain this more below). If your machine’s incline isn’t adjustable, this may require scooting your butt forward on the seat to (ironically) take away some of the incline. If your machine allows it, you can use a neutral (palms facing in) grip, which may feel better for your shoulders or allow a better angle of the arms to hit the upper pecs.

Step 2. Unrack the weight to put tension on the pecs, and then press the handles up to full elbow extension, focusing on driving up and in. Think about bringing your biceps up to your collarbone on each side, so you squeeze both ends of the clavicular pec head together.

Step 3. Lower the weight under control. Stop when your hands are just above chest level (don’t let the weight rest on the stack between reps).

Perform as many warmup sets as you need until you reach a weight that’s heavy enough for your first work set. Choose a load that allows you to do 7 or 8 reps, but perform only 6. In your second set, reduce the load as needed so you can perform 6 reps again. Each week, try to add a rep to your first set until you can perform 10 reps. At that point, increase the weight by 2.5–5 pounds and repeat the process.

2. Inverted Row

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10, or as many as possible

Muscles Worked: upper back, core

Step 1. Set a bar or suspension handles to around waist height, and hang with your feet on the floor. Extend your hips and position yourself so that you’re suspended above the floor and your body forms a straight line. Draw your shoulders back and down to engage the lats.

Step 2. Pull your body up to the bar or handles, and lower yourself back under control. It’s important that your body moves as a unit. That means no hiking the hips or bending the knees to help yourself out.

Do a few warm-up sets with low reps (5 or fewer) to determine the right height. Try to find a range that will allow you 5–10 reps.

3. Cable Or Banded Straight-Arm Pulldown

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10

Muscles Worked: triceps, lats

Step 1. Attach a band to the top of a power rack or other sturdy object, and grasp the open loop with both hands. (You can also use a cable with a rope handle attachment.) Hinge your hips back while maintaining a tall posture and driving your shoulder blades down and together to create tension in the back and arms. Your hands should be at face level.

Step 2. With arms extended, pull your hands down toward your hip pockets. Pause at the bottom, and slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

4. Banded or Cable Rotating Biceps Curl

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–15

Muscles Worked: biceps

Step 1. Pick up a circle band and grasp an end in each hand. (You can also use cables.) Stand on the center of the band so it’s secured to the floor. Stand tall with your abs braced and pelvis level with the floor. Your palms should face in to your sides.

Step 2. Curl the band, rotating your palms outward as you come up, so that you lift against the resistance of the band.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout D

If you want a minimalist, do-it-at-home, virtually no-equipment-required routine, try this one. It starts with upper chest but works the whole body in just three moves (every major muscle group gets some work). Do the exercises one at a time or perform them as a circuit to get done faster and amp up the conditioning challenge. In other words, you can do a set of each resting only briefly in between, and then rest as needed at the end of the round. Repeat for 3 rounds.

1. Feet-Elevated Pushup

Sets: 3 Reps: 5–12

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Place your hands around shoulder-width on the floor, and raise your feet behind you on a bench, box, or other stable surface. Your feet should be high enough so that your arms will press your body up at a roughly 45-degree angle from your chest. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is neutral, and brace your core. Your body should form a long, straight line.

Step 2. Lower your body, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees from your sides, until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Press yourself back up, allowing your shoulder blades to spread at the top. This action is another advantage of the pushup—pressing exercises done on a bench restrict your scapular movement, while the pushup allows these muscles to work naturally to stabilize your shoulders.

If that’s too hard, lower your feet closer to the floor. If it’s too easy, raise your feet higher if you can, or, perform your reps with a slower negative (lowering phase).

2. Split-Stance, One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Sets: 3 Reps: 5–15

Muscles Worked: lats, upper back, biceps

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in one hand and get into a split stance. Bend your hips back and brace your forearm against the inside of your thigh. The hand holding the weight should be opposite the foot that’s in front. Your torso should form a straight line with your back flat.

Step 2. Row the dumbbell to your hip. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

If you only have one or a few light dumbbells at home, hold the top position 2 seconds. Take 4 seconds to lower the weight back down.

3. Close-Stance, Heel-Elevated Squat

Sets: 3 Reps: 5–15

Muscles Worked: quads

Step 1. Place weight plates or blocks on the floor, and rest your heels on them with feet hip-width apart.

Step 2. Without letting your feet actually move, try to screw both legs into the floor as if you were standing on grass and wanted to twist it up—you’ll feel your glutes tighten and the arches in your feet rise. Take a deep breath into your belly and bend your hips back. Bend your knees and lower your body down. Push your knees out as you descend. Go as low as you can while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned, and then extend your hips and knees to return to standing.

Ideally, having your feet elevated will allow you to achieve a full bend in the knees without losing your balance or your lower back position. If bodyweight alone is too easy, add some weight for resistance (a loaded backpack is one option), or slow down your descent to three full seconds on each rep.

Best Exercises for Building Upper-Chest Strength

Pop quiz: Are presses or flyes better for hitting the pecs, and, in this case, the upper (clavicular) fibers in particular? Despite what you may have heard, there’s no blanket approach that applies to everyone, and both movement types can be beneficial when performed with the proper setup.

“Presses tend to be better for working the lengthened portion of the range of motion,” says Kassem Hanson, a trainer of bodybuilders, designer of gym equipment, and creator of biomechanics courses for muscle building (available at N1 Education; @coach_kassem on Instagram). That means that chest presses of any kind activate more muscle fibers when your pecs are stretched out at the bottom of the rep. “Flyes, [when done with a cable], tend to be better for working the short portion of the range of motion,” when the muscle is nearly fully shortened (such as when your hands come together on a cable flye). “The best option is to use both exercises. Presses tend to have more total pec recruitment, so, when programming, you may do more presses, because one to two good presses in a workout will cover it.”

“If I’m doing a flye, I’m going to be able to better isolate [the pecs] from the deltoids and triceps” says Jordan Shallow, DC, an Ontario, Canada-based strength coach and licensed chiropractor (@the_muscle_doc on Instagram). “With the press, you’re going to be able to use more load, but that load will be dispersed through the delts and triceps,” and that relieves some of the tension that the pec muscles could be experiencing and use as stimulus for growth. However, this isn’t to say pressing can’t work the pecs in a more isolated fashion. (It won’t isolate them like flyes can, but it can be closer.) “If we can set it up properly to make the pecs a prime mover based off the anatomical variants,” says Shallow, “we can really make the press a good exercise and challenge the pecs.”

Below are five moves that, if performed properly, will emphasize the clavicular head of the pec major for most individuals. They come courtesy of Hanson and Bill Shiffler, owner of Renaissance Physique, and a competitive amateur bodybuilder. (The moves without directions are explained step-by-step in the workouts above.)

1. Low-to-High Cable or Band Flye

One of the problems with dumbbell flyes is the lack of tension at the top. As your arms come up from the outstretched position, the resistance drops off, and at the very top, your shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints are stacked, so the weight is just resting on your arms like they’re pillars. You also can’t bring the dumbbells past the midline of your body at the top, because they’ll clang together. Hanson and Shiffler both argue that full range of motion (ROM) is key to developing the clavicular and upper-sternal pec fibers, so pulling the arms across the body is especially important. With cables, you can keep tension on the pecs throughout the entire arc of a flye.

“Free weights give resistance in one direction, which eliminates the ability to get full range of motion,” Hanson says. “A low-to-high cable flye is going to be your best way to get full ROM—especially the range where the muscles are fully shortened.” 

Other than offering optimal ROM and biomechanics, the low-to-high cable flye will also provide some much-needed variety to a chest program that includes a healthy dose of pressing movements. “When doing machine and free-weight presses for your middle [sternal] pecs,” says Hanson, “you’ll get some overlapping stimulus in the upper chest, but not in the range of motion you get in a low-to-high cable flye.”

Of course, if you don’t have access to cables, bands can be used as a substitute.

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 8–15 reps, training close to failure, is Hanson’s general recommendation.

2. Converging Incline Machine Press

A converging pressing machine is one where the handles come together as you press the weight, rather than remain static on one path of motion. This allows you to perform a movement that’s more of a hybrid press/flye than what you’d get from most pressing machines, better mimicking the range you’d use during a cable or resistance-band flye and keeping tension on the pecs in multiple planes. When doing a barbell or Smith machine incline press, for example, your hands don’t come together as you press because they’re fixed on the bar, and, as explained earlier, a dumbbell incline press offers no tension in the top position. Though not available in all commercial gyms, a converging press can be a great addition to your training arsenal if you have access to it. (PRIME Fitness USA makes an excellent converging incline press machine, as shown above.)

The upward pressing angle combined with converging handles makes this particular type of incline machine press extremely effective for targeting both the clavicular and upper sternal pec fibers, provided you also achieve an optimal arm path through proper setup.

Exercise Variations: To target more of the sternal fibers that make up the middle/upper portion of the pecs, the upper-arm position will be slightly different than what’s described above. Because the sternal fibers run more or less side to side, you’ll want the arms to line up with those fibers. That means your elbows will be up a bit higher and pointed out to the sides, with a path of motion going from out to in, straight across the body. (This is shown better in the first variation used in the video above.)

Hanson shows both variations of the incline converging machine press (sternal and then clavicular pec emphasis) in this video.

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, training close to failure.

3. Dumbbell Incline Press with Semi-Pronated Grip

According to Hanson, a relatively narrow grip better targets the upper chest because it allows the elbows to stay in closer to the body, and that prevents the front delts from taking over the movement (as is the case on presses done with a wide grip). If you’re pressing with a barbell, he recommends a grip just outside shoulder-width. “However,” he says, “narrower arm paths work better with a neutral grip [palms facing each other] or semi-pronated grip [palms somewhere between facing each other and facing straight forward],” whichever is more comfortable for you. This being the case, dumbbells are a better option than a barbell for targeting the upper pecs.

With dumbbells, you can easily assume a neutral or semi-pronated grip, whereas a barbell locks your hands in a fully pronated position, and, Hanson says, “encourages the elbows to flare out.”

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, training close to failure.

4. Swiss-Bar Incline Press

This exercise, also recommended by Hanson, is more or less the barbell version of the incline dumbbell press described above. A Swiss bar (aka “football bar”) is a specialized barbell with handles that offer neutral and sometimes semi-pronated grips. While not typically available at big box fitness clubs, if you can find a hardcore powerlifting or bodybuilding gym, or athlete training facility that has one of these bars, it’s worth trying out.

With the Swiss bar incline press, you get the upper-pec biases of the angled bench and neutral grip with the added bonus of greater overload placed on the muscles because you’re using a barbell (which is more stable than pressing a pair of dumbbells).

If your sternum is fairly flat, go with a 30-degree angle. If the top of the sternum is behind the lower ribs (an inverted angle), go with 45 degrees. (More about this below.)

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, training close to failure.

5. Incline Dumbbell Flye

The key to targeting the upper chest with a dumbbell flye is the same as with the low-to-high cable flye: establish an arm path that moves in the same direction as the diagonal fibers of the clavicular pecs. Doing a flye with the torso at an inclined position should automatically help you.

If you were doing a flye on a flat bench, the upper arms would more or less be moving in the same direction as the sternal fibers—straight horizontal, not diagonal. (The exception here would be someone with a sternum angle where the clavicles are significantly further forward than the lower ribs, which would put you at a natural incline even on a flat bench.)

An incline bench, on the other hand, puts you at such an angle that the same flye motion has your upper arms moving diagonally upward in relation to your torso—same as the clavicular fibers. Will there still be some sternal fibers activated? Of course. But as mentioned earlier, these fibers reach into the upper chest area, so no harm there.

As for what bench angle to use, again, assess your sternum angle. If your sternum is fairly flat, go with a 30-degree angle. If the top of the sternum is behind the lower ribs, use 45 degrees (see How Do You Target the Upper Chest? below). As mentioned above, a free-weight flye isn’t quite as effective as one done on a machine or with cables/bands, because the resistance is reduced at the top, but it’s a solid option for those who don’t have access to fancy equipment.

Step 1. Set a bench to the appropriate angle for you and lie back against it with dumbbells at arm’s length overhead. Your back should be flat on the bench.

Step 2. Open your arms, lowering them out to your sides until your feel a big stretch in your pecs. Allow your elbows to bend a little as you descend.

Step 3. Bring your arms back up overhead. Stop the range of motion short of where your arms are perpendicular to your torso.

Exercise Variation: The incline flye can also be done with cables, placing an incline bench in the middle of a cable crossover station and using handles at the lowest pulley settings.

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 8–15 reps, training close to failure.

Upper-Chest Exercise Alternative

If you’re training at home without the luxury of much equipment, you can resort to the classic pushup done with your feet resting on an elevated surface. “This is pretty similar to an incline press in the way it targets the upper chest,” says Shiffler, “with the added benefit of targeting some stabilizer/core muscles while you’re at it.”

Pushup with Feet Elevated

As with other variations, adjust the height of your feet based on your sternum angle—body at around 30 degrees to the floor if you have a flat sternum, and feet up a little higher if your sternum is angled.

Sets/reps: 2–4 sets of 8–15 reps, training close to failure.

How Do You Target the Upper Chest?

The idea that any chest exercise done on an incline bench hits the upper pecs has been perpetuated for more than a half-century, at least. Arnold credited his outstanding upper chest to incline presses and flyes, and most bodybuilders still swear by them. Indeed, some degree of incline is important to get the clavicular pec fibers working against gravity in the most efficient way, but elevating your bench is only part of the equation.

The key to targeting a certain area of the chest, says Shallow, is “understanding where to look from an anatomical standpoint. That will indicate what pec fibers you’re training. Arm path is going to be a key factor, but sternum angle and ribcage depth are going to be anatomical variations that will drastically affect how you recruit the pecs.”

“The pecs gain their mechanical leverage by using the ribcage as a fulcrum,” adds Hanson, “allowing them to pull the arm forward when it’s behind you, and pull your arm across your body when it’s in front. When you put your elbows out wide, you move the pecs away from the ribcage, taking away that fulcrum and leaving you to rely more on your anterior deltoids. This is a common mistake people make when performing an incline press, and also one of the reasons there’s conflicting research on the impact of incline angles on chest recruitment.”

In other words, you can choose any degree of incline that you like, but if you move your arms out too wide on your incline presses, you still won’t target the upper chest effectively.

In addition to arm path, the angle of your sternum and the depth of your ribcage should be considered. Yes, we know that sounds very technical and complex, but it’s not that difficult to assess.

Why Your Sternum and Ribcage Matter

The degree to which you incline your bench depends on your sternum angle and ribcage. “Some people have a very straight up and down chest—a flat sternum angle,” says Hanson, “while others have a steeper angle where the lower portion of their sternum sticks out further. The more angled your sternum, the greater the incline you should use,” up to 45 degrees. “The flatter the sternum,” says Hanson, “the less of an angle—usually around 30 degrees.”

Determining your own sternum dimensions is really as simple as standing in front of a mirror, turning to one side, and taking your shirt off. Look at where your collarbone is versus the bottom of your breastbone and lower ribs. If it’s behind these bones, you’ll probably need a steeper incline than if the two are nearly in a straight line. And if your clavicle is slightly in front of the sternum and ribs, you may need only a few degrees of incline, because your chest is basically on an incline already.

But don’t just rely on bench angle. “One of the most common cheats is people arching their back and completely negating the incline on the bench,” says Hanson. So, once you’ve found the appropriate bench angle, make sure you take advantage of it by keeping your back flat against the bench (even though, alas, it will force you to go lighter and use stricter form).

Remember, too, that the orientation of the pec fibers determines the way you need to move to work the muscle. As you can see in the diagram above, the fibers of the different pec major heads don’t all run in the same direction. The fibers of the clavicular head run at an upward angle (diagonal), not side-to-side like the sternal head. So using an incline bench isn’t as important as making sure your arms are moving along the path that the upper-chest fibers go.

“The clavicular pec is unique in that it originates on the clavicle, not the sternum,” says Hanson. “This gives it more of an upward line of pull, which means you’ll use motions that go low to high. This can be done with a cable, using an incline on a bench, or adjusting your torso position in a machine. Bottom line is, you need to be pressing at an upward angle [to target the clavicular fibers].”

What Muscles Are In The Upper Chest?

When discussing the upper chest, we’re only talking about one muscle: pectoralis major. However, the pec major consists of three distinct portions of muscle fibers, called heads, and the way they’re arranged determines their function (i.e., the mechanics you need to use to develop them). From the top down, the sections of the pec are:

1. The Clavicular Head (Upper Chest)

The fibers originate on the clavicle (collar bone) and run diagonally downward to attach to the humerus (upper-arm bone). They work to pull the arms in front of the torso and up overhead.

2. The Sternal Head (Middle Chest)

The fibers start on the edge of the sternum (breastbone) and reach across to attach to the humerus (just below where the clavicular head goes). The sternal head pulls the arms forward and crosses them in front of you.

3. The Costal Head (Lower Chest)

Fibers run from the cartilage of the ribs and the external oblique muscle to the humerus. The costal head pretty much assists the the sternal head.

To improve the upper chest specifically, you’ll want to focus mainly on training the clavicular head, but with some emphasis on the sternal head as well, because it covers the upper portion of the sternum (see the diagram above).

Now for the big question: can you really train specific portions of a muscle? For decades, bodybuilders have argued that you can, but scientists have rebutted them, citing the “all or none” principle, which states that a muscle either contracts or it doesn’t. Indeed, due to the way muscles are innervated, when the signal to contract is sent from the brain, all sections of the muscle shorten at once.

“The ’all or none’ principle is more around the actual depolarization of the muscle [that] causes it to contract,” says Shallow. “There’s no partial contraction—the muscle’s contracting or it’s not. But people conflate that with the idea that a muscle contracts and we can’t put particular tension, or effective tension, across certain fibers… and we absolutely can.”

The truth is, both sides of the debate are correct to a degree. That is, when you work your pecs, you work the whole muscle, but one part of it will work harder than another depending on the movement you’re doing. That means that certain muscle fibers will be activated to complete the movement while others won’t be, and that makes sense, as we know the brain works for maximum efficiency in all things. If you’re raising your arms up in front of you from a 45-degree angle at your sides, your nervous system will call on more clavicular pec muscle fibers than sternal pec, and it won’t require much from the costal pec heads.

A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed as much, with regard to the upper chest specifically. Researchers had subjects perform the bench press at various angles and tested the muscle recruitment for each. Pressing at an incline of 44 degrees resulted in greater activation of the upper-chest muscle fibers than pressing on a flat bench, or a bench set to 28 degrees of incline. A 2020 study on bodybuilders in the European Journal of Sport Science had comparable findings, with the incline bench press again outperforming horizontal and decline presses for recruiting the upper chest.

How To Stretch Your Upper Chest

Prepare your chest, shoulders, upper back, and elbows for your upper-chest training with this quick mobility routine from Eric Leija (@primal.swoledier). Perform each move for 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps.

Tips for Building More Muscle

Here are a few more tips for getting the greatest possible upper-chest growth.

Sets and Reps

You don’t have to train the pecs with a wide range of reps, or bomb it with multiple exercises in one session. One or two movements is enough. The fewer sets you do, the faster you’ll recover, and the sooner you can train again and make progress, so aim to train your chest at least twice in a seven-day period (three times, via full-body workouts, is probably the most you should do).

Moderate rep ranges strike a balance between weight that’s heavy enough to efficiently recruit lots of muscle fibers and a load that’s so heavy you risk injury and burnout. Hanson generally recommends doing no fewer than 4 reps per set on presses and no fewer than 6 reps per set on flye movements, unless you’re training for a specific strength goal. However, virtually all rep numbers and ranges have been shown to work equally well for muscle gain, at least in the short-term. Reps between 5 and 10 seem to be a good mainstay, keeping fatigue to a minimum and lessening the chance that your performance will suffer in subsequent workouts. Choose your reps based on efficiency, or just personal preference, but there’s no need to do very high numbers (15+) or very low ones (1–3). Avoid the extremes.

Tempo

When it comes to the speed with which you perform your reps (which trainers call tempo), Hanson says the biggest key is making sure you control the resistance during your sets. Don’t bounce the weights up, or let them drop as you lower down on a rep.

“Presses can be performed with a wide variety of tempos,” says Hanson. “But you shouldn’t be going super slow or throwing the weight up explosively. For flyes, you’re using your whole arm as a lever, so controlling the eccentric [negative/lowering portion of the rep] is much more important for safety and stimulus.” 

Advanced Techniques

The more experienced you get, the more creative you can get with tempo. For pressing exercises, “adding a two-second pause or an extra quarter-rep at the bottom can be a great variation in stimulus,” says Hanson. “You’ll get more sore with those techniques, and they increase volume, so consider dropping a set or two when using a more advanced tempo, and then progressing back up.”

With cable flyes, Hanson recommends a one to two-second squeeze in the end position, when your hands are close together. “Because you fatigue in the shortest part of the range of motion first, an advanced technique is to use a pause in your early sets and decrease or remove it in the later sets,” he says. This way, you can keep up your reps and not be limited by the weakest part of the movement [as you get tired].”

Want to work on lower-chest now? See our Lower-Chest Workouts for the Gym & Home.

The post The Best Upper-Chest Workout for Getting Defined Pecs appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The rack pull is a barbell deadlift performed with a shortened range of motion. The strength you gain from the rack pull transfers to the standard deadlift.

2. The rack pull strengthens the lockout (or top half) of your deadlift by allowing you to pull heavy weights in that specific range of motion.

3. The shortened range of motion ensures your torso stays more vertical, reducing the stress placed on your lower back compared to full-range-of-motion deadlifts. 

4. Remember these cues when performing rack pulls: Keep your chest up, don’t round your back, and drive your hips forward—hard—to complete the lift. 

What Are Rack Pulls and What Are Their Benefits?

(See 00:27 in the video.)

The rack pull is a deadlift performed from the safety bars of a power rack in order to shorten the range of motion (ROM). The lifter starts the pull with the barbell set just below his or her knees, as opposed to the bottom of the shin, as would be the case with a deadlift done from the floor. Basically, you’re doing the top half of a regular deadlift.

Because the range of motion is shorter, and you begin the lift in a stronger biomechanical position, you’re able to use a heavier weight than you could deadlifting from the floor. Rack pulls, therefore, let you acclimate to handling more weight, and they train you to extend your hips more powerfully, strengthening the lockout portion of your deadlift. If you have a sticking point in your normal deadlift—that is, trouble getting the weight over your knees and to lockout—rack pulls can be beneficial. Using heavier than normal weights can also build up your grip, and that can translate to stronger deadlifts from the floor as well.

Additionally, the rack pull can be a friend to folks with an achy lower back, as the shorter range of motion allows you to stay more upright and takes some pressure off your lumbar region versus the more bent-over position of a conventional deadlift. If you’re trying to train around a back injury, you could use the rack pull in place of a deadlift for a while. This would allow you to train the same basic movement pattern and muscles, but with less risk of further injury.

How to Do Rack Pulls: Correct Form to Avoid Injuries

(See 01:55 in the video.)

Step 1. Set the safety bars of a power rack to just below knee level. The barbell should sit just below your knees when laid across the bars.

Step 2. Stand in front of the barbell with your shins touching it and your feet about hip-width apart. Tuck your chin and push your hips back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings and you can reach the barbell. Think: “long spine” from your head to your tailbone. Grip the bar firmly with your hands placed right outside of your knees. (If you perform conventional deadlifts regularly, set up just as you would for a conventional deadlift.) 

Step 3. Take a big breath into your belly, and contract your abdominal muscles. 

Step 4. Keeping your spine long and your core braced, pull the barbell off the safety bars, driving your hips forward until your hips are completely locked out and you’re standing tall. Squeeze your butt at the top of the rep. Slowly lower the barbell back to the safety bars by reversing the motion—don’t let it just crash down. 

Common Mistakes and How To Correct Them

(See 02:59 in the video.)

Mistake #1: Using different form than your deadlift.

“One of the most common mistakes I see with the rack pull is people altering their deadlift mechanics to perform it,” explains CJ McFarland, CSCS (@cjmcfarland17 on Instagram), a competitive powerlifter and the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the football program at Temple University in Philadelphia.

In an effort to lift as much weight as possible, people will often incorrectly treat the movement as a kind of shrug, or even try to squat the weight up by overbending their knees, when all they have to do is think of the exercise as a deadlift done from the halfway point.

“Replicate the position your body is in during the deadlift, where your shoulders end up over or slightly in front of the bar,” says McFarland, and begin the pull from there. That’s the strongest position and will help you lift the most weight possible.

Mistake #2: Choosing the wrong weight.

Go too light, and you defeat the purpose of performing the rack pull, which is (typically) for you to pull heavier weights than you can deadlift. By the same token, if you lift too heavy, you’ll round your back and risk injury to your lower and/or upper spine. McFarland suggests starting out with 100–110% of your deadlift max for one to three reps. (I.e., use the most weight you can deadlift from the floor, full range.) Take your sets to failure, or close to it (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good technique, or stop one rep shy of that point).

Mistake #3: Not creating enough tension.

Before you begin the lift, screw your feet into the floor without actually moving them. Think of your legs as screwdrivers and tighten them down into the floor. If you do it right, you’ll feel the arches in your feet rise and you’ll feel very rooted into the ground. Your butt, hamstrings, and quads will tighten. This cue creates more tension in the active muscles, helping you produce more force when you begin the pull while maintaining good form. 

Mistake #4: Letting the bar drift away from you.

Keep the barbell tight against your shins and thighs as you lift and lower it. Maintaining a consistent bar path ensures your form stays intact. If the bar strays from your body, you’ll round your upper back and potentially tweak something in your spine. 

Muscles Worked By Rack Pulls

(See 06:59 in the video.)

The primary movers in the rack pull are the glutes and hamstrings. Secondarily, the traps, spinal erectors (lower back), forearms, and core will work hard.

Your glutes and hamstrings extend your hips as you lift the barbell from the safety bars to the lockout position, while your traps and lower back work to keep your back from rounding during the movement. Even if you’re wearing lifting straps (which improve your grip), your forearms will still get strong under the immense load of the barbell. And while rack pulls won’t chisel out a six-pack, you’ll develop a stronger core through the bracing required during every repetition.

Professionals’ Instructions For Setting Up The Rack

(See 07:45 in the video.)

The classic rack pull is performed inside a power rack with the bar set below your kneecaps. However, you can use various setups to mimic the rack and shorten or lengthen the movement’s range of motion.

“The closer to the ground the rack pull is, the stronger it correlates to your actual deadlift max,” says McFarland, but the harder it will be to perform. “The higher the height of the rack pull, the more weight you will be able to lift,” but the less it may transfer to your deadlift max.

Be sure to lift inside the power rack from the safety bars. If you set the bar on J-hooks outside the rack, you’ll risk banging the bar against the posts, interfering with your lift. Another tip is to check the weight capacity of the power rack that you’re using. Some power racks can only handle loads up to 500. If you’re a competitive powerlifter who can pull above 700 pounds (or you aspire to be one soon), you must ensure the rack can safely support the weights you’re using. 

It’s also worth mentioning that many gym owners and gym goers may frown upon you performing rack pulls on safety bars inside a power rack. For one thing, gym equipment is expensive, and repeatedly slamming a barbell against a power rack can damage the bar and the rack and wear down the barbell’s knurling (the cross-hatch pattern you hold on to that enhances your grip on the barbell). Also, depending on how crowded the gym is, people may not appreciate you hogging a rack that might otherwise be used for squatting.

Alternatively, you can elevate a loaded barbell to knee height by placing one or two 45-pound bumper plates under each end. Some strongman and powerlifting gyms offer 26-inch-diameter plates, which place the bar around the middle of your shins when loaded onto the barbell. (See below for more information about those variations.)

If your gym has stackable rubber mats, they provide another option for performing the rack pull movement with the added advantage of being movable and usually more adjustable when it comes to choosing a height. Rubber mats can also absorb the force of the bar when you lower it so that there’s less rattling and noise. Another option is wooden blocks, which work the same way.

How To Warm Up For The Rack Pull

(See 09:00 in the video.)

Use these exercises to warm up your hips and back before performing the rack pull in your workouts.

1. Bodyweight Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 2–3 sets of 5–15 reps.

2. Table Top With Reach

Step 1. Sit on the floor and plant your hands under your shoulders; place your feet flat. Extend your spine so it’s long from your head to your tailbone. Drive your shoulders down away from your ears.

Step 2. Raise your left hand in front of you as you extend your hips to lockout. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your hips (brace your core so you don’t hyperextend); keep your hips square as you squeeze your glutes.

Step 3. Reach your arm across your body to your right side, allowing your torso to twist but keeping your hips square and locked out. Feel your upper and middle back stretch. Reverse the motion and repeat on the opposite side.

Alternatives To The Rack Pull

(See 11:30 in the video.)

The rack pull has two main limitations: it can damage the equipment you’re using (the barbell and power rack), and it can be difficult to set up when the gym is crowded (good luck getting a free rack at 6:00 p.m. on a weekday). Try these two variations to reap benefits similar to rack pulls. You can do them when a rack isn’t available, or sub them into your program for four to six weeks for variety’s sake.

Trap Bar Deadlift

Why Do It: The trap bar features elevated handles. This means you don’t have to bend over as far to reach the bar as you would deadlifting with a straight bar, and the reduction in range of motion is similar to what you get with a rack pull (for the sake of saving your low back). And, like the rack, the trap bar puts you in a stronger position so you can lift heavier loads.

How To Do It:

Step 1. Step into the center of a loaded trap bar (aka hex bar). Ensure that you’re using a trap bar with elevated handles. Place your feet in your normal deadlift stance.

Step 2. Keeping a long spine, bend your hips back and then bend your knees until you can reach the handles. Your chest should face forward. 

Step 3. Brace your core by squeezing your abs and imagine crushing some oranges in your armpits—drive your shoulders back and down. Now drive through your heels to stand up with the bar, pushing your hips forward. 

Step 4. Lower the weight back to the floor by bending your hips back. Maintain a straight back with your chest up. 

Banded Deadlift

Why Do It: Attaching a resistance band to a barbell helps strengthen your deadlift lockout similarly to the rack pull. As you pull the bar off the floor, the band will stretch, increasing the resistance where the deadlift is normally easiest—when your hips are approaching lockout.

How To Do It: 

Step 1. Drape a loop resistance band evenly over the loaded barbell so both strands lie flat on the floor at the middle of the bar. Place each foot over both strands of the band at hip width (or your normal deadlift stance). Make sure the center of your foot pins the band down. If you cover it with only your heel or toe, the band may pop up while you’re pulling.

Step 2. Bend your hips back and hinge your torso over just like you’re doing a regular deadlift until you can grasp the bar just outside of your knees.

Step 3. Keeping your chest up and back flat, drive through your heels to lift the bar. Thrust your hips forward explosively to fight through the band tension and complete the rep.

Step 4. Drive your hips back and lower the weight to the floor under control.

Rack Pull Variations

(See 14:23 in the video.)

You can modify the training effect you get from the rack pull by adjusting how far off the floor the bar sits. The closer the barbell is to the ground, the more you’ll engage your glutes, hips, and lower back. The higher off the floor you start, the stronger the position you’ll be in and the more weight you can use, but the strength you build may not translate to your deadlift lockout as powerfully.

If you want to strengthen your deadlift lockout as directly as possible, set the barbell to just below the knees as we explained above; this is where most people run into issues finishing their deadlifts, and you can work to bring up this weak point. If you want to train your body to deadlift heavier weights, experiment with rack pull variations that have you start with the barbell closer to the middle of your shins. 

Sumo-Stance Rack Pulls

Why Do It: “Doing the rack pull with a sumo deadlift technique will allow you to train other muscles that will aid in building your conventional deadlift,” says McFarland, such as the adductors (inner thighs). Of course, if you do your deadlifts sumo style rather than conventional, the carryover to your sumo deadlift is obvious. Note, however, that because you’re pulling with a wide stance, you may need to lower the safety bars of the power rack even further to ensure the barbell continues to sit just below your knees.

How To Do It: 

Step 1. Set the safety bars of a power rack so the barbell sits just below your knees. 

Step 2. Assume a sumo stance by setting your feet wide, near the plates on the bar, and turn your toes slightly outward. Sit back into a quarter squat so you can get low enough to grasp the barbell with a shoulder-width grip, hands inside your thighs.

Step 3. Squeeze your butt and drive your hips forward to stand up with the barbell.

Step 4. Bend your hips back and lower the weight back to the safety bars under control. 

Who Should Do Rack Pulls?

(See 16:09 in the video.)

Anyone can perform rack pulls, but whether you should or not depends on your goals. Strength athletes—powerlifters and strongmen—or anyone looking to increase their one-rep maxes on deadlift variants will benefit the most from including rack pulls in their programs (see below for more details on how to do that).

Bodybuilders (competitive or hobbyists) can probably skip the rack pull. While it can build muscle in the glutes, hamstrings, and back, there are better exercises for targeting these muscles individually for maximum growth. The rack pull’s limited range of motion is one hindrance that makes it suboptimal for building muscle, as muscles seem to grow best when trained through a full range of motion, and possibly with specific emphasis on lengthened positions.

A 2023 systematic review published in the International Journal of Strength and Conditioning studied the effects of full and partial range of motion training on various outcomes (muscle hypertrophy, i.e. muscle growth, and muscular strength and power). The researchers found that training with a full range of motion was more effective than using a partial range of motion. 

Another 2023 study published in Sports had 19 women perform biceps curls in two different ranges of motion—from full extension to partially flexed (bottom-half reps), and partially flexed to fully flexed (top-half reps). After eight weeks, the bottom-half rep group saw greater biceps hypertrophy and strength gains, leading the researchers to believe that more muscle growth occurs in ranges of motion where the muscle is most stretched.

Another problem with the rack pull is the lack of focus on the eccentric, or lowering phase, of each rep. Muscles are stronger when they’re lengthening under load than when shortening (ever notice how you can control the weight easier on the way down than you can lifting it up?). That means that they don’t have to work as hard. So, in order to work the tissue maximally, you need to slow down the speed and emphasize tension as you lower the weight, so it gives your muscles the same stimulus on the way down as it did on the way up. This is why you often see bodybuilders lowering weights more slowly than they raise them up. While you can try to control your descent on a rack pull, the fact is that using heavy weights makes it impractical and dangerous to try for eccentrics that are two to three seconds long. Therefore, keep your rack pull reps controlled, but emphasize getting the weight up fast and explosively.

How and When To Incorporate Rack Pulls Into Your Training

(See 16:54 in the video.)

“Rack pulls are one of my favorite exercises to perform as a main movement, so perform them immediately following your warm-up,” says McFarland.

If you want to hit a new PR on your deadlift and have determined that your lockout is holding you back, McFarland recommends replacing your deadlift with rack pulls in three-week cycles. Gradually add weight for a series of warm-up sets, keeping your reps under 5, and work up to 100% of your deadlift max for a single rep. In Week 2, work up to a single rep with 105%, and then perform a single with 110–115% in the third week. For example, if you can currently deadlift 405 from the floor for one rep with good technique, use 405 on the rack pull in Week 1, 425 in Week 2, and 445 or more in Week 3.

In Week 4, deload by going back to your regular deadlift and working up to a single rep at 80–85% of your deadlift max. This will give your body a little break and keep your regular deadlifting skills sharp. The next week (Week 5), try for a new deadlift PR.

“Programming rack pulls closer to when you’re looking to max out will give your body the stimulation needed to prime the central nervous system [for greater strength],” says McFarland, “without fatiguing the muscles as much as the standard deadlift.”

The post How To Do Rack Pulls Like An Expert (The Complete Guide) appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The stiff-leg deadlift can be done with a barbell or dumbbells and it targets the hamstrings, with some benefit to the glutes, lower back, and adductors.

2. You should lower the weight slowly and ease into the stretch. Stiff-leg deadlifts put a lot of tension on your hamstrings, so warm up thoroughly and do them late in your workout.

3. Keep your knees slightly bent and try to maintain that angle throughout the lift. Your legs don’t have to be rigidly straight, but they shouldn’t bend so much that you turn the lift into a Romanian deadlift or squat.

4. The difference between the stiff-leg deadlift and RDL is the degree of knee bend. One focuses on the hamstrings and the other on the glutes.

What Is A Stiff-Leg Deadlift and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:28 in the video above.)

The stiff-leg deadlift, aka stiff-legged deadlift, or straight-leg deadlift, is a variant of the conventional barbell deadlift done with the intention of targeting the hamstrings as much as possible, with some added benefit to the spinal erectors of the lower back and the adductors (inner thighs). Some people start it from the floor, but we think it’s better in most cases to start standing, with the bar at arm’s length in front of you, and bend your hips back, lowering the bar while keeping your legs nearly straight (or stiff). Then you come back up to standing.

If you do it right, you’ll feel a tremendous stretch in your hamstrings. The stiff-leg deadlift isolates the hamstrings’ hip extension function—that is, your ability to push your hips forward and stand tall—as opposed to their other function, which is bending the knee. If you combine stiff-leg deadlifts with any leg curl variation, you’ve got a complete hamstring workout in just two exercises. (To learn about other deadlifts you can do at home with one or more kettlebells, see our guide to kettlebell deadlifts.)

How To Do The Barbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift

(See 01:16 in the video.)

Step 1. Deadlift the barbell so you’re in a standing position, or, if you have a power rack, start with the bar on the rack at about thigh height. Starting the exercise from standing is safer than pulling straight off the floor with stiff knees, and using a power rack will save you energy getting into position. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart, and stand with the barbell at arm’s length and your feet hip-width apart.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Now unlock your hips and tilt your pelvis back—think about pointing your tailbone up into the air.

Step 3. Unlock your knees so there’s a slight bend in them. Think “soft knees.” Now, keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone, push your hips back as far as you can, as if trying to touch your butt to the wall behind you. As your hips bend, try to keep your knees in the same position.

They’ll want to bend as your hips go further back, and it’s OK to let them move a little bit, but try to keep the same knee angle you started with. If you do it right, you’ll feel a very deep stretch in your hamstrings as your hips move.

Step 4. When your hips are as far back as they can go and your hamstrings are as stretched as you can stand, extend your hips to come back to standing tall.

Tips:

– As your hips go back, focus on keeping your chest up. If someone were standing in front of you, they should be able to see the logo on your shirt. This will help you to keep your lower back flat the whole time. NEVER let it round forward while holding a weight in front of you.

– As you bend your hips, feel your weight shift to your heels. If you feel your weight centered over your feet, or in your toes, you’re not moving your hips properly.

– Take at least two seconds to lower your torso and feel the stretch in your hamstrings. Again, it’s a BIG stretch, so give your body time to ease into it. Bouncing your reps can lead to injury.

– Don’t go any lower than your hips will allow. As soon as you feel they’re pushed all the way back, and your hamstrings are stretched, come back up. Going any lower than that will probably result in your lower back rounding forward, and that will increase injury risk as well as take the emphasis off the hamstrings.

– Keep your lats active, pulling the bar close to your body. It doesn’t have to stay in contact with your legs the whole time as with a conventional deadlift, but the bar should move in a straight line up and down. Relaxing your back would cause the bar to drift in front of you, and that can make you lose your balance.

– Note that if you have particularly tight hamstrings, your range of motion may be small (maybe around knee height), and that’s OK. Don’t stretch beyond where you can control the movement just for the sake of getting more range. As you get stronger and more practiced with the movement, your range of motion will increase.

How To Do The Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift

(See 03:42 in the video.)

If you don’t have a barbell, or you want to increase your range of motion slightly, you can perform stiff-leg deadlifts with dumbbells or kettlebells. The movement is the same, but the dumbbells will allow you to position the load at your sides rather than in front of your body, and you may find that that allows you to feel the exercise more in your hamstrings and takes pressure off your lower back.

Step 1. Stand with the weights at your sides and your feet hip-width apart. Brace your core.

Step 2. Unlock your hips and your knees, and drive your hips straight back. Keep your knees stiff. When you feel the stretch in your hamstrings, come back up.

Muscles Targeted With The Stiff-Leg Deadlift

(See 04:13 in the video.)

The stiff-leg deadlift primarily works the hamstrings, but it will also train the spinal erectors, as they have to work isometrically to stabilize your lower back. Because you’re performing a hip extension, your glutes will get in on the job too. Finally, your adductors—the muscles that run down your inner thighs—also contribute to the movement.

Pro Tips: How To Avoid Common Mistakes When Deadlifting

(See 04:30 in the video.)

Mistake #1: Rounding your lower back

You’ll see some people in the gym and online doing stiff-leg deadlifts purely as a back exercise—sometimes intentionally, and sometimes not. They’ll bend at the waist instead of the hips, completely rounding their lower back. Or, in an effort to increase the range of motion, they’ll round their back toward the bottom of each rep. In either case, it’s usually a bad idea, as it can lead to a back injury.

The stiff-leg deadlift is meant to be done almost entirely by the hips. Once you can’t move them back anymore, extend your hips to come back up. Your body should form a straight line from your head down to your tailbone throughout the whole movement.

Mistake #2: Locking The Knees

Your goal should be to keep your knees from bending, but that doesn’t mean lock them out entirely. Locking your knees can cause too much tension in your hamstrings and lead to injury. Think “soft knees,” and let them bend just enough so that you get the best range of motion out of your hamstrings without losing tension in them.

Mistake #3: Bending The Knees Too Much

If you bend your knees the entire time you bend your hips, you’re going to turn the stiff-leg deadlift into a Romanian deadlift, conventional deadlift, or a squat. If at any time you feel your quads tensing up, you know you’ve bent your knees too much. Think about it like this, if your knee angle is totally straight, your knees would be 180 degrees, and if they were bent halfway, they’d be 90 degrees, so aim for roughly 160 degrees of knee bend.

Stiff Leg Deadlift Vs. Conventional Deadlift: Key Differences

(See 06:44 in the video.)

A conventional deadlift starts with the bar on the floor, and it allows you to bend your knees more so that your quads and glutes can contribute more to the movement. This makes the conventional deadlift a great overall strength exercise for the lower body.

In the stiff-leg deadlift, the goal is to take the quads and glutes out of the equation as much as possible to better isolate the hamstrings. To do this, you have to keep the knees nearly straight and focus on bending only at the hips.

For these reasons, the conventional deadlift is used more by powerlifters and weightlifters looking to strengthen the lower body as much as possible, while the stiff-leg deadlift is more popular among bodybuilders and other physique or figure athletes who are trying to develop each individual muscle group to its best potential.

Stiff-Leg Deadlift Vs. Romanian Deadlift

(See 07:25 in the video.)

The stiff-leg deadlift looks similar to another deadlift variant that starts from the standing position: the Romanian deadlift. Some coaches argue the two movements are really the same, but we see some subtle differences. In a Romanian deadlift, your knees are free to bend so that you can push your hips back as far as possible. That shifts the emphasis from the hamstrings to the glutes, and it allows you to use heavier loads. You’ll see powerlifters and weightlifters using Romanian deadlifts often to strengthen their glutes for bigger squats, deadlifts, and cleans, while the stiff-leg deadlift is usually the better option for bodybuilders and other physique/figure competitors chasing hamstring gains.

Look at the two pictures below, which show the bottom position of each lift, and the difference should be pretty clear. The first one is the stiff-leg deadlift, and the second is the RDL.

Straight-Leg Deadlift Variations

You can train the basic stiff-leg deadlift with a little more isolation and range of motion if you do it one leg at a time. Check out this article for a whole guide to single-leg deadlifting.

Straight-Leg Deadlift Alternatives

If you want another option that’s a little easier on both the hamstrings and the lower back than the single-leg deadlift, check out our guide to the B-stance Romanian deadlift.

How To Warm Up Before Stiff-Leg Deadlifts

(See 09:50 in the video.)

The stiff-leg deadlift is NOT an exercise that you want to jump into cold. With all the stretch it puts on the hamstrings, you need to warm up thoroughly beforehand. Here are two moves that will warm up your hamstrings and open your hips before you get into stiff-leg deadlifts.

Bodyweight Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. REPS?

Hip Flexor Stretch

Step 1. Kneel on the floor with one knee. Both hips and knees should be bent 90 degrees. Now tuck your tailbone under so your pelvis is level with the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Shift your weight forward, moving your front knee past your toe, until you feel a stretch in the front of the hip on the back leg. Keep your hips and shoulders facing forward. Your front foot must also stay flat on the floor. Hold for 30 seconds. REP?

It’s best to do stiff-leg deadlifts at the end of your leg days, preferably after you’ve done leg curls or another hamstring and/or glute exercise. Because the exercise puts your hamstrings under such an intense stretch, you don’t want to rush into them when you’re cold and not comfortable doing a full range of motion.

Who Should Do Stiff-Leg Deadlifts?

(See 11:39 in the video.)

If you’re someone who wants to slap some more meat on their hamstrings, the stiff-leg deadlift should be a cornerstone of your leg workouts. Also, if you’re a sprinter, other kind of track athlete, or anyone else who runs a lot in their sport, the stiff-leg deadlift will help you build strong hamstrings, which are key for fast, explosive running. Finally, if you compete in strength sports, like weightlifting or powerlifting, the stiff-leg deadlift will help strengthen the muscles you need to pick up big weights.

The post How To Do The Stiff-Leg Deadlift With A Barbell Or Dumbbells appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Genovese’s original sculpture now adorns an exclusive, limited-edition run of real, usable, 55-pound (25 kg) kettlebells, and $100K of the proceeds from their sale will go to one of Rogan’s favorite charities, Fight For The Forgotten, a non-profit that benefits displaced indigenous people in Africa. But the road to get here was a winding one. Below, Genovese tells the story of how the Joe Rogan Kettlebell came to be and the process of sculpting incredible works of art.

ONNIT: How long have you been sculpting? 

GENOVESE: I’ve been sculpting as a time-killer since I was a little kid. I don’t have any formal training in it, but my mom would make Christmas ornaments out of salt dough when I was little, and I was fascinated by them. I’ve always been obsessed with little objects—ornaments, or action figures. I went to school for film, but when I graduated I had no money to make movies. I got my creative outlet through sculpting. I started making pieces for myself in 2005 and selling a few commissioned pieces here and there, and it became a sincere business in 2017. 

Around that time I had a few big life changes. I was working in the film and television industry in New York, and then I went back to my hometown in Cape May, New Jersey, and thought about what I was going to do with my life. Sculpting just gave me so much joy, and I wondered what would happen if I spent all my time doing it. So I started sculpting around the clock. I sold a few of my sculptures on Etsy but they weren’t commissioned—they were just things that I wanted for myself. I would just think, “This is a cool idea; I want that,” and then I’d sculpt it. 

I was almost telling my autobiography through art. I was doing characters in movies and pop culture that told a story to me, or spoke to a certain change in my life. 

How did you decide to sculpt Joe Rogan? 

I was listening to a lot of podcasts while I sculpted. In 2017, I listened to The Joe Rogan Experience around the clock, so I sculpted a little object to represent that obsession—just a little bust of Rogan with his headphones on looking shocked, like his mind was being blown. Then I sent it to The Comedy Store [in Los Angeles, where Rogan often performs]. I happened to have a friend who goes there all the time and knew people there, and he said that if I sent the bust to them, he would know whom to get it to and that maybe Rogan would get hold of it. I sent the bust, but I didn’t hear anything back. 

Fast forward to 2019. I started to wonder if my friend had clowned me and had just taken the bust for himself, so I made a whiny post on Instagram about how I sent the bust but never heard anything back. The post was really directed at my friend because I thought he’d stolen it, but within a week of my posting, Joe posted a picture of the bust. I don’t know if it was a coincidence, or if someone saw my post and got the bust to him, but he had gotten a hold of it somehow. 

When Rogan posted that image, my followers on Instagram doubled—and so did my Etsy sales. That let me know I could turn sculpting into a full-time job. I moved out to Tucson and went all in. My dad lives here and he’s a talented gemstone artist, and I like the desert. It’s like living on a Star Trek planet [laughs]. 

So how did that original design evolve into the Joe Rogan Kettlebell? 

Onnit saw my whiny post about how I never heard back from The Comedy Store, and they commented on it. I then reached out to Onnit directly and said I would love to design kettlebells for you guys, because I liked the Monster bells you sell. I had an idea for a Rogan kettlebell but I didn’t want to give it away—I wanted Onnit to hire me first! 

Anyway, we lost touch for a while. Then, in 2022, I was planning on doing a bust of another comedian. I went to a meet-and-greet with him and he was so rude to me that I changed my mind. Instead, I started working on the Rogan kettlebell sculpture immediately. During the pandemic, Rogan was posting a lot about his home workouts, and I saw a lot of photos of him making that workout face when he did his kettlebell training. I saw it so much I decided to sculpt his expression into a kettlebell.  

Is it true that the sculpture actually started out as a bust of Bruce Lee? 

I had sculpted a bust of Bruce Lee and had it lying around, and he was making a similar face to the one Rogan made in his workouts. I thought I could save some work by adapting it [laughs]. So I turned Bruce Lee into Joe for the kettlebell. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s what Joe was doing all along—making a Bruce Lee face. 

What happened after you sculpted it? 

I posted it online and [comedian] Bert Kreischer—who was already following me—saw it and shared it with Rogan. Then Joe shared it. In 24 hours, I got more than a thousand requests for that kettlebell. I sent Joe a message, thinking he’d probably never see it, but I told him I’d gotten all these requests and I’d really like to sell it. But I didn’t want to do it without his blessing, because it’s his likeness. If I’m making 10 of something, I don’t think about asking permission, but people wanted me to mass produce this thing, so I wanted to ask Rogan if it was OK. I never expected to hear from him, but he got back to me immediately. He said, “You have my blessing to do it, but I want it to be a real kettlebell,” not just a sculpture. 

I started looking around for people who did cast iron, and the quotes they were giving me were just insane. I quickly realized it would take too long and cost too much, so I went back to Joe and asked if Onnit would release it. He said, “Give me a minute.” He asked someone at Onnit, and five minutes later Rogan got back to me saying Onnit would do it, and here’s the number to call to connect with them. 

How does the final version of the Rogan kettlebell compare to your original sculpture? 

It’s bigger! Onnit said it will weigh 55 pounds [editor’s note: the bell is 7.67 inches wide and 11.8 inches top to bottom]. They upscaled it so it’s lifesize—approximately the size of a real head [laughs]. 

During the kettlebell’s sale, Onnit is donating $100K to Fight For The Forgotten, a charity that benefits displaced people in Africa. How does it feel to have your art associated with such a huge humanitarian effort?

That couldn’t make me happier. If I had financial independence, I would donate everything I could from my own art’s proceeds to causes that matter to me. The fact that Rogan and Onnit do that really makes me feel good. I’m thrilled that the kettlebell will benefit Fight For The Forgotten, and I hope we sell so many kettlebells that people keep placing orders for more. 

What goes into making these sculptures? Shed some light on your process. 

I gather as many photo references of the person or the object as I can possibly find. As many angles as I can get. If it’s a person, I need a perfect profile shot to get the shape of their face, and I need them taken with a lens that’s over 50mm, because you get photographic distortion if you have a wide-angle lens, and that will screw up the face. 

From there, it’s really just brute force. I attack the clay and keep working it and working it until I think it looks good. Anything you try to represent artistically is really just a combination of abstract shapes. I look at a face and I go, “What’s the shape of this part of the nose? What’s the proportion of the eyes to the ears?” You do a million calculations in your brain. I just have a knack for it. I can’t explain it. I’d be the world’s worst teacher. It’s mostly just obsession and not giving up until I’m satisfied. 

The busts all start as a plumbing pipe that’s screwed into the base. Then I just build up clay around it most of the time. They’re cast in either stone—gypsum—or a polyurethane resin and metal powder. That gives the piece a beautiful metallic effect, like cast iron or cast bronze. 

I usually shoot a time-lapse film when I’m making the sculptures, but, unfortunately, I didn’t with the one that became the Rogan Kettlebell because I was getting tired of filming them and I figured it would just sink into obscurity. I thought, “I’ll just make this and post it and everybody will have a laugh and move on.” [Laughs] 

How many hours do you put into these sculptures, and what do they sell for? 

A full-size bust takes anywhere from 75 to more than 200 hours to sculpt. I do everything by hand, and it’s a lot of standing. Making a belt buckle might take 20 hours at most. I have one big room in my house that I turned into my studio. I’m like a vampire—I sleep during the day and sculpt at night.  

Mini-busts weigh three to six pounds and cost $300–$800. A full-size bust is twice as big and will cost in the thousands. If you want a one-off sculpture with exclusive rights to it, that’s around 10 grand. 

Have you sculpted any other famous people that you’ve actually gotten to interact with? 

Apart from Rogan, another thing I’m known for is doing an action figure of [comedian] Tom Segura with a broken arm. He’s notorious for making fun of people who get injured on video, and then he broke his arm playing basketball a couple years ago. So I sculpted an action figure of him with a broken arm. But he actually found out about me before that because I painted a portrait of his mom. He’s always bringing her on his podcast and showing her terrible things; she’s appalled by them and I just thought she had the funniest reactions. I thought it would be a nice gesture to paint his mom and send it to him. He loved it and shared it on his show and followed me on Instagram. But I think that was after Rogan and I did the deal on the kettlebell.  

We read on your Instagram that you destroy the originals of everything you sculpt. Don’t you think they might be worth a fortune someday, and isn’t it hard to part with your creations? 

Yeah, I do destroy them. At first it was because I just didn’t have the money to keep buying clay. Now it’s become more of like a Buddhist thing. Monks used to make art out of sand and then wipe it away. I like the idea of the impermanence of art and deleting the original, because that’s what’s going to happen over time anyway. 

That said, I have the molds, so I can duplicate these sculptures as many times as the mold survives. Also, I do have full-size busts of Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix that I’ve kept, and I may continue to hold on to one of them. 

How can people place orders for your work? 

You can place orders on Etsy. I’ve been making a documentary feature so I shut the store down for a while, but it will be open when the Rogan Kettlebell comes out. I sell my sculptures mostly as stickers, busts, and belt buckles. 

What’s next for you? 

I went to film school and wanted to make documentaries, but I had to stop because I had no money. The movie I was working on when I stopped, which I’m picking up again now, is a feature documentary called Gem Show, and it’s about the gem and mineral trade and the crazy characters you meet in that world. My dad is the main character, and it’s mostly a personal story about my relationship with him and how he’s battled alcoholism and drug addiction his whole life. He went sober out of nowhere a few years back and wanted to make this movie. I followed him around the world for several years with a camera to different mines and gem cutters. I was exploring the nature of being an artist and how the sacrifices for trying to achieve excellence affect your life. You can either choose your passion or walk away from it. The elevator pitch for it would be Uncut Gems meets Tiger King, because my dad is a Tiger King-like character. It should come out in the next year or so. Film is still my greatest passion. If I had financial independence, I’d still sculpt but I’d mostly make films. 

Sign up now to enter our drawing for a chance to purchase the limited-edition Joe Rogan Kettlebell. Participants will be notified the week of September 16.

Learn more about the Fight For the Forgotten at their website, and Christopher Genovese on Instagram (@freakshopgallery). 

The post Q&A With The Creator of The Joe Rogan Kettlebell appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Pendlay row is a bent-over row where you let the bar settle on the floor for a moment at the bottom of each rep.

2. The Pendlay row builds starting strength, and develops the lats and upper back.

3. Make sure you keep your hips and torso in the same position throughout the whole set.

4. The Pendlay row can be done first in your workout or as an assistance lift after deadlifts or cleans.

What Is A Pendlay Row and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:21 in the video above.)

The Pendlay row looks something like a deadlift, but is executed more like a bent-over row. The bar is on the floor, you bend your hips back to reach it, row, and then return the bar to the floor each rep. Because you have to reset the bar on the floor, your lower back gets a bit of a break, at least compared to doing the basic bent-over row, where you hold the flexed-hip position throughout the set and lower the bar to arm’s length. This reset also allows you to lift heavier weights, which makes the Pendlay row a great strength exercise for the lats, upper and lower back, core, and grip.

The Pendlay row is named for the late weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay, who unwittingly invented the exercise in an effort to get his students to train bent-over rows more efficiently and with stricter form. It also carries over well to developing the explosive back strength needed for weightlifting and powerlifting movements such as the clean, snatch, and deadlift.

How to Perform Proper Technique For The Pendlay Row

(See 01:07 in the video.)

Step 1. Set up as you would to deadlift, placing your feet at about hip-width and just behind the barbell on the floor. Keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone, bend your hips back as far as you can, and bend your knees until you can reach the barbell with your hands about shoulder-width apart or a little wider. Your hips should be bent about 90 degrees so that your torso is parallel to the floor, and you must maintain this angle throughout the set.

Step 2. Draw your shoulders back and down, as if pushing your chest out and closer to the bar beneath you. You should feel your lat muscles contract. Now brace your core. Your neck should be neutral, with your eyes focused on the floor in front of you.

Step 3. Keeping the rest of your body as still as possible, row the bar—explosively—to the bottom of your chest/upper abs. Remember to maintain your hip position so your lower back stays neutral and flat.

Step 4. Lower the bar quickly, but under control, until it touches the floor again. Take a moment to reset the bar (especially if it wobbles), and begin your next rep.

Make sure the bar touches down in the same place it started. It’s OK to let the bar come down fairly quickly, as the movement is supposed to be explosive with an emphasis on the concentric (upward phase of the lift), but for the sake of safety and control don’t just let it drop.

The Pendlay row works well when programmed for lower reps, with sets of 5–8 reps being the sweet spot.

Muscles Worked In The Pendlay Row

(See 02:26 in the video.)

The key players here are:

– Lats (drawing the arms back)

– Rhomboids (retracting the shoulders)

– Rear deltoids (pulling the arms back)

– Lower and mid traps (retracting the shoulder blades)

– Spinal erectors (stabilizing your spine in the bent-over position)

– Biceps (bending the elbows)

– Core (the various ab muscles brace your spine)

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

(See 02:50 in the video.)

#1. Changing torso and hip position.

Coach Pendlay offered his version of the row to correct a problem he often saw in others rowing: raising the torso. A set might start off strict, but as the lifter tires, he/she tends to bounce the upper body, heaving the weight up with more of the low back than is necessary and pulling the weight to the stomach (thereby cutting off the range of motion).

In a proper Pendlay row, you must keep your hips bent 90 degrees and your torso locked in place. Only the shoulders and arms move.

#2. Rounding the spine

In any bent-over exercise where the chest is unsupported, there’s a greater demand on your trunk to stabilize the torso and spine. Rounding the back is the enemy here, and it invites the risk of lower-back injury. Remember to think “long spine” and keep your lower back in its natural arch. As you bend over into position, think about trying to touch your butt to the wall behind you, as opposed to folding over at the waist.

#3. Not letting the weight touch the floor between reps.

If you don’t touch the weight down between reps, you’re just doing a bent-over row. At the same time, if you bounce the weight off the floor too quickly, you’re likely to break form. The whole value of the Pendlay row comes from beginning each rep from a dead stop. By eliminating momentum, you develop more of what coaches call “starting strength”—the ability to get the weight moving. Relying on momentum to keep the bar in motion is a way to cut corners and miss out on the full benefit.

If you have trouble disciplining yourself to reset between reps, try counting to two after you touch the bar down and before you begin the next rep. Treat each rep like its own set.

#4. Pulling the bar to the wrong place.

Rowing the bar too high or too low on the torso can throw off the target muscles being used. For example, pulling the bar up toward the collarbone can end up working the arms and upper traps a bit more than the upper and mid back. Alternatively, pulling the bar to the waist can reduce the activation of the upper back.

Note the proximity of your body to the bar in your setup. Lining up the bar so it’s just over your shoelaces is a good starting point. Once you bend over the bar to pick it up, aim for your shoulder blades to be in line with the bar—not your deltoids or belly button. This will encourage you to pull in a straight line.

Pendlay Row Exercise Variations

(See 04:47 in the video.)

The Pendlay row can be customized for your needs and goals with a few simple tweaks.

Elevated Pendlay Row

If you’re especially tall, or lack the hip mobility to reach the bar when it’s on the floor without rounding your lower back, it’s OK to do a Pendlay row with the bar elevated on some blocks, mats, or weight plates. This will shorten the range of motion some so you can focus on rowing without worry about the safety of your spine position. An elevation of anywhere from 3 to 12 inches can be a game-changer.

Paused Pendlay Row

For variety, you can add an isometric hold at the top of each rep. That is, a pause when the bar is pulled to your chest. Most people have a habit of bouncing the bar off their chests, and the top of the rep is the weakest biomechanical position in the movement. Therefore, it’s a good idea to force yourself to hold the weight there from time to time, and it will not only strengthen your row but also help to clean up your form.

Pauses are also a good strategy to use if you’re injured or don’t have access to much weight. Taking an extra second or two to hold the top position with your back fully contracted will make lighter weight feel much heavier, and see that you get the best training effect from the weights you have access to or can handle.

Alternatives To The Pendlay Row

(See 06:15 in the video.)

Fisherman Row

While the Pendlay row requires only a barbell and plates, you may work out at home with just a bench and dumbbells. In this case, you might consider doing a single-arm dumbbell row variation. A fisherman row is a dumbbell row done with two benches. This creates a lot of stability and helps you keep your hips square to the floor, which encourages a long, straight spine.

Step 1. Place two benches parallel to each other, and rest a dumbbell on the floor in between them. (If you don’t have two benches, use a step or box to substitute for one.)

Step 2. Place your knees on one bench, shoulder-width apart. Rest one hand on the bench in front of you, and grasp the dumbbell with the other. Your hips should be square to the floor.

Step 3. Row the dumbbell to your side, straight up from the floor. Return it to the floor, pause, and repeat.

Using a dumbbell also allows you to train the row through a slightly greater range of motion, as well as utilize a higher rep range than would be practical with the barbell version.

Inverted Row

The inverted row is ideal for home workouts or anyplace else you have very limited equipment. In this case, you’re moving your own bodyweight and not a barbell, although you can set it up with a barbell on a power rack, or a suspension training system like a TRX or gymnastics rings. The inverted row spares the lower back and enables the lifter to pause at the top and/or bottom of each rep.

Step 1. Set the bar or suspension handles to around waist height, and hang from the handles with your feet on the floor. Extend your hips and position yourself so that you’re suspended above the floor and your body forms a straight line. Draw your shoulders back and down to engage the lats.

Step 2. Pull your body up to the bar or handles, and lower yourself back under control. It’s important that your body moves as a unit. That means no hiking the hips or bending the knees to help yourself out.

How To Warm Up For Pendlay Rows

(See 07:50 in the video.)

Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 2–3 sets of 5–15 reps.

Cat Camel

Step 1. Get on all fours and brace your core. Your arms should be directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Step 2. Press your arms into the floor while you round your upper back toward the ceiling, spreading your shoulder blades. Hold for a second.

Step 3. Now retract your shoulder blades while you arch your upper back and drive your solar plexus toward the floor. Hold for a second. That’s one rep. Imagine the motion as having a string running through your solar plexus with someone pulling it up and then down—try to move at the upper back and not the lower back. Do 3 sets of 10 reps.

Who Should Perform the Pendlay Row?

(See 09:48 in the video.)

Lifters who want a break from the conventional barbell row, as well as those whose lower backs bother them, may have an easier time doing the Pendlay row. Resting the bar between reps can be a saving grace for the lumbar region. Pendlay rows are also a great way to check your form and ensure your torso stays in the correct position, so you could consider them a good pre-requisite to master before returning to regular bent-over rows.

They’re also a perfect accessory lift done after deadlifts, cleans, snatches, or other movements that some lifters compete in. The Pendlay row trains you to keep your hips and torso braced while you pull explosively—a huge component to all of the aforementioned lifts.

Additionally, any lifter who wants to build a strong back from the base of the neck down to their sacrum can benefit from working on the Pendlay row from time to time, especially if they train at home or in a gym where equipment is sparse.

Differences Between the Pendlay Row and Other Rows

(See 10:36 in the video.)

As we explained above, letting the bar settle on the ground is a key difference between the Pendlay row and the conventional bent-over row. Resting momentarily between reps gives the lower back and core muscles a break. Plus, having to explode the weight up from a dead-stop position builds power that can translate to weightlifting and other sports. It also lets you train heavier than a bent-over row and make it a more strength-focused movement.

Both Pendlay and bent-over rows require plenty of trunk stability, and that sets both movements apart from machine and chest-supported rows, which allow you to isolate the lat and upper-back muscles more completely. Subsequently, supported rows are probably better overall choices for pure muscle gains, while Pendlay and bent-over rows are, arguably, more functional movements that involve the whole body and build strength that more readily applies to other lifts and real-life activities.

The T-bar row, in which you straddle the barbell while one end is fixed against the floor, is another barbell-based rowing movement. The T-bar setup allows you to stand more upright and is a little easier on the lower back than both the Pendlay and bent-over row, and also lets you go heavier than these lifts, but it doesn’t offer the full-body challenge of the Pendlay or bent row.

Choose the row that’s most appropriate for your goals, and feel free to experiment with each variation over time. For instance, people who are interested in greater strength and power for weightlifting or powerlifting competition may choose to make Pendlay and bent-over rows their mainstay, while muscle-seekers may opt for chest-supported or T-bar rows. Furthermore, if you’re dealing with a back injury, Pendlay rows are a better choice than bent-overs, and chest-supported rows would probably be better still.

How to Fit Pendlay Rows Into Your Workout

(See 12:15 in the video.)

The Pendlay row is a demanding lift that offers the potential to move a lot of weight. For those reasons, it will ask a lot of the nervous system and grip strength of the lifter. Placing the Pendlay closer to the beginning of your back (or pull day) workout would be a smart choice to maximize the amount of weight lifted and the stimulus (it can also come second in line behind deadlifts, if you do those on pull day).

Performing Pendlays later in your workout will mean you’ll have to go lighter and may not get as much out of them, but it’s a good strategy if you want to use less weight so as not to aggravate a back injury or cheat form.

In general, it’s good to keep the reps on the lower end (5–8). You can complement Pendlays with other lower-back intensive lifts done for higher reps (10 and above), like the back extension, good morning, and bird dog.

The post How To Do the Pendlay Row for a Bigger Back appeared first on Onnit Academy.

and suddenly he collapses, as if picked off by a sniper at long range, clutching the back of his thigh. The crowd goes quiet. The announcers turn somber. It’s another hamstring tear.

What Are Hamstrings And How To Train Them?

The hamstrings—a collection of three muscles extending from your sit bones to the backs of your knees—are among the most frequently injured muscles in sports. A study on NFL players reported 1,716 hamstring injuries over a 10-year period, which breaks down to roughly five or six injuries per team, per season. The numbers are similar in pro soccer, basketball, and among regular people in recreational sports (1, 2).

If you’re a desk jockey who spends most of his/her day sitting at a computer, you may be even worse off, especially if you’re planning to get in shape or be more active again. A 2017 study of college students found that 82% of the subjects had tight hamstrings due to prolonged sitting—and these were young adults with a mean age of 20.

Finally, if you’re a gym rat who’s long made the mistake of focusing your leg training on the fronts of your thighs—hitting the hammies as an afterthought—you’ve already lit the fuse that can lead to a hamstring blowout. A study in Isokinetics and Exercise Science showed that imbalances in quad and hamstring strength were associated with non-contact leg injuries.

The problem lies in the hamstrings’ design; they’re much more complex than most other muscles. They cross two major joints—the hip and the knee—and shorten at both ends. At the top end, the hamstrings work with your glute muscles to extend your hip (picture the movement of standing up out of a chair). At the lower end—near the back of your knee—the hammies bend your knee joint, pulling your heel up and back. When you use the hamstrings’ two functions at once, such as when you’re sprinting and you drive one leg behind you, they do double duty: the two ends of the muscles pull toward one another, like the ends of a stretched-out exercise band. That’s a lot of tension passing through a single muscle group, and one reason the hamstrings cramp and tear with relative frequency.

The remedy: train both major hamstring functions—hip extension and knee flexion—with good form and appropriate loads. Workouts for hamstrings make these muscles less susceptible to injury, and more capable of producing force and power, so you’ll end up a better lifter and athlete, and less likely to become a statistic.

The 8 Best Hamstring Exercises

A hamstring exercise will require you to either extend your hips or bend your knees—and some of the most effective movements will actually combine both actions, training the glutes as well as the hammies. The following are the best hamstring builders, organized by their primary function.

HIP EXTENSION

In these movements, the hamstrings work with the glutes to push your thigh bones from a flexed position (knee pulled up in front of you) to an extended one (knees moving away from your body). The movement is known as a hinge, and it helps you run faster, jump higher, and maintain a pain-free back. “Most of us can’t get enough hinging,” says Tony Gentilcore, C.S.C.S., owner of Core Fitness in Brookline, MA.  

1) Stiff-Legged Deadlift

Target: hamstrings, glutes, adductors

You should feel a deep stretch in the back of your thighs from your butt to your knees

Step 1: Set a barbell on a rack at about hip level (if you’re very mobile, you can start with the bar on the floor). Grasp the bar with a shoulder-width grip and take it off the rack. Step back and plant your feet hip-width apart. Draw your shoulders back together and downward (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2: Take a deep breath, draw your ribs down, and brace your core. Push your hips backward and, maintaining a long spine from your head to your pelvis, lower your body until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Allow your knees to bend only slightly.

Step 3: Squeeze your glutes as you extend your hips and come back up.

The stiff-legged deadlift can also be performed with dumbbells/kettlebells.

2) Back Extension

Target: hamstrings, glutes

You should feel tension in the center of the back of your thighs

Step 1: Adjust the pad on the back extension bench so that when you lie on it the top edge lines up with the crease in your hips. Using the handles for support, set up on the bench so your hips rest on the pad and your ankles are braced by the ankle pads and your feet rest against the foot plate about hip-width apart.

Step 2: Turn your toes outward slightly. Interlace your fingers behind your head, spread your elbows wide, and keep them there throughout the movement. Bend at the hips to lower your torso toward the floor, stopping before your lower back rounds. Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a straight line.

Step 3: Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Now squeeze your glutes and hamstrings and extend your hips to raise your torso up until your body forms a straight line from your head to your feet.

If bodyweight alone is too easy for you, add resistance by holding a dumbbell (as shown above).

3) Kettlebell Swing

Target: hamstrings, glutes, quads, adductors, core

You should feel a stretch in the back of your thighs as you swing the weight back between your legs.

Step 1: Place a kettlebell on the floor and stand about two feet behind it with feet shoulder-width apart.

Step 2: Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (think: “proud chest”). Draw your ribs down and tuck your tailbone slightly to make your pelvis level with the floor. Brace your abs.

Step 3: Bend your hips backward to lower your torso and grasp the handle of the kettlebell with both hands, overhand.

Step 4: Keeping a long line from your head to your pelvis, and your shoulder blades pressing downward toward your back pockets, shift your weight to your heels. Bend your knees slightly and lift the kettlebell off the floor and hike it back between your legs.

Step 5: When your arms make contact with your inner thighs, forcefully contract your hamstrings and glutes and thrust your hips forward, coming into a standing position and swinging the kettlebell forward and up to about eye level. Allow the kettlebell to swing back between your legs, folding at the hips and bending your knees slightly as the kettlebell swings down and back to begin the next rep.

Do not lift the kettlebell with your upper body, as if performing a front raise shoulder exercise. The swing is an explosive movement and the glutes and hamstrings must perform almost all of the work.

4) Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

Target: hamstrings, glutes, adductors

You should feel a deep stretch in the back of your thigh and butt.

Step 1: Hold a dumbbell in one hand and stand on the opposite leg with your foot facing straight forward.

Step 2: Bend the knee of the working leg slightly. Keeping a long spine and your core braced, drive your hips backward as far as you can, so that your torso lowers toward the floor. Stop when you feel your hamstrings are fully stretched and you can’t go any lower without losing your lower back position (it should be straight).

Step 3. Squeeze your glutes to come back up. If you have trouble keeping your balance, you can rest the non-working leg on the floor with your heel raised. Place the toes of that foot right behind the heel of your working foot. Your feet should be hip-width apart. This is called a B-stance Romanian deadlift, and it will provide stability so you can better isolate the hamstrings and glutes.

KNEE FLEXION

These moves (virtually all variations of a machine leg curl) minimize the action at the hip joint while dialing it up at the knee. “I prefer knee flexion isolation moves for beginners and those coming off injury,” says Gentilcore. “There’s more external support so it’s easier to perform and less intimidating.” Isolating a muscle can also help you feel its action more precisely—an essential skill for the novice lifter or athlete.

5) Machine Lying Leg Curl

Target: hamstrings

You should feel tension in the center of the back of your thighs

Leg curl exercises require machines, making them moves to include in any hamstring workout at the gym. If you don’t train in a public gym, we’ll show you some approximations you can do at home further down.

Step 1: Adjust the ankle pad of the machine so that when you lie down on the support pad your knees will line up with the lever arm’s axis of rotation. Lie facedown on the machine with the backs of your ankles against the ankle pad. If your machine has a support pad that bends upward, position yourself so that your hip joints rest directly over that point.

Step 2: Firmly grasp the machine’s handgrips, lengthening your spine and contracting your lats (the muscles on the sides of your torso). Set your feet so they are parallel and about six inches apart, and flex them hard at the ankles (bend your feet back so your toes are closer to your shins).

Step 3: Keeping your neck and torso long, your hips pressed down into the bench, and your feet parallel throughout the movement, squeeze your hamstrings and slowly bend your knees, drawing the lever arm as close as possible toward your butt.

Step 4: Hold the contracted position for a one-count, squeezing your hamstrings as hard as possible. Slowly reverse the movement, fully straightening your legs at the knees.

6) Machine Seated Leg Curl

Target: hamstrings

You should feel tension in the center of the back of your thighs

Step 1. Sit in a seated hamstring curl machine and line your knees up with the axis of rotation. Extend your knees and rest your lower legs on the ankle pad just above your ankles. Secure the knee pad at the bottom of your thighs.

Step 2. Hold the handles for stability and bend your knees, driving your heels back behind you until your hamstrings are fully flexed. Slowly extend your legs again under control.

If you can, try to hinge your hips and bend forward a bit and hold this position throughout the exercise (while keeping your back flat). This will help you put a greater stretch on the hamstrings and activate more muscle.

HYBRID HIP EXTENSION/KNEE FLEXION

These moves combine the hamstrings’ two functions, making them somewhat more complex than the exercises in the other categories. “Multifaceted movements are great for athletic populations,” says Gentilcore. “They emulate sport and real life to a high degree.” But that doesn’t mean you should skip the other types of hamstring moves, he says, no matter what your goals. “All three categories serve a purpose, and when trained in concert, will likely lead to the best results and more bulletproof hammies.”

7) Glute-Ham Raise

Target: hamstrings

You should feel tension all throughout the back of your thighs

Step 1: Adjust the foot plate of the glute-ham bench back far enough so that when you lie on it the top edge of the pad will line up with the crease in your hips.

Step 2: Using the handles for support, set up on the bench and place your feet on the foot plate, bracing the backs of your ankles against the ankle pads.

Step 3: Set your feet so they are parallel and about hip-width apart. Once your lower body is locked in place, release the handles and extend your hips until your torso is perpendicular to the floor and your knees are bent 90 degrees. This is your starting position.

Step 4: Draw your ribs down and tuck your tailbone under slightly so your pelvis is level. Brace your core. Now lower your body toward the floor under control until it forms a straight line, from head to feet. Your heels will come off the foot plate, and that’s OK. Drive your toes down hard. If that’s too difficult, you can bend slightly at the hips, or use a stick for support (see the Elite Hamstring Workout below).

Step 5: Push your toes into the foot plate and contract your glutes, hamstrings, and calves to pull your body back up to vertical (again, if you need an easier version, keep the bend in your hips). Pause for a moment, and then slowly begin the next rep.

8) Swiss-Ball Leg Curl

Target: hamstrings and glutes

You should feel tension in the center of the back of your thighs and glutes

Step 1: Lie on your back on the floor with your heels elevated on a medium-sized Swiss ball. Your feet should be about six inches apart and your hands placed beside you on the floor, palms down.

Step 2: Flex your feet, brace your core, and drive your heels into the ball to raise your hips off the floor. Try to keep your neck relaxed, but squeeze your glutes and hamstrings as you bridge up.

Step 3: Bend your knees as in a machine leg curl, rolling the ball toward you. Be sure to keep your core braced so you don’t hyperextend your lower back.

Step 4: Hold the contracted position, squeezing your glutes and hamstrings as hard as possible for a two-count. Then slowly reverse the movement, extending your legs and returning to the starting position.

Best Bodyweight Hamstring Exercises That Can Be Done at Home or On The Road

If you don’t have a gym membership or are limited to only the most basic equipment (and a little imagination), you can get a great hamstring-focused workout with these exercises.

1) Slider Leg Curl

(See 00:41 in the video above)

Target: hamstrings, glutes

Sets: 2  Reps: 6–12

You should feel tension in the center of the back of your thighs and glutes

This lift is a variation on the Swiss-ball leg curl and uses exercise sliders, but furniture sliders from a hardware store work too, and even paper plates can suffice—if you can train on a waxed or hardwood floor. Ideally, you can perform this move on a smooth surface that won’t create too much friction for the sliders.

Step 1: Lie on your back on the floor. Rest your heels on a pair of sliders and place your hands beside you on the floor, palms down. Set your feet parallel and about six inches apart. Now bend your knees, sliding your feet back close to your butt.

Step 2: Tuck your tailbone under slightly, draw your ribs down, and take a deep breath into your belly. Brace your core. Contract your glutes and hamstrings and press your heels into the sliders, elevating your hips and lower back to full extension. In other words, bridge your hips up. Be sure to keep your core braced to prevent hyperextending your lower back. This is your starting position.

Step 3: Slowly extend your legs, sliding your heels away from you until your butt and legs are just above the floor. When they’re straight, bend your knees and curl the sliders back toward your butt.

If that’s too tough, start by performing only the negative portion of the movement, lowering your body slowly from the bridge position. Take five seconds to straighten your legs, and then rest your butt on the floor if you need to when you reset your legs.

2) Bulgarian Split Squat

(See 01:37 in the video)

Target: quads, glutes, adductors

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

You should feel your thighs and butt, especially at the bottom of each rep

Step 1: Stand lunge length in front of a bench, step, or box that’s six to 12 inches high.

Step 2: Step your left foot back and rest the top of your left foot on the bench so that your knee is bent 90 degrees. Your right foot should point straight forward.

Step 3: Hinge your hips back a bit so you feel like you’re leaning forward, but keep your spine straight and tall. Slowly bend your right leg until your left knee is just above the floor. Your front leg should be bent about 90 degrees. Pause, and reverse the movement, squeezing your glutes as you come up.

You can perform the movement with your bodyweight, dumbbells/kettlebells, or a barbell.

3) Dumbbell Stiff-Legged Deadlift

(See 02:34 in the video)

Target: hamstrings, glutes, adductors

You should feel a deep stretch in the back of your thighs from your butt

Sets: 2  Reps: 8–12

Step 1: Hold a pair of dumbbells at your sides and stand with feet hip-width apart, toes pointing forward. Draw your shoulders back together and downward (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2: Take a deep breath, draw your ribs down, and brace your core. Now push your hips backward and, maintaining a long spine from your head to your pelvis, lower your body until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Try to keep your knees nearly straight, but not locked. Your range of motion may not be great, and that’s OK. Go for the stretch, but be safe, and don’t go lower than you feel you have the mobility for. Keep your lower back flat the whole time, and actively pull the weights back to keep them close to your body.

Step 3: Extend your hips and come back up and stand tall.

At first glance, this routine may not seem like enough work, but consider how you should be performing it. Take each set to within one rep of failure—that is, the point at which your form is about to break down. So if you get 8 reps for an exercise and it’s very hard, to the point where you felt yourself slow down, and you don’t think you can get a ninth rep with good form, STOP the set there. Done in this fashion, the Bulgarian split squats are very challenging (even at only one set apiece).

Complete Hamstring Workouts

Find the workout that suits your experience level and goals.

Beginner Hamstring Workout

(See 00:55 in the video above)

Just starting out on your quest for unbreakable hamstrings? This is step one: three moves that will blitz the muscles from both ends. Take it easy your first few times in this workout. The moves are entry-level—but if you’re not used to working your hamstrings, they can cramp up when you do too much work too soon. Perform this workout twice a week on nonconsecutive days, either in the same workout that you train your quads and calves, or tacked onto an upper-body day.

1) Back Extension

(See 01:15 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 15–20

2) Machine Leg Curl or Banded Leg Curl

(See 01:54 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 12–15

If you don’t have access to a lying leg curl machine, use a band around your ankles while you lie on a bench, as shown in the video.

3) Swiss-Ball Leg Curl

(See 02:30 in the video)

Sets: 1–2  Reps: As many as possible with good form

Intermediate Hamstring Workout

(See 03:14 in the video)

Been working out for a while? Below is a leg workout that will give your hamstrings—and the rest of your lower body—a going-over that you might need a few days to recover from. Perform it once or twice a week (do not do any other leg training).

Alternate sets of the paired exercises (marked A and B). So in Superset 1, for example, you’ll perform a set of Bulgarian split squats (one leg and then the other), rest 60–90 seconds, and then a set of slider leg curls. Rest 60–90 seconds, return to the first move, and continue alternating the two moves until you’ve completed three or four sets of each exercise. Then perform the exercises in Superset 2 in the same fashion (do exercise 3 as normal straight sets after you’ve finished all sets for 2A and 2B).

Superset 1:

1A) Bulgarian Split Squat

(See 03:38 in the video)

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 8–12 (each leg)

1B) Slider Leg Curl

(See 04:00 in the video)

Sets: 3–4  Reps: As many reps as possible with good form

Superset 2:

2A) Walking Lunge

(See 04:35 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 20–30 (each leg)

2B) Stiff-Legged Deadlift

(See 04:54 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 8–10

3) Swiss-Ball Leg Curl

(See 05:37 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: As many as possible with good form

Elite Hamstring Workout

(See 05:44 in the video)

Feel like your hammies are lagging behind your quads and want to add a little extra work to your leg program? The two mini-workouts below work well as end-of-workout hamstring finishers that you can do after a full-body workout, cardio session, or an upper-body day. You could also add them in on an off day. As in the intermediate workout, alternate sets of each exercise.

Hamstring Finisher Superset #1:

1A) Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

(See 06:10 in the video)

Sets: 2–3 sets  Reps: 8–12 (each leg)

1B) Slider Leg Curl

(See 06:50 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: As many reps as possible with good form

Hamstring Finisher Superset #2:

2A) Glute-Ham Raise

(See 07:34 in the video)

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 12–15

2B) Kettlebell Swing

(See 08:38 in the video)

Sets: 2–3 sets  Reps: 15–20

Pre-Workout Hamstring Stretches

Warm up your hips and hamstrings before any lower-body workout with the following moves, courtesy of Onnit-certified Durability Coach Cristian Plascencia (@cristiangplascencia on Instagram).

Lying L Sit

Step 1: Lie on your back on the floor. Bend your knees and rest your feet close to your butt. Extend your arms by your sides and press your palms into the floor.

Step 2: Tuck your tailbone under slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor and your lower back flattens into the floor. Take a deep breath and brace your core.

Step 3: Extend your legs overhead and pull your toes back toward your face. You’ll feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings. Continue to actively pull your toes down and fight to keep your legs straight for 30 seconds. Don’t let your lower back break off the floor. Repeat for 3 total rounds.

Kneeling Half-Mountain Climber Bow Draw

Step 1: Get on all fours with your knees directly under your hips and your hands underneath your shoulders.

Step 2: Step your left foot forward so it lands just outside your left hand. Drive your knee in toward your left arm while pushing your arms apart (left arm toward the left knee, so the two press against each other).

Step 3: Draw your shoulder blades back together and downward. Think: “proud chest.” Tilt your butt up to the ceiling, flattening out your lower back as much as you can, and brace your core. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your tailbone.

Step 4: Begin extending your left knee, pushing your pelvis back toward your right heel. Fight to keep your spine extended and your proud chest position the whole time. Push your foot into the floor so your heel and toes don’t rise up. Finally, bend the knee slowly to come back, and repeat on the opposite side. Perform 5 reps on each side, and repeat for 3 rounds.

Lying Warrior

Step 1: Sit on the floor and spread your legs.

Step 2: Lock out your left leg and twist your torso to the left. Plant your left hand behind your hips and use it to help pull you deeper into the twist. Reach your right arm past your left foot. Allow your right leg to roll inward as it follows you and turn the hip into the ground as much as you can.

Step 3: Plant both your hands on the floor behind your hips and extend your spine, drawing your shoulder blades together and downward—think: “proud chest.”

Step 4: Reverse the movement and repeat on the opposite side. As you repeat for reps, try to twist a little deeper, and even bend forward at the hips and rest on your forearms if you can. Perform 5 reps on each side, and repeat for 3 rounds.

FAQs

How can I target my hamstrings effectively?

Include exercises that flex the knee and extend the hip in your program. Knee flexion exercises—seated leg curls or lying leg curls—are a good idea to start your lower-body workouts, as they pump blood into the legs and prepare them for more complex and riskier exercises that follow, such as squats and deadlifts. Training them first also makes the hamstrings a priority, so you’ll be able to hit them hard with your full effort and focus, and that will lead to better gains.

Do stiff-legged deadlifts or RDLs later in your workout when you’re fully warmed up. These muscles put the hamstrings under a big stretch, so it’s safer to do them when you’re warm and ready. Perform both exercises for a variety of rep ranges, but sets of 5–10 are good to start. Add weight and reps as you’re able.

Are hamstrings important to train?

The hamstrings perform hip extension and knee flexion, meaning that they draw your leg underneath and behind you and bend the knee. Think about it… it’s exactly the motion you perform when running, bounding, jumping, or doing any other explosive, athletic movement that begins with the lower body. Many people focus on their quads and train squats, leg presses, and leg extensions hard, but that’s only because you can see those muscles in the mirror. The hamstrings are often an afterthought, but you’ll never reach your full potential for strength or athleticism until you bring them up.

Do squats effectively train the hamstrings?

No. As you descend in a squat, the origin point of the hamstring muscles (the hips) gets stretched, but the insertion point (the back of the knees) shortens as the knee bends. As you come up, the reverse happens. What this means is that the hamstrings are never really lengthened under load, so they don’t experience sufficient tension or receive much of a growth stimulus from squatting. Compare the squat to a movement like the stiff-legged deadlift or lying leg curl, where the hamstrings are lengthened fully and then shortened fully against resistance, and you can see that they must work much harder. The squat is a great exercise for the quads and adductors and, depending on how it’s performed, can also recruit the glutes heavily as well, but it does not constitute a hamstring workout on its own.

How can I strengthen my hamstrings at home?

Exercises like the slider leg curl and Swiss-ball leg curl can be done at home and train the hamstrings’ two functions—hip extension and knee flexion—simultaneously. All you need is a pair of furniture sliders or a Swiss ball, and even a set of paper plates can work if you have a smooth, waxed floor to train on. If you have dumbbells, you can do deadlift variations like the RDL and stiff-legged deadlift as well.

How often should I train my hamstrings each week?

Aim to train your hamstrings twice in a seven-day period, or as many as three times if you consider them a major weak point. You can train them on Monday and then again on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, depending on your split, or train them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday if following a full-body routine. (If you’re doing full-body, limit yourself to one hamstring exercise each session and one to three hard work sets, to allow for recovery).

Will bigger hamstrings make my glutes look bigger?

The hamstrings share a job with the glutes—hip extension—and there aren’t many exercises that work the hams and won’t train the glutes to a degree at the same time, so focusing on your hamstrings may allow you to add some size to your glutes as well. However, because they’re separate muscles, you’ll see better results training them with exercises that are more targeted for each muscle. So, if you want bigger glutes, emphasize glutes in your training.

What exercises specifically target the hamstrings?

Leg curls done both lying down and seated along with stiff-leg deadlifts, slider leg curls, and glute-ham raises are all very good choices.

What are the benefits of strong hamstrings?

Strong hamstrings help you run faster, jump higher, and generally perform more explosively in athletics. They’ll also help you lift heavier weights on deadlifts and other weightlifting exercises.

If you’re interested in more leg workouts you can do with your bodyweight alone, check out The Best Bodyweight Leg Exercises & Workouts for Strength.

The post Strengthen Your Hamstrings With These 8 Exercises and 4 Workouts appeared first on Onnit Academy.