roman chair ?

[fish]

Ok, kids, I need instruction here.

I'm sold on roman chair for lower back raise and ghr "chair" for ghr.

I've got the cage. I've got the bench.

If I set one of the catch bars low, and if I pad that bar (my yack rack pads fit great), and if I put my heels under the padded bar and I move my bench under the thighs for the ghr and under hips the roman chair back lifts ... ?

Of course it is missing that nifty groove, and I can see that can be a real problem, but other than that,

Can do effectively ? no can do effectively ? and why ?

fish

[Pam]

I'll give this one a stab with the hopes that Jack will chime in here too. I dont think thats going to work real well. The GHR has a plate on the back so you can really push your feet into it. I'm not sure I could do a GHR without having that plate to really push into. Also I'm not sure how padded your bench is but I am thinking its not enough and that it could really hurt. Nothing says you cant give it a try.

Have you tried them off a swiss ball? I've only done back extensions off that but I know I ran across a website that showed someone using that to do GHR's. I'm just not sure how effective either would be for GHR's.

Just my 2 cents...Jack will probably say just the opposite But thats what this is all about.

[jack]

Fish,the back extensions may be effective using this setup but you're probably wasting your time with glute ham development trying to improvise this exercise. I tried them this way too and while I strained and burned a few calories it did nothing in improving my ham strength. All it turns out to be is a manual leg curl. If you're going to do it this way,just lay on the bench with your waist over the edge,have Nancy hold your heels and pull up. It would be much more comfortable even though the results would less than satisfactory. At least you've got somebody to help you.

The two key components to a good GHR are the half moon angled pad and the foot plate. Pam's correct(isn't she always ) about the plate. It's a critical as the balls of the feet and the toes must be pushed into the plate to really activate the hams. This machine works the hams from origin to insertion like no other ham exercise can even approach. For my two cents the GHR is the second most valuable piece of equipment aside from the power rack in a home gym.

EFS has come out with a home GHR that can be shipped UPS. This would cut down on the cost considerably since shipping on the units like Pam and I have is probably around $150. I don't know what the price of the new unit is but you might want to check it out.

Bottom line..............in my opinion and you know what opinions are like the back extensions might be OK but the glute ham work off a bench won't yield any subastantial benefits. Get the GHR,you can do a variety of ham and situp workd and you can do your back extensions on this too.