Glute-ham raise: the bench setup, what was measured, and how it compares with the Nordic curl

A glute-ham raise is a hamstring exercise done on its own bench, often called a glute-ham developer. Your ankles are locked between pads, your feet press against a plate, and your thighs rest on a rounded pad just above the knees. From upright on your knees, you lower your body forward by straightening your knees and then pull yourself back up by bending them, using the hamstrings and the calves.

This page covers the setup, a progression for beginners, what one study measured when it put the glute-ham raise beside three other hamstring exercises, what a training study found when it was added to a program, how it differs from the Nordic curl, the faults, and the sets. The full hamstring session is on the hamstring workout.

How to do a glute-ham raise

1. Set the bench. Ankles between the pads, the balls of your feet flat on the plate, and your knees just behind the thigh pad, so the pad sits on the bottom of your thighs, not on your kneecaps.
2. Start upright, body straight from your knees to your head, arms crossed on your chest.
3. Lower forward by straightening your knees, slowly, keeping your hips straight, until your body is about level with the floor. In one study the hips stayed straight the whole rep, the knees moved through 90 degrees, and the weight was held against the chest.¹
4. Pull yourself back up by bending your knees, pressing your toes into the plate, until you are upright again.
5. Repeat without letting your hips fold.

A progression used in a training study of girls aged 18 and under who were new to lifting (more on it below): lower only until a line from your knee to your shoulder is about 45 degrees from vertical, then work to about 90 degrees, and only then add a bend at the hips.²

What was measured: the glute-ham raise against three other hamstring exercises

One study tested 12 weight-trained men, with about 8.6 years of training on average, on the glute-ham raise, the good morning, the Romanian deadlift and the lying leg curl. Each did single reps at 85% of his one-rep max on each lift while sensors on the skin (EMG) recorded muscle activity.¹

• On the way up, the glute-ham raise drew the highest hamstring activity of the four, and significantly more than the lying leg curl in both the outer hamstring (biceps femoris) and the inner ones (semitendinosus and semimembranosus).¹
• On the way down, the Romanian deadlift drew significantly more hamstring activity than the glute-ham raise did, in both hamstring sites measured.¹
• The muscles along the spine, the erector spinae, were about twice as active on the way up of the glute-ham raise as on the way up of the Romanian deadlift and the good morning.¹
• The inner hamstring (semitendinosus) was more active than the outer one in all four exercises.¹

Despite the name, that study didn't measure the gluteus maximus, so this page makes no claim about the glutes. It was one test session of single heavy reps, in men only, and muscle activity on the day is not muscle growth over months.

What a training study in young female athletes found

In one trial in young female athletes, the researchers added a version of the exercise, which its authors call the glute-ham-gastroc raise, to eight weeks of front squats and hang cleans. The 23 players were girls from a club volleyball program's 16-and-under to 18-and-under teams, with no history of regular resistance training. 11 were assigned to add the raise and 12 to the program alone; one of the 12 dropped out.²

• Jump height rose in both groups, more with the raise: 2.6 cm against 1.8 cm in the approach jump, and 2.7 cm against 1.6 cm in the standing jump.²
• Ankle bend in a knee-to-wall lunge test rose by about 4 degrees on each side in the group that did the raise; in the other group the change was smaller than the study's smallest change worth detecting.²
• How they jumped and landed showed no discernible difference between the groups.²

The authors list the limits themselves: a small sample, beginners to lifting, and the raise was never tested on its own, only on top of the squats and cleans.² These were girls aged 18 and under who had never lifted regularly, so the result doesn't show what the raise adds for adult lifters. The program's main lifts are on the front squat and the hang clean.

Glute-ham raise vs Nordic curl

They look alike. The training study's authors describe the Nordic curl as similar, except that it is usually done with the tops of the feet resting on the ground and has only a lowering phase.² On a glute-ham bench, the plate and the pad let you pull yourself back up as well.

No study comparing the two directly was found for this page. In practice: the Nordic curl needs only something to hold your heels down, so it suits a home setup, and the Nordic curl page has its progressions and its training trials. The glute-ham raise needs the bench. A kneeling version without the bench is sometimes called a "natural" glute-ham raise; no study under that name was found, and it is done like a Nordic curl.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• The pad on your kneecaps. Slide back so the pad sits just above the knees.
• Folding at the hips on the way up. Squeeze your glutes and keep the line from knees to head; the hips bend only at the bottom, if you use that version.
• Dropping on the way down. Lower only as far as you can control, and go deeper as you get stronger.
• Pushing off with your hands. Arms stay crossed; if you can't come up, shorten the range.
• Training through something that hurts. If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• What the studies used: the EMG study used single test reps at 85% of each man's one-rep max, a test, not a plan.¹ In the training study, in teenage volleyball players, the raise took about 7 to 10 minutes to complete.²
• As a practical start: 2 or 3 sets of 4 to 8 slow reps, after your main lift of the day, once or twice a week. This is practical advice, not a finding. The hamstring workout puts it in the knee-bending slot, beside or instead of the Nordic curl.
• Pair it with a hinge. In the EMG study the Romanian deadlift drew more hamstring activity on the way down and the glute-ham raise on the way up.¹ As practical advice, a week with both covers the two.

Common questions

What muscles does the glute-ham raise work?

In the EMG study: the hamstrings, the muscles along the spine, the inner calf (the medial gastrocnemius) and the gluteus medius at the side of the hip all showed activity, and the calf was more active than in the leg curl on the way up.¹ The gluteus maximus wasn't measured.

Glute-ham raise vs leg curl?

On the way up, the glute-ham raise drew more hamstring activity than the lying leg curl in 12 trained men.¹ That is activity on one day, not growth; the leg curl page covers the training trials of the curl.

Can a beginner do it?

The training study's players, girls aged 18 and under who were new to lifting, used the shortened range first, at about 45 degrees, before the full one.² For adults that order is a practical start, not a finding. If you can't come back up from even that, start with the Nordic curl's easier versions or the leg curl.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The glute-ham raise takes a few sessions to own; deciding whether it replaces your leg curl, sits beside your Romanian deadlift, or waits until you can control the lowering is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: at your next lower-body session, do two sets of five glute-ham raises over the range you can control, and write down how far you went.