Glute Ham roller Exersises
Glute Ham Rollers are useful for many exercises and can be a great transition tool for athletes who have not developed enough posterior chain strength to do a Glute Ham Raise or Nordic Curl, but want to build up the strength to do those exercises. It also can be a great way for athletes who can do a GHR or Nordic Curl to specifically target and or overload their hamstrings by adding resistance via bands or cables. At only $125 it is one of the cheapest Hamsting developing tools out there but does many more exercises making it a great value.
Glute Roller Hamstring/Glute exercises
Dual Leg Hamstring Curl, Single Leg Hamstring Curl, Assisted Hamstring curl with band, Resisted Hamstring curl with band, Resisted Hamstring Curl with Cable stack resistance, Single Leg Assisted Hamstring Curl, Single Leg Resisted Hamstring Curl.
Core Exercises
Ab Roller Knees down, Ab Roller Standing (more challenging especially on shoulders), Ab Roller Resisted knees up or down, Plank knees to chest, Resisted Plank Knees to chest, Assisted Plank Knees to chest, Plank hand walks and more. These core exercises also work on shoulder/upper body stability so they are a better use of time than a crunch or sit up.
Lower Body Exercises that are not hamstring Curls
Lateral Lunges, Lateral Lunges Resisted, Lateral Lunges Resisted, Reverse Lunges, Forward lunges and more.
Why you should have a Glute roller at each station
When teams are lifting together athletes often train at stations in “pods” or “units”. A unit is often assigned a rack to train at and the unit will consist of 2-4 athletes depending on the program/attendance. The unit will train together, help each other with setup, spotting and tear down.
The more exercises they can do inside their “pod” at the station the more efficient the workout will be as there will not be as much time spent between exercises as athletes will not have to walk across the room and then back to do exercises.
Built in Storage tabs
Our new Glute Ham Roller has Gravity Slit Storage Tabs built in to store on any crossmember with 1″ holes. Other brands will sell you an attachment that bolts onto the rack to storage the roller from, we built our storage into the product. This allows you to store it on any crossmember with 1″ holes securely but can easily be removed in less than 3 seconds.
Hamstring Curls
Pictured from left to right are 3 different variations of the Hamstring curl being performed on our Glute Ham Roller.
The left picture shows a single leg hamstring curl which is very challenging and also works on stability as you have to balance.
The middle picture shows band resisted Hamstring curls as the athlete is going against the band. Once regular hamstring curls become to challenging add a band or a cable from a cable column to add resistance.
The right picture shows assisted hamstring curls, the athlete has the band to assist them as they do the curl opposed to the middle picture where they are stretching the band apart as they go.
Core work
Every Exercise done on the Glute Roller engages your core as your lower body or upper body is moving while the opposite half stays still requiring your core to fire to keep you stable.
Pictured above in the bigger photo is an example of an assisted Ab Roll out. These can also be done with resistance, shown below on a cable column or just normal Ab roll outs without adding anything.
LAteral Lunges
Lateral Lunges are a very difficult exercises that will build up Glutes, Quads and Hips. When performed on a Glute Ham Roller the athelte is required to use more stabilizer muscles than if they did a traditional lateral lunge without a roller as they have to control the roller so it does not go too far away from them causing them to do the splits.
Conclusion
It is clear that Glute Ham Rollers are one of the best “bang for your buck” pieces of equipment at only $128 MSRP they are affordable but also add the ability to do a multitude of exercises.
By having a Glute Roller at each rack, teams can train much more efficiently as they will not be waiting for the 2 or 3 Glute Ham Raises Machines to be open to train their hamstrings. The goal of team training should always be to be as efficient as possible, getting athletes in and out of the weight room as fast as possible so more time can be spent doing film review and working on sport specific skills.
