— Leave a Comment

Glute-Ham Raise: Unmatched Lower Body Exercise… injury-prevention, power, and aesthetics.

The Glute-Ham Raise is a superior exercise for the posterior!

If you are in search of awe-inspiring hamstrings, then this article speaks to you.

The average person neglects the importance of strong hamstrings and tendons...don't be average.

Have you ever…

  • wanted to prevent an ACL knee injury?
  • plateau’d in your fitness program?
  • gotten bored of the obsolete hamstring-curl machine?
  • had tight hamstrings?

Don't be this guy.

Are you…

  • An athlete?
  • A professional who relies upon a strong physique?
  • A normal person who desires AMAZING hamstrings and glutes?

If you answered yes to any one of the questions above, then perhaps you are up to the challenge of one of the BEST lower body exercises known to man.

Benefits of the Glute-Ham Raise

  1. Simultaneously lengthen and strengthen hamstrings.
  2. Strengthen hamstrings at both the knee joint and the hip joint.
  3. The strength will carry over to other primary exercises (like squats or deadlifts)
  4. INJURY PREVENTION: Glute-Ham Raise can prevent ACL tears, especially in female soccer players.
  5. INJURY PREVENTION: Glute-Ham Raise strengthens the lower back and fixes imbalances in the lower body.
  6. You will have the best looking hamstrings out of all your friends, isn’t it almost beach time?

I appreciate the hamstring.

How to Perform the Glute-Ham Raise

If you go to a commercial gym, you will probably have to improvise. While athletic training facilities often have a specialty Glute-Ham Machine, most commercial gyms lack the proper equipment.

The good news is that you can utilize a Lat-Pulldown Machine to perform the Glute-Ham Raise exercise.

Cues:

  • Lock your ankles in tight as possible to the pads of the Lat-Pulldown Machine
  • Keep your body tight by contracting your abdominals
  • Lower your body as straight as possible and focus on keeping tension in your hamstrings
  • At the bottom of the movement, use a platform to push yourself back up
  • At the top of the exercise, squeeze your glutes tight and then repeat

THIS IS AN ADVANCED EXERCISE, prior training experience is suggested.

If you can’t do a single full repetition, then just do the downward (or negative) part of the exercise. Warning, you may gain significant strength and muscle tone in the area in the back of your knee. It looks and feels great.

Demonstration Video: Glute-Ham Raise on a Lat-Pulldown Machine

and… slightly more advanced here.

Are you ready to take it to the next level?

The Glute-Ham Raise is an almost unbeatable exercise for the hamstrings and posterior chain. Some of the strongest Olympic athletes in the world have performed several dozen repetitions…and it paid off!

For football, soccer, and rugby, this is an exercise you should be doing for both raw power and knee injury-prevention.

And for the rest of us Fitness Enthusiasts, you will gain strength, injury-prevention, and a beautiful pair of legs. Just sayin’…

Physical Fitness by Dre
— Leave a Comment

Fix Posture, and Build a Great Butt.

Have you ever noticed how some people are walking around with messed up posture all the time?

One of my customers came in to buy protein, and from the first glance, I knew from his posture that he spent way too much time bench pressing.

Since the body is a complex system, strength imbalances must be assessed and addressed. It’s the same thing for a vehicle — you wouldn’t drive your car if the wheels were turned in all different directions.

Here’s a video of two of the best exercises for strength, fat loss, mobility, and flexibility. This will help posture and support quality of life.

Overhead Squat

  • Shoulder flexibility
  • Upper back mobility
  • Hip mobility, strength
  • Promotes healthy posture
  • Core/Abdominal strength (help you get six-pack abs, or just just boost all your other exercises)
  • Glute activation
  • Quadricep warmup

Reverse Lunge

  • Due to position of bar, your are FORCED to have good form. No ifs, buts, or whatevers. You MUST have good form, or the bar will drop. This is good for teaching proper form.
  • Neutral spine — spine is safe from heavy compression since it is a unilateral (one leg at a time) movement.
  • Help you build Jessica Biel booty or the Butt of Adonis.
  • Nice for thighs, quadriceps
  • Burns fat, strengthens glutes, which prevents lower back injury as a result.

Putting it all together

On Leg day, you can do something like this…

1. Overhead Squat, 2 sets of 15 reps for warmup and mobility

2. Leg Press, 5 sets of 5 for strength

3. Reverse Lunge, 3 sets of 8 for glute strength.

4. Seated Calf Raise, 5 sets of 6

5. Standing Calf Raise, 10 sets of 10

POST WORK OUT

  • Protein Shake
  • Stretching
  • Myofascial release with foam roller OR massage.
  • Relax, reduce stress.
  • Eat solid meal with plenty of carbs+protein within 1 hour of exercise.

FOR FAT LOSS: Eat 2,000 calories per day (women), 2,300 calories per day (men)

FOR MUSCLE GROWTH: Eat 2,700+ calories per day.

Physical Fitness by Dre
— Leave a Comment

Why Muscles Matter (for men, women, young, and old), Part 1.

This morning, somewhere in your neighborhood, a person will struggle to physically get out of bed. With age, there is a “natural” loss of muscle which is responsible for so many elderly people lacking mobility and calling to buy those scooters you see on TV.

However, study after study shows that weight training for people of all ages increases muscle efficiency, tendon stability, and disease prevention. In other words, quality of life, health, energy, and vitality.

Weakness is inefficient, and takes a toll on the body. Untrained individuals have to use MORE energy for LESS movement.

Brian came into the store the other day to buy more bottles of Topricin, a pain relief cream, and mentioned how, “All of my friends are using it to get rid of pain too, I have to come back and get more for myself!”

I am highly in support of pain relief, but even I must confront the fact that treating the SYMPTOMS will never cure the whole person.

For example, Tendons are strong, small, and responsible for keeping you from falling over or displacing a joint. By strengthening tendons through weight training, we can reinforce the joints under stress with added protection.

I see it every day. Baby boomers are aging, and they are beginning to feel the “realities” of age, which could have been prevented all along!

The teardrop muscle of the Quadriceps is necessary for kneecap tracking.

The "teardrop" muscle of the Quadriceps is necessary for kneecap tracking.

What does it mean to be Young, anymore?

  • Strong
  • Healthy
  • Less worries

Muscles are KEY to overall anti-aging strategy.

If you seek youth, you must seek strength.

If you seek strength, you must seek me.

Because I have, plenty of strength just around thy knee.

Physical Fitness by Dre