Training guide
A glute-ham raise is a hamstring exercise on a glute-ham developer (GHD): with your feet against a plate and your knees just behind a pad, you lower your straight body until it's level with the floor and pull yourself back up by bending your knees. Without a machine, the natural glute-ham raise does the same kneeling with your ankles held.
It's close to the Nordic curl but not the same, and only two small studies have measured it. The injury-prevention trials people quote were done with the Nordic, so nobody knows whether glute-ham raises prevent injuries.
This guide covers setting up the machine, the steps on the 3D figure, the version without a GHD, easier steps if you can't do one yet, your knees, how many and how often, and the warning signs.
On a GHD, your feet press against a footplate with your ankles under rollers and your thighs on a curved pad, knees just behind it. From upright, you lower your straight body forward by straightening your knees until it's about level with the floor, then pull yourself back up by bending them. That's the set-up used in an ACE-sponsored study.
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In 12 trained men lifting single heavy reps, hamstring activity was among the highest of four exercises, with the inner hamstring working harder than the outer. In 16 trained adults, the machine version drew less outer-hamstring activity than a lying leg curl. These measure muscle activity, not growth.
In a Nordic you kneel on the floor and lower as far as you can before catching yourself; on a GHD you lower only as far as you can pull yourself back up, with the footplate helping. No study has compared them head to head, and hip and knee position change which hamstring works hardest.
Programmes that include the Nordic were linked with about half as many hamstring injuries, though trials of the Nordic alone are inconclusive and the benefit appeared only when people kept doing it. The only injury data with a glute-ham raise bundled it with Nordics and stretching in one sprint team, so its own effect is unknown.
Hamstrings grew with seated leg curls, Nordics, Romanian or stiff-leg deadlifts and hip-flexed lowering curls in trials. A natural glute-ham raise, a Nordic or a seated curl, plus a hip hinge, covers the same job.
Start with 1 to 2 sets of 3 to 5 slow lowerings with help, building over several weeks to 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8, once or twice a week, with about 2 minutes' rest: the natural glute-ham raise's move page dose, our editorial starting point. Expect sore hamstrings for 2 or 3 days after your first sessions.
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A hamstring exercise in which your knees do the bending and your hips stay straight. On a GHD, also sold as a glute-ham bench, you lower your straight body from upright until it's about level with the floor and pull back up. The natural glute-ham raise does the same kneeling on a lat pulldown seat or preacher bench with your ankles under its pads, or on the floor with a partner holding your ankles.
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Despite "glute", it's mainly a hamstring exercise: your glutes hold your hips straight. People also call the exercise a GHR and the machine a GHD, and the machine does other exercises too (below).
Your hamstrings, bending the knee under your body weight, with your glutes and the muscles along your spine holding you straight. Pushing your feet into the footplate probably lets your calf muscle (gastrocnemius), which also bends the knee, help: that's our reading of the set-up. One training study named its version the "glute-ham-gastroc raise" and added it to train the calf.
Back extensions, with your hips on the pad and the movement at your hips (our back extension guide); reverse hyperextensions on some machines (our reverse hyperextension guide); and GHD sit-ups, an advanced abdominal exercise with its own risks: big first sessions have been followed by serious muscle breakdown. Set the pad for each: knees just behind it for the glute-ham raise, hips on it for the others.
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The move pages suggest controlled slider curls first for the machine version, and controlled slider or ball leg curls and comfortable kneeling for the natural one. Some coaches say beginners shouldn't do glute-ham raises at all; we found no evidence either way, and the assisted and lowering-only versions make it accessible (our view).
Your upper body is the lever, so taller people with longer, heavier trunks find it harder (our reading). Machines differ in how the pad and footplate adjust. Most of the studies here are in young men or athletes; the ACE study included 8 women. We found no study in older adults, for whom leg curls and Romanian deadlifts are simpler ways to load the hamstrings.
The figure shows the movement kneeling on the floor because the machine isn't drawn. The set-up and range follow the ACE-sponsored study; the knee and foot position follow coaching articles, and the help options and breathing are editorial. No study has measured knee loads in this exercise.
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The movement on the figure: Glute-ham raise
The move page's 4 steps. On the floor, kneel on a thick pad with a partner holding your ankles and lower only as far as you can still pull yourself back up; in the ACE study's partner-held version, people stopped with the trunk level.
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The movement on the figure: Natural glute-ham raise
We found one muscle-activity study, an ACE-sponsored comparison and one jump-training study. No study has measured its effect on hamstring size, strength or fibre length, its knee loads, or injuries.
In 12 weight-trained men lifting single reps at 85% of their maximum, hamstring activity was highest in the Romanian deadlift and the glute-ham raise, above the leg curl and good morning, and the inner hamstring (semitendinosus) was "substantially more active" than the outer (biceps femoris) in all four. We read the abstract only, and a 2020 review notes the study reported raw amplitudes rather than percentages of each muscle's maximum, so comparisons are rough.
In 16 trained adults (8 women, 8 men), against the lying leg curl, the machine glute-ham raise drew significantly less outer-hamstring activity and similar inner-hamstring activity, and the partner-held floor version drew less outer-hamstring and significantly more inner-hamstring activity. It wasn't peer reviewed, and we used its written results, not its charts.
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Adding a "glute-ham-gastroc raise" to squats and cleans for 8 weeks in female youth volleyball players raised jump height a little more (2.6 against 1.8 cm in the approach jump) and ankle bend. We read the abstract only.
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Knee-bending lowering like the Nordic works the semitendinosus hardest (a large bias in 12 men), and hip-extension exercises shift work to the long head of the biceps femoris, the part most often strained, in muscle-activity and MRI studies. Bending the hips to 90 degrees in a Nordic raised knee torque but lowered muscle activity, and adding hip extension to a knee bend raised long-head activity. A loaded hip-extension hold on a glute-hamstring machine drew more biceps femoris activity than the Nordic in 36 handball players.
A glute-ham raise holds the hips straight while the knee bends, which makes it neither a Nordic nor a hip extension (our reading; no study compares them). Pairing a knee-bending exercise with a hip hinge each week covers both.
In a Nordic you kneel on the floor with your ankles held and lower as far as you can before catching yourself on your hands. In a glute-ham raise, on a GHD or kneeling on a bench, you lower only as far as you can still pull yourself back up, keeping your hips straight. Both train the hamstrings' lowering strength; the injury trials are for the Nordic, so choose it if injury prevention for sport is your aim. Our Nordic curl guide covers it.
A leg curl bends your knee with your body still. Seated curls grew the hamstrings more than lying curls (14.1% against 9.3% over 12 weeks in 20 adults), and Nordics raised lowering strength by 11% in footballers while ordinary curls didn't. Our leg curl guide covers the machines.
In a back extension your knees stay straight and your hips bend, the opposite of a glute-ham raise. The 45-degree back extension worked the outer hamstring 71% harder than a Romanian deadlift in 15 trained women. Both fit on a GHD; our back extension guide covers the hip version.
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Slow Romanian deadlifts grew the hamstrings about as much as Nordics in 32 adults over 6 weeks, and Nordics grew them more than stiff-leg deadlifts in 36 untrained adults (11.4% against 7.0%). A hinge and a knee-bending exercise each week is our hamstring workout's mix.
A knee-bending curl on a back extension machine, hips moving a little as you come up: it drew high hamstring activity, not different from a lying leg curl, in 8 female athletes. No 3D demo shows it yet.
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The only injury data with a glute-ham raise come from 613 male collegiate sprinters across three eras of one coach's programme: hamstring injuries fell from 16 of 116 sprinters to 12 of 198 to 2 of 299. But the last era added Nordic lowers, bodyweight glute-ham raises and dynamic stretching at the same time, so no single exercise's effect can be separated, as the authors say.
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Across 15 studies of 8,459 athletes, programmes that included the Nordic were linked with about half as many hamstring injuries (risk ratio 0.49). But the 5 trials that tested the Nordic itself pooled to an inconclusive 0.56 (0.20 to 1.52), and a 2026 analysis of 11 football trials put the Nordic alone at 0.78 (0.34 to 1.78), at low to very low certainty.
In 942 Danish players, the Nordic teams had 15 hamstring injuries against 52; in 579 Dutch amateurs, 0.25 against 0.8 per 1,000 hours, with 91% of sessions done.
In 15 football trials of 7,465 players, prevention programmes cut hamstring injuries where players did at least 75% of their sessions (risk ratio 0.36), but not below that (0.92), at low certainty.
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Across 25 trials of 26,610 people, strength training cut sports injuries to under a third, while stretching made no difference. That's strength work in general, not the glute-ham raise.
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If you play a sprinting sport and want the trial-backed option, follow the Nordic programme in our Nordic curl guide. Glute-ham raises are a good hamstring exercise in their own right; that they protect like a Nordic is a guess from their lowering phase.
Ball leg curls, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 (the move page's editorial starting point); slider curls, 3 sets of 6 to 10, and slider lowers, 3 sets of 5 slow lowers (our Nordic curl progression workout); the natural glute-ham raise, 1 to 2 sets of 3 to 5 slow lowerings with help, building to 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8 over several weeks (its move page's editorial starting point); the glute-ham raise on a GHD, the same build (our editorial starting point; its move page gives no dose); the Nordic curl, 2 sets of 3 to 5 slow lowers, building to 2 or 3 sets of 3 to 6 twice a week (our hamstring workout and Nordic curl progression workout); and the full Nordic, 2 sets of 1 to 3 (our Nordic curl progression workout). Move up a step when the top of a step's dose feels controlled. Harder on the GHD: a slower lowering, a pause at level, then a plate held at your chest, once 2 to 3 sets of 8 are smooth (editorial).
3D demoStability ball leg curlIntermediate · Exercise ball
3D demoSlider hamstring curlIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoSlider hamstring curl, lowering onlyBeginner · No equipment
3D demoNatural glute-ham raiseAdvanced · Strength machine + A bench or box
3D demoGlute-ham raiseAdvanced · Other / check instructions
3D demoNordic curlAdvanced · An anchor point
3D demoFull Nordic curlExpert · An anchor pointThe ACE study set the knees just behind the pad, and coaching articles warn that with your knees too far onto the pad you risk bending them backwards at the bottom, and that knees set too high on the pad can hurt. We found no study of knee loads or knee pain in this exercise, so this is coaching practice.
Kneel on a thick pad or folded mat, and stop for pain in a kneecap or behind the knee, as our Nordic guide says, using an easier step instead.
Cramp behind your knee or in your calf is a tight knot that eases with rest and gentle stretching: stop the set, stretch gently and use a shorter range next time. See a GP if cramps last longer than 10 minutes or come with numbness or swelling. A sharp pain or a pop is different (see the warning signs).
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Lowering work makes hamstrings sore. After a first session of 24 Nordics, 13 trained men were weaker for 3 days and sorest on days 2 and 3, and the same session 4 weeks later caused far less. Band-assisted Nordics built the same strength with less soreness in 31 young footballers. Start with very few reps.
Move the footplate so your knees sit just behind the pad (coaching practice).
Squeeze your glutes. If you can't come up straight, use help or a shorter range, as the move pages say: "Keep the hips straight; don't bend at the waist."
Lower slowly; the lowering is the work.
Brace and stop at upright, not past it (our view).
Keep your feet flat against the plate. Coaches differ on this and no study compares foot positions; flat feet keep the set-up the same each rep (our view).
1 to 2 sets of 3 to 5, and expect soreness for a couple of days.
No study has tested doses for the glute-ham raise, and the machine version's move page gives none. These are our starting points, matching our Nordic guide and plans.
1 to 2 sets of 3 to 5 slow lowerings with help: the natural glute-ham raise's move page dose (our editorial starting point), and the same start as our Nordic guide.
2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8 over several weeks, on the machine or without one (our editorial starting point; the natural version's move page gives the same).
Stop each set while every rep is still controlled, 1 to 3 reps short. Failure added a trivial amount of growth at most across 15 studies, and sloppy reps in a lowering exercise are where cramps and strains start (our view).
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About 2 minutes, because each rep is close to your maximum (our editorial starting point). Resting more than about a minute gave a small growth benefit in a review of 9 studies.
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Once or twice a week, at least a day apart, and not in the 48 hours before a match, as our Nordic guide suggests. The NHS asks for strength work on at least 2 days a week.
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Pair it with a hip hinge such as the Romanian deadlift each week, aiming for about 10 or more hard hamstring sets across both, our plans' mark. More weekly sets built more muscle across 67 studies.
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Lower further and more slowly, then add reps, then a pause at level, then a light plate held at your chest. Adding reps and adding load both worked in 43 trained people.
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A few minutes of easy movement, glute bridges and hinge practice, then a couple of easy part-range reps, as our hamstring workout and the NHS suggest.
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Warm up with glute bridges, 12 reps, and hip-hinge practice, 2 sets of 8 (our hamstring workout). Pair it with a hinge: the dumbbell Romanian deadlift, 3 sets of 8 to 10, stopping 2 or 3 short, or the single-leg Romanian deadlift, 2 sets of 8 each leg (our hamstring workout). The seated leg curl, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 (the move page's editorial starting point), trains the hamstrings at longer lengths. For hip extension, the back extension on a 45-degree bench, 2 sets of 10 to 15 (our pull day workout B), or the horizontal back extension on the same GHD, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 (our back extension guide's editorial starting point). Football programmes pair Nordics with the Copenhagen plank for the groin (our hamstring and groin injury prevention workout). Cool down with the hamstring stretch with a strap, 30 seconds each leg (our hamstring workout), but skip it with pain at your sitting bone.
3D demoGlute bridgeBeginner · No equipment
3D demoHip-hinge practiceBeginner · No equipment
3D demoDumbbell Romanian deadliftIntermediate · A dumbbell
3D demoSingle-leg Romanian deadliftAdvanced · A dumbbell
3D demoSeated leg curlBeginner · Strength machine
3D demoBack extension on a 45-degree benchIntermediate · A bench or box
3D demoHorizontal back extension (hyperextension, Roman chair)Advanced · A bench or box
3D demoCopenhagen plankAdvanced · A bench or box
3D demoSupine hamstring stretch with a strapBeginner · No equipmentNone of our workouts uses the glute-ham raise yet. The hamstring workout's seated curl is the place to swap one in if you have a GHD; the Nordic curl progression climbs the same ladder on the floor; the posterior chain workout covers the hinges; the hamstring and groin injury prevention workout follows the Nordic trials.
A 35-minute gym hamstring workout: Romanian deadlifts for the hip, seated leg curls for the knee, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, then Nordic curls when ready.
35 minIntermediate7 movesA dumbbell, Strength machineA 20-minute hamstring session to do twice a week, climbing from ball curls and slider lowers to Nordic curls and the full Nordic, at home or in the gym.
20 minBeginner8 movesExercise ball, An anchor pointA 45-minute gym session for the back of your body: light barbell good mornings, hip thrusts, 45 degree back extensions, cable pull-throughs and a carry.
45 minIntermediate8 movesCardio machine, A barbellThe Nordic hamstring and Copenhagen adduction programmes from the football trials: a 10-week build, three adductor levels, then once a week in season.
15 minIntermediate6 movesA wall, An anchor pointFollow our hamstring strain guide, which brings lowering work back late. The NHS says to avoid strenuous exercise such as running for up to 8 weeks after a strain.
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A deep ache at your sitting bone that's worse when you sit: leave lowering work out early on, as our Nordic guide says, and follow our high hamstring tendinopathy guide.
Check the pad position first, pad your knees on the floor version, and use a ball or slider curl if a kneecap or the back of your knee hurts.
Lying face down over a pad with your trunk unsupported is likely to get uncomfortable as your bump grows, and a GHD is awkward to get on and off safely (our view). The NHS advises against starting new vigorous activity and activities with a risk of falling. Use standing hinges and seated curls instead.
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Breathe out as you come up and don't hold your breath: heavy efforts with a held breath sent blood pressure to 320/250 mmHg on average in 5 bodybuilders. The American Heart Association calls low- to moderate-intensity strength training with proper breathing safe when blood pressure is controlled.
Leave out lowering-focused exercises like this one unless your neuromuscular team advises them, as our Nordic curl move page says.
If you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise. The American Heart Association says these need immediate medical evaluation.
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For chest pain that comes on suddenly and doesn't go away, feels tight or like squeezing, spreads to your arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness; arm pain that comes on suddenly with pressure, heaviness or squeezing across your chest; severe difficulty breathing, or a chest that feels tight or heavy; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, shortness of breath or feeling faint; or a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while lifting or straining. The NHS says a bleed on the brain may be more likely when lifting something heavy. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
A sharp pain at the back of the thigh, sometimes with a snapping feeling or a pop, can be a hamstring injury. A pop near your sitting bone, a large bruise high on the back of your thigh, or not being able to put weight on the leg needs assessing the same day, as our Nordic and hamstring strain guides say: the tendon can pull away from the bone.
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In the US, contact your doctor or urgent care. For a hamstring that's very painful or getting worse, very swollen or bruised, hurts to walk or stand on, or is very stiff. For a knee that's very painful, can't move or take your weight, is badly swollen or has changed shape, or locks, gives way or painfully clicks.
Achy hamstrings for 2 or 3 days after your first sessions are normal. Muscle pain, swelling or weakness far worse than the session explains, with dark pee (red, brown, tea or cola coloured), sometimes starting hours or days later, needs a same-day check: call NHS 111, or go to A&E if you feel very unwell, as our rhabdomyolysis guide says. It has followed big first sessions of unaccustomed GHD sit-ups.
Leave them out with osteoporosis, neck problems or current back pain, and keep your head still, as the move page says: in one case report, a tear in a neck artery and a stroke followed GHD sit-ups with the head whipping back and forth, though the cause wasn't confirmed.
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Call 999 or go to A&E: loss of feeling or numbness around the genitals or bottom, new trouble peeing or controlling your bladder or bowels, changes in genital sensation during sex or problems with erections or orgasm, or pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs. These are signs of cauda equina syndrome, which needs treating in hospital urgently. Don't drive yourself.
Pain you'd call mild to moderate, no more than about 5 out of 10, that settles within an hour or so, with your back no worse the next morning, is acceptable; if it is worse, do less next time (fewer reps, a smaller range, a lighter load), not nothing. Stop or shrink any movement that sends pain, pins and needles or numbness further down your leg. That's our back pain guides' rule.
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See a GP if pain spreading down a leg hasn't improved after a few weeks of home treatment, is getting worse or stops your normal activities. Sciatica on both sides, or weakness or numbness in both legs that's severe or getting worse, is a 999 call or a trip to A&E.
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See a GP if you think you have a hernia, a bulge or lump that may get bigger when you strain and smaller when you lie down. Get help from NHS 111 if you have a hernia and pain in or around it, a bloated tummy, you feel or are sick, you're vomiting blood or your vomit looks like coffee grounds, you're constipated, you have a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery, or you've suddenly become confused. Call 999 or go to A&E for a femoral hernia (a small lump at the top of your thigh, in your groin) with very bad tummy pain, sickness, being unable to fart or poo, a high temperature or sudden confusion.
Speak to your GP first if you haven't exercised for some time or have medical conditions or concerns, as the NHS advises. Get advice before heavy lifting or hard straining work if your blood pressure is uncontrolled (140/90 or higher at a clinic, or 135/85 at home), or you have heart disease or chest pain when you're active, a pacemaker or defibrillator, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, a hernia, recent eye or tummy surgery, or you're pregnant, as our breathing guide lists. After a recent shoulder dislocation or shoulder surgery, follow our shoulder dislocation guide or your surgical team first.
Close, not the same. On a GHD your knees sit behind a pad and your feet push against a plate, and you stop at about level; in a Nordic you lower as far as you can on the floor and catch yourself. No study compares them, and the injury trials are for the Nordic.
Leg curls, Nordics and Romanian or stiff-leg deadlifts all grew or strengthened the hamstrings in trials.
No trial has tested them. The only injury data bundle them with Nordics and stretching, and even for the Nordic the strictest analyses are inconclusive.
Mainly a hamstring exercise: your glutes hold your hips straight while your knees do the work.
One small study read as an abstract ranked it near the top for hamstring activity, another found the machine version drew less outer-hamstring activity than a lying leg curl, and muscle activity isn't growth. It's one good option among several.
We found no study of knee loads or knee pain in this exercise. Set the pad so your knees sit behind it, pad your knees on the floor version, and stop for kneecap pain or cramp.
On a GHD, set your knees just behind the pad with your feet against the plate. From upright, lower your straight body forward until it's level with the floor, then pull yourself back up by bending your knees.
Mainly your hamstrings, with your glutes holding your hips straight; your calves probably help through the footplate. In one small study, hamstring activity was among the highest of four exercises.
In a Nordic you kneel on the floor and lower as far as you can before catching yourself on your hands. In a glute-ham raise you lower only as far as you can still pull yourself back up, keeping your hips straight. The injury trials are for the Nordic, so it's the one to choose for injury prevention in sport.
Kneel on a lat pulldown seat or preacher bench facing away, with your ankles under the pads, or on a thick pad with a partner holding your ankles. Lower only as far as you can still pull yourself back up, with a band or a push off a box to help.
Most people can't at first: you're lifting your upper body with your hamstrings. Start with ball and slider curls, then lower slowly with help and climb back up, going a little further each week.
Start with 1 to 2 sets of 3 to 5 slow lowerings with help, building over several weeks to 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8, once or twice a week, with about 2 minutes' rest. That's our starting point.
No study has tested them. The evidence is for the Nordic, where programmes that include it were linked with about half as many injuries, though trials of the Nordic alone are inconclusive.
Just behind it, so your knees bend over its back edge. With your knees on top of the pad, coaching articles warn they can be pushed backwards at the bottom; no study has measured it.
Usually the pad position, kneeling on a hard surface or cramp. Move the footplate, pad your knees on the floor version, and stop for pain in a kneecap or behind the knee. A cramp eases with rest; a sharp pain or a pop doesn't.
No. Seated leg curls, Nordics and Romanian deadlifts all grew the hamstrings in trials. Pair a knee-bending exercise with a hip hinge each week.
Different jobs. In a glute-ham raise your hips stay straight and your knees bend; in a back extension your knees stay straight and your hips bend. Both fit on a GHD.
No: it's an advanced abdominal exercise on the same machine. Big first sessions have been followed by serious muscle breakdown, so start with 3 sets of 5 partial reps, as its move page says.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
