Glute raises, and seated good mornings

[Sebastianc2012]

So im having a bit of trouble doing these correctly.

On glute raises, on a bench, I cant quite tell if my glutes are doing the work or not,my hammies get sore. Im squeezing my glutes as hard as I can but still cant tell.


In seated good morning, wanting to target the upper back.

Heard you are suppose to lean forward, and round your lower back, and then come up flexing your upper back while raising. Is this correct?

[jgreystoke]

Flexing upper back means rounding it forward. Extending upper back means the opposite, like when you look up and extend your spine.

Goodmornings are mainly for low back and glutes and hams.

I'd be very wary of seated goodmornings. They more or less force you to round low back. That might be ok with a very light weight, as a mobilization and conditioning exercise, done nice and slow.

Put any kind of max effort in there and you're liable to herniate a disk. Then you'll hardly be able to tie your laces. That sort of thing doesn't do anything for your back strength. You'll have to ask Granny to carry the bags of groceries in from the car, if you can even drive with the pain.

I love GMs btw. Conventional. You unlock your knees, and forget about them. Then you stick your butt back back back to go down to touch the rack pins to hit parallel every rep. Then power back up. Twenty rep sets are the business, so you don't try to turn it into any kind of max effort/main movement.

All kinds of rows and chins and pulldowns will take care of upper back.

Goodmornings target the entire posterior chain including glutes and hams.

All main pulls from the floor:

Dead
SLD
Power clean
Power snatch
High pull

hammer the entire posterior chain as well.

[Sebastianc2012]

I appreciate all the information, really.


Thanks for clarifying on the gms btw.


I have really weak posterior chain, lumbar erectors excluded, so I have trouble using my glutes right on exercises that need it, squats, dl, etc.

got really bad lordosis so that is pretty much why.





Whats the main difference in a romanian deadlift and conventional gm, mechanical and leverage wise, not bar position?


Is there a trick to help get glutes to activate and fire properly?

[-Lucifer]

Whats the main difference in a romanian deadlift and conventional gm, mechanical and leverage wise, not bar position?

Both those movements work pretty much the same muscles. GM's work the core a bit harder than RDL's do, though.

Is there a trick to help get glutes to activate and fire properly?

Yes. Lie down on the floor (supine), fold your legs so your hamstrings are touching your calves, push your hips into the air (towards the ceiling) and then bring them back down slowly. Keep doing this drill every day till you feel your glutes being worked nicely. It should feel as if a large pair of hands are grabbing your ass. (no homo)

[jgreystoke]

^^^^^^

Great tip.