Benefits of the Reverse Hyper Extension and Alternative Ways To Perform

REVERSE HYPER ALTERNATIVE

We love to program Reverse Hyper extensions and many of our remote clients don’t have access to a reverse hyper... here is a unique way to get it done with equipment that you typically have in your globo or garage gym.

Benefits:

✅ Glute and Hamstring Development

Glute and hamstring muscle hypertrophy is key for strength, power, and fitness athletes for movements like squats, deadlifts, pulls, running, and nearly every other human movement. When looking to increase muscle hypertrophy of the glutes and hamstrings, coaches and athletes have a wide array of movements to choose from.

Reverse hyper extensions can be a great exercise option when looking to limit additional loading places upon a lifter’s central nervous system, lower back, or hips; as it minimizes spinal loading and may even help decompress the vertebrae in the spine.

✅ Better Hip Extension Abilities

The hip extension is king when it comes to sport, athletic endeavors, strength, power, and fitness. The posterior chain is a combination muscles designed for the responsibility of hip extension. Both the glutes and hamstrings work together to complete this movement [in addition to the spinal erectors.] Through increasing the strength in these muscles groups we can improve our performance in the squat, deadlift, and essentially any explosive movement.

✅ General Injury Resilience (Lower Back and Hamstrings)

Who loves to be injured? Hopefully not yourself or your athletes. Strong and flexible hamstrings are key to force production, reduction, and injury prevention. When looking to build a resilient lower back weakness and imbalances in the glute and hamstring need to be addressed [in addition to lower back/core stability.] Movements like the reverse hyper extension allow athletes and coaches to train the hamstrings and glutes WITHOUT loading the spine. This can be beneficial for athletes that have lower back issues and flare ups.

Recommendations:

Reverse hyper extensions are often done to increase glute activation, hypertrophy, muscular endurance, and strength. We suggest that athletes perform higher repetitions (12-20) per set when focusing on “restoration”/muscle growth (size).

If the goal is to increase strength and general hypertrophy, 10-12 repetitions can be done. Loading should be kept around 25-50% of one’s best back squat (lighter weights for higher rep ranges and vice versa).