GHD Back Extension

How to perform the GHD Back Extension

1. Adjust the glute-ham developer so the hip pad sits just below your pelvis and lock your ankles between the foot rollers.
2. Start with the torso hanging straight down over the pad, arms crossed on the chest or holding a plate, spine neutral.
3. Raise the torso by hinging at the hips and contracting the glutes and hamstrings, keeping the spine neutral rather than arching the low back.
4. Rise until the body forms a straight line from ankles to head, stopping there instead of cranking into hyperextension.
5. Squeeze the glutes at the top, then lower the torso back down under control by hinging only at the hips.
6. Avoid rounding then yanking through the lumbar spine, since the fixed GHD position magnifies any end-range spinal loading.

Suggested working range: 10–15 reps. Default progression: double progression.

Common mistakes

• •Rounding the spine and then yanking up through the low back rather than hinging cleanly at the hips.
• •Cranking into sharp hyperextension at the top, which the fixed GHD position punishes.
• •Setting the hip pad too high so the hips cannot hinge and the lumbar spine bends under load instead.
• •Adding heavy load before the hinge pattern is clean, magnifying stress on the low back.

Variations & alternatives

Swap in a related movement if equipment, recovery, or progression demands it.