The lower kneepads support the body to allow for proper positioning of the footplate assembly with the body in position for the exercise.
I have personally used this GHR bench and it is by far the best. You get what you pay for. I’ve looked over all the other ones and they are all garbage compared to the powerlift GHR bench! Check out the horizontal lower knee pad below the rotating ones.
The one critiscism about all these GHR benches is that they don’t allow the foot plate to be adjusted towards the ankle rollers. This severly hampers ones strength progress and the user biomechanically is not doing the same lift anymore at least not with the same ROM or pressure on the footplates. Less pressure or having the feet come off the foot plate for a sec makes the exercise much easier, which is not what you want. This problem can be overcome if you put more rubber padding on the footplate so that your whole foot remains on the GHR bench throughout the entire ROM. I am 5’8 so if your 6 feet you probably won’t have any problems.
i disagree that the power-lift glute ham is better than the elitefts one. the horizontal pad under the rotating pads would make the exercise easier to do and less effective.
imo, stick with elitefts…everything i’ve bought from them has been great.
The extra pad there is for you to rest on when your doing weighted GHR and they allow you to set up better; for example you put a barbell or plate behind your head the extra pad prevents you from going down further then you normally would! If you slide down the pads then this is also a safety feature! You don’t actually use the pad unless you do a Complex Routine where you do 1 exercise and then wait 1 minute and go again!
IMO no comparison go with the Powerlift the company that provides the Nebraska Cornhuskers with their equipment.
Elitefts, good people, some great products; however, many useless products as well as rookies in building their equipment! I would buy certain things from them but not a GHR or a power rack!
I’ve priced a few PowerLift items in the past, and they were way high, but it looks like they’ve built the better mousetrap on this one. A google search of groups revealed that some lifters have fallen off the GHR apparatus when fatigued or using heavier weights, so the bottom kneepad seems like a good idea. The link below shows someone using the PowerLift model with a barbell, and the lower pad doesn’t seem to be impeding them. It looks like the lower pad would really only come into play at the end range of motion, so I’m not sure it would be a limiting factor to exercise effectiveness.
Great idea for a poll supervenomsuperman; each machine has at least one unique quality that some may prefer or be willing to promote as their favorite.
Thats not the way I do GHR! usually my knees are a little more forward and digging into the rotating pads. The way this guy does them makes them look
like ten times easier!
The Powerlift GH is not nearly as good as the one from elitfts.com I have used both and the powerlift is too easy and that roller is IMO a piece of crap. I would never buy the roller revers hyper. Just my 1 cent (Not worth 2 cents).
thamer645 - Could you clarify your comments (Then they’ll be worth at least 2 cents!).
Is the PowerLift too easy because of the rotating pad that they claim offers more comfort? Did it just not work your hamstrings as well as the stationary pad on the elitfts model? Why is the roller a piece of crap? This is a $1299 machine in a batch of machines whose median price is about $700. The bit about the roller reverse hyper has confused me. You’re not talking about their reverse back extension machine, are you?
This choice is getting harder, not easier.
Here’s some prices and a little perspective on each:
$1299 — Power Lift Rotating Glute Ham bench – rotating two-piece pad, angled foot board, lower knee pad, step up platform
$775 — EliteFTS Deluxe GHR – one-piece pad, band attachments, step up platform (not to be confused with the linebacker-wide Pro model)
$925 — Westside Louie Simmons Ham Glute machine – one-piece pad
$1095 — Fred Hatfield’s SportStrength Glute Ham Back Machine – concave two-piece pad
$875 — Yessis Back Machine – one piece pad
$695 — Atlantis Glute Ham Unit – two-piece pad, step up platform
$479 — York (formerly Wynmor?) Glute Ham Bench – rotating two-piece pad
$270 — NewYorkBarbells – two-piece pad
With price playing a pretty big role, it would seem EliteFTS is the choice for the solid pad and York is the best bet on the roller pad.
OK here is my take on the powerlift GH and REv Hyper. When I was at another I-AA school (I will leave the name out) the head strength coach bought all this equip from PL as soon as I was hired. The rep from PL told me that they had got the patten from Louie for the RH. Which was not true because the machine stopped short of the entire ROM. Then the GHs came in and they were so easy. I litterally put boxes under the backs of all of theses machines the second day we had them. They were too easy for my fb and volleyball players. When I used the machine I would either have to use a green band for resistance or at least 45 lbs just to make the machine even remotley hard. My three cents (makes up for the once cent earlier). I could be wrong though.
It depends on how you do your GHR’s! Read my post earlier in this thread. The way I do them is not to use the Rotating pads but to dig my knees into them about 4-6 inches above the horizontal lower pad. It is hard to explain on the forum a video demonstration would be ideal. IMO you need that safety horizontal lower knee pad the heavier your wts get!
If price is concerning you then you should not buy a hyper at all and do them a Lat-pulldown station where you put a mat underneith your knees and put your legs underneith the wt stack!
[b]Picture this: The great Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alexeev’s ponderous body draped over a gymnastics long horse with his feet wedged between the stall bars of an unbelievably archaic training gym in Moscow’s Lenin Institute of Sport. With four hundred pounds precariously perched behind his head, he explodes for five reps of back raises. There is virtually NO hip extensor involvement, only pure erector spinae contraction. That means 1) tremendous low back limit strength and speed-strength is developed far beyond what any other low back exercise could possibly accomplish, and 2) virtually NO trauma to the tenuous intervertebral discs of the lumbar spine, which is something no other low back exercise ever conceived can claim.
Now picture this: Valery Borzov, the great Russian sprinter (Olympic gold medalist in 1972) in the same archaic setup doing explosive hip extensions followed by an immediate bending of the knees to simulate the glute-ham pull characteristic of sprinters in full stride. He carries 7-0 pounds behind his head. That means 1) far greater gluteal and hamstring speed-strength, which is something no other sprint training exercise can claim, and 2) almost one hundred percent injury-proofing against hamstring pulls, which is also something no other sprint training exercise – or any exercise for that matter – can claim.
[/b]
Over a decade ago, these two training techniques were brought back to the US and the first glute-ham machine was fashioned. It was clumsy to get into and out of, the foot rollers were not adjustable to accommodate big feet and small feet alike, and the padding was unmercifully uncomfortable for the bigger athletes. And it was alarmingly unstable.
Now, for the first time ever, these two fantastic exercises (and several others specifically for athletes) can be accomplished without the foot and ankle discomfort characteristic of earlier models. Also, the rails upon which the foot roller assembly slides are partially removed to allow for easier mounting and dismounting. The saddle-like design of the padding is unbelievably comfortable and stable enough to accommodate even the biggest down-lineman’s prodigious belly! No more shake, rattle and roll! No more unproductive pain and discomfort. Only perfect comfort, stability, safety and design.
This is the kind of technology that allows athletes to focus on the task at hand – sports excellence!
Supervenomsuperman - The enthusiasm you’re bringing to this discussion and others is great. Keep it up!
I think a couple of points regarding the pad could be addressed by some of the experienced GHR users.
EliteFTS/Westside makes a pretty big deal about the downward angle of their pad to put the body in the proper position and not slip off at the top. Comments?
Is the one piece pad an issue with crushing the male anatomy?
I have an Elitefts GHR in my garage as well as two different sumo power racks made by Elitefts. They are all bomb proof.
Though I have not personally utilized a GHR by many other manufacturers, I have utilized a myriad of power racks over the years, and nothing comes close to the Elitefts racks.
In regards to the difficulty of performing a lift variation, we must not base efficacy on difficulty. We must base efficacy on whether the movement pattern being developed is of value to heightening the expression of sport skill and how the movement rates on a cost:benefit.
The difficult=beneficial mentality in North America is misdirected. By this logic, why don’t we kick each other in the nuts while we squat so as to increase our tenacity.
i agree with this but the reason i said the elitefts ghr imo is the best (beside the quality) is because it puts your body in the optimal position which in this case is the hardest as well. other ghr on the market make the exercise easier and less effective.
The garage gym i train in has the deluxe ghr from elite, its very nice,
Supernovaman, the way you describe doing the GHR’s sounds more like a manual leg curl/poor man ghr or whatever you want to call it,
I dont think that the approx 500 dollar difference between the PL ghr and the elitefts one warrants paying an extra 500 dollars. the 1 piece pad does not get in the way of your male anatomy, and the angle of the pad stops you from sliding off the bench as long as you have the foot plate positioned correctly. I have done them on the EFS model with a ss bar on my back, with bands, plates, db’s, with the back inclined and it works great, save some money and buy some other cool stuff.
I had a typo in an earlier post. I said I would never buy the roller Rev Hyper. What I meant to say is I would NEVER buy the PL Rev Hyper. I did not mean to cinfuse this with the roller Rev Hyper from Louie or elitefts. One more point I have is buy from the company that you want to support and I will support Dave and Jim with my bussiness. Not only do they make the best equipment they USE this equipment. I have met with people from PL about setting band attachments on the 10 racks we bought from them and they were confused. If you do not lift and lift with your own equipment how can you answer questions pertaining to lifting with the equipment. This is not attacking everyone who works for PL I like alot of people who work thier but like the thread about Velocity. It is only as good as your salesman.
For training methodologies regarding sprinting I have purchased the DVD and VIDEO series along with the FORUM REVIEW and have SPEEDTRAP as well as CFTS. In terms of wtlifting I have purchased books from BOMPA and ZATSIOSRKY and SIFF so I go to the best bc that is how I will become the best! I don’t doubt that Louie and Elitefts have great materials, hell I purchased $350 worth of books from them bc they were the best books on lifting (The Russian Texts!); however, I believe Powerlift has the best GHR bench out there!
P.S. My future plans are to buy any wt releasers or bands from elitefts if and when I have the funds and decide I need this equipment!
