Most important Hamstring exercise.

and thats where your missing the point, the static spring model. during balistic actions such as sprinting your muscles cant actually contract (shorten) rapid enough to facilitate the rapidity of movement seen in the sprint. your body is able to sprint because muscle tension generated acts like an elastic spring. so when your foot hits the ground during a sprint it doesnt actually contract to push you along it acts like a spring generating an isometric tension that becasue of the forces experienced causes an eccentric action. get it? so training isnt always about training hip extension or knee flexion but taking into account that during rapid movements such as the sprint the muscles ā€œlockā€ up providing a spring to propell an individual (this is a very basic explanation of what goes on). this is the static spring model. this is why the ghr CAN be so beneficial if used properly and properly does NOT mean 3 sets of 10 at a moderate pace.

fair enough. funny though valery borzov thought it was a prety damn good excercise. you cought up worrying about knee flexion. yes knee flexion occurs during the movement but look at how the movement can be performed to benefit athleticisms. really man this shit isnt that difficult.

Alright, I see what youā€™re saying. I am familiar with the static spring model, thought you were talking about something else. Anyway, what does the GHR have to do with it? Why does it have anything to do with a specific weightroom exercise rather than the ability of the muscles to ā€œlock upā€ in the support phase of a sprint, or a jump, or whatever?

lol this is getting a little frustrating. i think it may be my fault maybe im not conveying the information properly. hip extension as i think you guys are thinking of it does not occur in the spinrt. the muscles which are involved in hip extension are. i say this this way because muscular contraction in the way that you would lift a weight in the bench press does not occur. i guess im arguing the static spring model vs the sliding filament model, both occur during the sprint but in large motion is controlled via the static spring effect that is why the ghr can be so beneficial as you can create maximal tension in a very finite range of motion, the same range of mostion required during the sprint. it doesnt matter that the muscles do not produce hip extension in the form of actual translation of the joint. what does matter is that the muscles create a high level of tension as this is what will occur during profecient sprinting action.

What do you know about his training and from who? Did he do the reactive sort of GHR?

I am sure I can find sub 10 sprinters that only used machines, so I donā€™t exactly know what you are getting at.

Can you please show a practical way to employ the GHR as your describe (as a reactive GHR)?

check out the above post it may help a bit. you are on the right track with the ā€œreactiveā€ method but i wouldnt limit it to that.

James,
Maybe Iā€™m a bit slow but I just dont see why the GHR has anything to do with it. Why couldnā€™t you replace it with an altitude landing, depth jump, VJ, etc? In all of those things you there is a high level of tension produce over a small range of motion.

i t hink u do get it lol. u can use other excercises please dont think that i think that the ghr is the only exercise you can do to get better far from it. ive said it many times the ghr the squat the bench press plyometrics massages ems they are all tools. the more tools you have the more options you have and the more control you can potentially have over your development.

its not just that its over a small range of motion but also over a small specefic range of motion.

Miscommunication there I guess, got you now.

As far as the ā€œlimited by knee flexionā€ goes, maybe that isnā€™t worded right but wouldnā€™t you say that the ability to proficiently perform a GHR (be it ā€œreactiveā€ or 3 sets of 10 at a moderate pace, or whatever else) is limited by the amount of torque (as well as whatever time implications there may be) produced about the knee, rather than the hip?

ok ok ok i think i see where the confusion is occuring. yes knee flexion occurs and is required to lift your body form parallel to upright. but i guess u could call it an unseen benefit as you may feel it being a knee flexion movement but massive forces have to be genrated at the hip to maintain the parallel postion of the torso relative to the thigh. you may not even realize a force that great is being generated at the hip but its is. the time this tension is generated is very brief.

Iā€™ll take your word for it :D, thanks James.

One question thoughā€¦ why not accomplish that on the track?

We cant mimick firing patterns of the track with weights very well. We can gain strong well conditioned muscles but after that we need to gain specific firing patterns on the track, just slowly and gradually in the case of new or previously injured athletes. There have been many threads relating to this.

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sure u can u just need to lift properly. which is, i will confesse, not easy.

At what point does the gluteal begin to generate force in the down swing of sprint stride?
Iā€™ve seen electro myographical (spelling?)
graphs that show when there is electrical activity in various muscles along the sprint stride.
It shows electrical activity in the glutes well before ground contact, and then decreasing rapidly as thigh becomes vertical to ground (just after mid-stance).
So the gluteals are not actually shortening during any of the electricly active part of the gait? Iā€™m not surprised as I had some basic understanding of what I now know is called the static spring model. I thought there was a minor shortening, I didnā€™t realise there was NO shortening (as you have stated).

Well, what Iā€™m trying to ask is;
What kind of gym or other exercise would be muscle length spacific & angle spacific for force generating, for the gluteal muscles? (For sprinting.)

Using an exercise to replicate a joint angle of sprint stride might not duplicate the muscle length during/of a sprint stride becuase of the differant forces & speeds. (correct?)

I was just about to start a program of step ups of varying degrees, but after treading your post, I might not bother with those step ups.

The thing is, we read stuff that suggest ā€œfull range of motionā€ exercises are beneficial to sprinting.
But we know that the muscles try to hold tight in sprinting with slight but strong eccentric contraction.

Apologies if my question is ā€œall over the place.ā€

it may be better to say that translation of the joint does not owe itself to the progressive slide of filliments in the working muscle, but rather to the static spring effect.

Sorry I was not clear. Most training is done raw using only knee wraps and a weight belt, and occasionally a pair of squat briefs to protect the hips, back and abs. The heavy free lifts I mentioned were actually meet lifts with full gear, including a single-ply, poly squat suit.

With no gear on either lift, the difference is close to what you mention.