Nordic curls and glute hamstring raises are two of my go-to exercises for strengthening and building more robust posterior chain muscles.
While many gyms do not have a Nordic curl or glute hamstring raise machine (and the barbell set-up can be time consuming, inconvenient, and uncomfortable), most gyms have at least one Bosu. This can also be a perfect option if you are working out at home and own a Bosu.
Here is a very useful way you can use a Bosu. The Bosu serves as a perfect anchor for doing Nordic curls/glute hamstring raises.
To be clear, the Bosu is very stable so I’m not using it for the purpose of unstable surface training. The Bosu serves as the perfect anchor.
How You Anchor Yourself: Place a Bosu so it’s an appropriate distance from a wall, and kneel on the base of the Bosu. Your feet should be pressed firmly against a wall, and your knees pressed into the Bosu. When you are in the right position, your body should be very secure.
Coaching Tips:
- Get into a tall kneeling stance. Your body should be in a straight line from your head to knees.
- Before each rep, take a deep breath in (360 degrees of air around your spine), brace your core (360 degree brace around your spine), and squeeze your glutes.
- Now, while keeping your body in a straight line from your head to knees, take 3-5 seconds and use your hamstrings to control the movement as you extend your knees and lower your body down to your full range.
- Once you’ve hit the bottom position, use your posterior chain muscles and return to the starting position.
- If you need to use help from your upper body to perform the lifting/concentric component, use as little or as much help as needed. You can also modify by placing a high pad below your chest, and you can touch your chest/torso to the pad/object.
- For the duration of the exercise, your head, torso, and hips should remain in a stacked position. Do, not allow your lower back to hyperextend, round, or flex laterally, ribcage to flare, torso, spine, or hips to rotate, or weight to shift from knee to knee.
- For the duration of the exercise, keep your core muscles braced (360 degree brace around your spine).
- In terms of breathing, do what works and feels best for you.
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