Floor Glute-Ham Raise

What it is

This challenging bodyweight exercise primarily strengthens your hamstrings, with significant engagement from your glutes and calves. You will lower your body from a kneeling position by extending at the knee, controlling the movement throughout. This isolation exercise is a potent way to build posterior chain strength without special equipment. It requires focused control and hamstring strength.

Technique tips

• Securely brace your feet or have a partner hold them firmly.
• Keep your body in a straight line from knees to shoulders.
• Avoid bending at your hips; extend only at the knees.
• Control your descent slowly, resisting gravity through your hamstrings.
• Lightly use your hands on the floor to aid your return.
• Focus on contracting your hamstrings to pull your body back up.

How to track your progress

Log the weight and reps of each set. Straddly turns every set into an estimated one-rep max, so a heavier single and a strong set of eight both count as progress, and it flags a personal record the moment you beat your best.