Alternatives to Back Extensions?

[jimk]

I've been on the Novice program about 4 months now, peaked on my squat at 265, and have just begun my first reset starting at 250, exercising my elderly option to squat only twice per week. I found that my squats were failing not so much because my legs couldn't handle the weight but because I couldn't keep my lower back locked in extension out of the bottom, which led to a loss of balance as my hips tried to come up and usually resulted in dumping the bar out onto the rack.

In light of this, it seems logical that some assistance exercises to help strengthen the lower back would be a good idea, and SSII points to back extensions and ham/glute raises as highly effective. But I train out of my home gym, and haven't yet found a decent roman chair on Craigslist.

I've started doing Romanian Dead Lifts (165 x 3 x8 last night, a non-squat night) thinking that because I've got to keep the back locked in extension with that, too, it might help. Rip's not high on barbell rows, and I never liked them anyway so that is fine with me. I've tried good-mornings a couple of times, but it didn't seem like I could get enough weight on the bar for them to be meaningful. Thoughts/recommendations on other assistance exercises would be appreciated.

[TomF]

RDLs and Good Mornings.

[God of Thunder]

I use my power rack for hyper extensions.

I put the pins at a suitable height on inside of the rack (to enable my head to clear the floor when hanging at the bottom position), the safety bars sit on these (at the back and front of the rack [left to right when facing the rack face on]), make sure they are tied so they don't move about. I place a shortened scaffold plank across the bars (front to back). You'll need to pad the plank with something. Your feet will be at the side of the rack when you perform the exercise, depending on how tall you are, your head maybe outside of the rack on the other side, but the majority of the weight is centered inside the weight. i always have this fear the rack will tip (it won't).

How you secure your feet is down to experiment!

But I safely done hypers on my own this way (with a 20kg plate for resistance) and it's been fine.

Good luck

GoT

[OldMike]

FWIW- I bought this Roman Chair from Amazon a while back: http://www.amazon.com/Apex-Roman-Hyp.../dp/B000ASB66O

It's just a little over 70 bucks- nothing fancy, but it works well for me (6', 215lbs.). Took about ten minutes to assemble; tucks under the power rack right beside the bench (home setup).

Good luck.

[Phil Stevens]

GM, RDL, Stiff leg DL, etc.

[PapaBear59]

FWIW- I bought this Roman Chair from Amazon a while back: http://www.amazon.com/Apex-Roman-Hyp.../dp/B000ASB66O

It's just a little over 70 bucks- nothing fancy, but it works well for me (6', 215lbs.). Took about ten minutes to assemble; tucks under the power rack right beside the bench (home setup).

Good luck.

I got the same thing at Play it Again Sports for around the same price. It works good for me as well.

[Dastardly]

I've tried good-mornings a couple of times, but it didn't seem like I could get enough weight on the bar for them to be meaningful. Thoughts/recommendations on other assistance exercises would be appreciated.

Dont doubt the exercise for the lack of weight! The bar is on the traps so has much greater leverage on your torso than a deadlift.

GM's are the type of exercise you do with light weight for higher reps, roundbacked even. You wouldn't want to let your back round on a maximal load.

I can say, that I only managed to perfect deadlift technique after doing GM's (as a back extension sub) on advanced novice. They have been very productive for me even with small weights. I do them high bar and allow back to round (just a little and under control) to get a decent depth.

[jimk]

Thanks to all for the suggestions, especially on the GM, tried it again last night with just an empty bar and am feeling it in the hamstrings and back this morning! Not pain, just that satisfying sore that tells you you worked something.

Dastardly, thought your point on light weights was a good one, since you mentioned the DL I wonder what you target for the GM as a percent of the DL? This week's work sets on the Novice program for DL, Squats, RDL and GM were 295 x 1 x 5, 255 x 3 x 5, 165 x 3 x 8, and 45 x 3 x 8. As a percentage of DL, it breaks out 100%, 86%, 56% and 15% respectively. I believe in taking Rip's advice and starting new exercises conservatively, any thoughts on what longer term goals might look like for the RDL and GM?

[thersites]

I know this may sound silly for someone not a beginner, but you may also just not be activating your lower back as much as you could. I had this problem, and it wasn't so much my strength but that I consciously reminded myself to activate the lower back before sets of squats. Even now, I still have problems if I forget to do this at least once or twice late in the warm up sets and early work sets.

Look at pp. 34-38 in BBT on using the "superman" to practice developing lower back activation. I do one standing variation of this before getting under the bar on at least a couple warm up sets as a cue, and it has worked for me. I also do GHR & back hypers, but I still find doing the standing superman cue to be necessary.

Paying the price for too much sitting for too many years of work & daily non-activity.

[Sami]

FWIW- I bought this Roman Chair from Amazon a while back: http://www.amazon.com/Apex-Roman-Hyp.../dp/B000ASB66O

It's just a little over 70 bucks- nothing fancy, but it works well for me (6', 215lbs.). Took about ten minutes to assemble; tucks under the power rack right beside the bench (home setup).

Good luck.

The exact damn thing is $150 in the UK.