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Glute Ham Raise Alternative: 8 Swaps With or Without a GHD
By Nadia Popescu, Strength & Conditioning Writer · Updated 18 October 2026
The best glute ham raise alternative is the Nordic curl, or the razor curl if you want to keep some hip bend in the movement. Both train your hamstrings hard through knee flexion while they lengthen, which is the part of the glute ham raise (GHR) that's hardest to copy, and all you need is something solid to hook your heels under. If you have nothing to anchor your feet, use a 45° back extension for the hip extension half and a stability ball leg curl for the knee flexion half, and you've covered the whole job between them.
A glute ham developer (GHD) costs several hundred pounds and takes up as much floor as a rowing machine, so most home lifters never own one. You don't need it. What you do need is a clear idea of what the GHR actually trains, because that decides which swap fits.
What a glute ham raise actually does
A full GHR starts with your torso horizontal, knees on the pad and feet locked into the footplate. You first squeeze your glutes and hamstrings to extend the hips until your body is straight, then bend at the knees to pull your torso up to vertical. So one rep trains two jobs:
- Hip extension, driven by your glutes and the hamstrings working from the hip end.
- Knee flexion, which is the hamstrings working from the knee end, and on the way down it becomes a hard eccentric (lengthening) contraction.
Most "alternatives" only cover one of these. That's fine, as long as you know which one you're getting and pair it with the other where it matters. The table further down sorts them for you.
The 8 best glute ham raise alternatives
1. Nordic curl (knee flexion, eccentric)
The Nordic is the GHR with the hip extension phase removed and the leverage taken away. Kneel on a padded mat, anchor your heels under something that won't move, keep a straight line from knees to shoulders and lower your body towards the floor as slowly as you can. Catch yourself with your hands, push back up lightly, and repeat.
Equipment: a mat plus an anchor (a sofa, a loaded barbell, a Nordic strap on a door, or a partner holding your ankles).
Cues: squeeze your glutes the whole way so your hips don't fold; try to make the lowering take 3 to 5 seconds; stop the set when you can no longer control the bottom third.
This is the swap with the strongest research behind it. A meta-analysis of hamstring injury prevention in professional and semi-professional football teams pooled six studies and found the interventions, which included the Nordic hamstring exercise, cut hamstring strain incidence by more than half (incidence rate ratio 0.443) (Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021). Our full Nordic curl guide has the band-assisted and incline progressions if you can't control the descent yet.
2. Razor curl (knee flexion with some hip)
The razor curl is what you do when you want the GHR feel without the machine. Set up as for a Nordic, but start with your hips bent so your torso is roughly parallel to the floor, as though you were in the bottom of a GHR. From there, sweep your body forward and down, straightening at the hips as your knees open, until you're almost lying flat. Push yourself back to the start.
Equipment: same as the Nordic. On a GHD you can do it with your knees just behind the pad.
Cues: think of your body as a pendulum swinging from the knees; keep your neck neutral and your ribs down.
It's easier than a strict Nordic because the bent hips shorten the lever early in the rep, which makes it a sensible stepping stone. We'd put it level with the Nordic as the closest match.
3. 45° back extension, hamstring-biased (hip extension)
On a 45° hyperextension bench, set the pad low enough that your hips can bend freely over it. Keep your spine long, reach your chest down towards the floor by hinging at the hips, then drive your hips into the pad to come back up. To bias the hamstrings rather than the lower back, turn your toes out slightly, keep your knees soft but fixed, and stop when your body forms a straight line rather than arching past it.
Equipment: a 45° back extension bench or a GHD used in the horizontal position.
Cues: hinge, don't curl; press your hips into the pad as you rise; hold a plate to your chest once 15 bodyweight reps feel easy.
It replaces the first half of the GHR and very little of the second. See our back extension guide for the round-back glute variation and how to set the pad height.
4. Stability ball leg curl (hip extension and knee flexion)
Lie on your back with your heels on a gym ball and your arms flat at your sides. Lift your hips into a bridge, then, holding that bridge, pull the ball towards your backside by bending your knees. Roll it back out without letting your hips drop.
Equipment: a 55 to 75cm exercise ball. If you need one, our best exercise ball round-up covers the sizes.
Cues: keep your hips up the entire set (dropping them turns it into a weak curl); go single-leg once 15 two-leg reps are easy.
Of all the no-anchor options, this is the only one that makes you hold hip extension while you flex the knee, which is closer to the GHR pattern than people give it credit for. The load ceiling is low, though, so it suits beginners and high-rep finishers better than strong lifters.
5. Slider or towel leg curl (hip extension and knee flexion)
Same movement as the ball curl, but your heels sit on furniture sliders, a towel on a hard floor, or plates on a slick surface. Because nothing rolls back under you, the slide back out is a slow eccentric that hits the hamstrings harder than the ball version.
Equipment: sliders, or a towel on laminate or wood.
Cues: bridge first, then curl; spend 3 seconds pushing the heels back out.
6. Romanian deadlift (hip extension, lengthened position)
The RDL loads the hamstrings at long muscle lengths through hip extension, and you can put far more weight on it than on any bodyweight swap. Hold a barbell or pair of dumbbells, unlock your knees, push your hips back until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings, then drive your hips forward to stand.
Equipment: a barbell, dumbbells or a kettlebell.
Cues: bar stays close to your legs; shins stay roughly vertical; stop the descent when your hips can't travel back any further.
A 2023 randomised trial in collegiate athletes is useful context here. Everyone did a twice-weekly lower-body programme with Olympic lift derivatives, squats and Romanian deadlifts for seven weeks, with one group adding Nordics and another adding sprints. All three groups, including the control, showed small to moderate gains in biceps femoris architecture and eccentric hamstring strength (PLoS One, 2023). In other words, a solid RDL-based programme already does a lot of the work. Our Romanian deadlift guide covers form in detail.
7. Machine leg curl, lying or seated (knee flexion)
If you train in a commercial gym that has no GHD, the leg curl machine is the obvious stand-in for the knee flexion half. Seated curls put the hamstrings in a more stretched position because your hips are bent, so they're the better pick of the two when you're replacing a GHR.
Equipment: a lying or seated leg curl machine, or a cable with an ankle strap.
Cues: control the return over 2 to 3 seconds; don't let your hips lift off the pad on a lying curl.
There's some evidence that whether you train from the hip or the knee matters less than the joint angle you train at: one EMG study found no task-dependent difference in biceps femoris long head activity relative to semitendinosus between prone leg curls and hip extensions when the knee was held at an equivalent angle (PLoS One, 2021). That was isometric work in 20 men, so don't read too much into it, but it does suggest you're not missing out on a particular hamstring by picking one camp. If you have no machine at all, our leg curl alternative guide lists eight swaps that genuinely bend the knee.
8. Reverse hyperextension (hip extension)
Lie face down with your hips on the edge of a sturdy bench or a high box, hold on, and swing your straight legs up behind you until they're in line with your torso. Lower under control.
Equipment: a flat bench, a plyo box, or a reverse hyper machine if you're lucky.
Cues: lead with your heels; squeeze the glutes at the top rather than arching your lower back.
It's a glute-heavier swap than the back extension and gentler on the spine for some people. The reverse hyperextension guide shows how to load it at home with ankle weights or a dumbbell between the feet.
Quick match: alternative by equipment
| Alternative | Replaces | Equipment needed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nordic curl | Knee flexion (eccentric) | Mat + heel anchor | Closest match, injury resilience |
| Razor curl | Knee flexion + some hip | Mat + heel anchor | GHR feel without the machine |
| 45° back extension | Hip extension | Hyperextension bench | Loading the hip half |
| Stability ball leg curl | Hip extension + knee flexion | Exercise ball | Beginners, no anchor |
| Slider leg curl | Hip extension + knee flexion | Sliders or towel | Home, harder than ball |
| Romanian deadlift | Hip extension (lengthened) | Barbell or dumbbells | Heavy loading |
| Machine leg curl | Knee flexion | Leg curl machine or cable | Commercial gyms |
| Reverse hyperextension | Hip extension | Bench or box | Glute bias, spine-friendly |
How to combine them
Pick one knee flexion move and one hip extension move and you've rebuilt the glute ham raise across two exercises. A few pairings that work:
- Home with an anchor: Nordic or razor curl, 3 sets of 4 to 6, plus Romanian deadlifts, 3 sets of 8 to 10.
- Home, no anchor: slider leg curl, 3 sets of 8 to 12, plus reverse hypers off a bench, 3 sets of 12 to 15.
- Gym: seated leg curl, 3 sets of 8 to 12, plus 45° back extensions, 3 sets of 10 to 15.
If you're kitting out a garage, a solid flat bench does double duty here, anchoring Nordics under the frame and supporting reverse hypers. Our best weight bench picks are a good place to start, and the home gym hub covers the rest.
Go easy on the eccentric work
Nordics and razor curls produce serious muscle soreness in the first week or two. Start with 2 sets of 3 reps, wait two or three days before repeating them, and only add volume once the soreness has stopped showing up. Skipping this step is the main reason people quit the exercise.
Common mistakes
Breaking at the hips on a Nordic. Once your hamstrings run out of strength, your backside shoots back and the rep turns into a kneeling bow. That's the end of the useful range, so catch yourself there instead of chasing a deeper descent with bad form.
Turning back extensions into lower-back extensions. Arching hard past straight shifts the work onto your spinal erectors. Stop at a straight line.
Letting the hips sag on ball and slider curls. If your hips drop as you curl, you've removed the hip extension half and most of the difficulty.
Treating one exercise as a full replacement. Only the ball and slider curls do both GHR jobs at once, and they're the easiest options on this list. For strength, pair two movements.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the best glute ham raise alternative?
The Nordic curl, or its hip-bent cousin the razor curl, is the closest match because it trains the hamstrings eccentrically through knee flexion just like the second half of a glute ham raise. You only need something to hook your heels under. If you can't anchor your feet, a 45° back extension covers the hip extension part and a stability ball leg curl covers the knee flexion part.
Can I do a glute ham raise without a GHD machine?
Not a true one, because the GHD's knee pad and footplate are what let you pivot from hip extension into knee flexion. You can get very close by kneeling on a padded mat with your heels anchored under a sofa, a loaded barbell or a partner's hands, then doing a razor curl. That keeps the knee flexion work and most of the hip involvement.
Is the Nordic curl harder than the glute ham raise?
For most people, yes. On a GHD the knee pad sits behind the kneecap and gives you leverage, and you can push off the footplate with your calves. A floor Nordic gives you none of that help, so your hamstrings handle almost the whole lowering phase. That's why many lifters who can do clean GHRs still need a band or a push-off to finish a Nordic.
Do glute ham raise alternatives work the glutes?
Some do and some barely do. Back extensions, reverse hypers, Romanian deadlifts and the bridge part of a ball leg curl all load hip extension, where your glutes contribute. Nordic curls and machine leg curls are almost pure hamstring knee flexion, so pair one of those with a hip extension move if you want the full glute ham raise effect.
How many sets and reps should I do?
For eccentric moves like Nordics and razor curls, 2 to 4 sets of 3 to 6 slow reps is plenty, once or twice a week. For back extensions, ball leg curls and Romanian deadlifts, 3 sets of 8 to 15 works well. Leave a rep or two in reserve on the eccentric work, because the soreness after your first few sessions can be severe.
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