The Reverse Hyperextension is one of the best exercises you can do for lower back health and strength.
In addition to strengthening the muscles of the lower back and posterior chain, the bottom of the movement puts traction on and unloads your spinal column in a way that can't be duplicated with any other exercise.
However, if you don't have access to a Reverse Hyper machine, you're generally left with less effective options.
This use of the Hanging Ab Chair bench gives you a setup that almost perfectly mimics the bench designed for Reverse Hypers.
How to Set Up The Ab Chair Reverse Hyperextension
It's a pretty simple setup...when you do the exercise, you're going to lie across the arms of the ab chair with the crease of your hips over the outside edge of the one arm.
Unless the ab chair is bolted down, you'll want to set some plates on the frame to keep it stable. This is not optional. When you have your legs up and out behind you, it'll unbalance the bench, so it needs to be secured.
You can do this one with just bodyweight or use a small band for resistance. The band will help you get more traction on the spine at the bottom (you'll see why in a second).
Stand on the outside of the frame, lean over the arm pad and hook one end of the band under both your feet while holding onto the other end.
Pass the band under the other arm.
Pull the end of the band against and over the other arm.
Now you're ready to begin!
Hold onto the band and the arm rest to lock your upper body down.
Let the band pull your feet forward until your hips are about 90 degrees (no need to let the legs pull forward more)...this is what gives you the extra traction on the spine at the bottom. That forward pull with a bit of resistance instantly unloads the lumbar spine.
Now, keeping your legs straight, raise them directly up behind you.
Come all the way up until your body is straight and your legs are straight out behind you. The band resistance gives you a good contraction through the posterior chain. Hold for a second or two, then lower slowly back down and repeat.
As you can see, when your feet are way out behind you like this, you NEED to have the bench secured down, either bolted or with a pile of weight plates (bumper plates are better as they won't slide). I've got 3 plates sitting on the frame and they held me fine at 200 lbs bodyweight.
Bottom line, if you've been looking for a way to strengthen your lower back and posterior chain with a decompressive movement like the Reverse Hyper but don't have a bench and haven't found a good way to do it, try this method.
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