Raised heels on good mornings?

[MsBeverlyHills]

any of you guys do this? I was reading a Louie Simmons article in powerilfting USA & he suggest putting plates under your heels puts extra work on the lower back. He also likes raising the toes 1-2 inches to put more pressure on the hamstrings.

personally- havent tried this. when i did raise ny heels squatting- balance was off & i was falling forward too much.

so does his idea work?

 

[Devastation]

i just started doing them and i like em. try doing it with the board under only one foot too sometime

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

i just started doing them and i like em. try doing it with the board under only one foot too sometime

what the boards width? if you really like GMs- you should chekc out his article- he describes like 5 kinds of good mornings!!

 

[Devastation]

i already read it over twice!!

 

[Devastation]

oh and we use an odd board it's a 4 x 6 that's only 3/4" thick. not much of a raise but somewhere to start

 

[Jim Ouini]

I have some oly shoes and flat soled shoes that I lift with, when I get a chance I'll compare.

I'd like to try seated GM's too.

 

[Guinness5.0]

personally- havent tried this. when i did raise ny heels squatting- balance was off & i was falling forward too much.

What kind of shoes do you wear? Putting plates/board under the heels of a shoe that has somewhat of a heel may be a bit much. Did he mention footwear in the article? FWIW I have found that squatting flat-footed in wrestling shoes is best for my form. Any sort of heel elevation (even from shoes) seems to push me too far forward also.

so does his idea work?

I would think it would depend on the weakness. For me personally I doubt I'd see much benefit from tweaking GMs as I still need to get my GM up in general. The whole movement is my weakness as I see it. Down the line if I determine my hams were holding me back I'd wager that toe elevation would help. Just a hunch.

I remember some random quote somewhere that said "when you GM more than you squat, it ain't assistance work anymore" . I would think that assistance work for a personal weak spot is always a good idea, and by shifting the focus of an exercise to more directly target that spot, you're probably doing something beneficial.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

What kind of shoes do you wear? Putting plates/board under the heels of a shoe that has somewhat of a heel may be a bit much. Did he mention footwear in the article? FWIW I have found that squatting flat-footed in wrestling shoes is best for my form. Any sort of heel elevation (even from shoes) seems to push me too far forward also.

I would think it would depend on the weakness. For me personally I doubt I'd see much benefit from tweaking GMs as I still need to get my GM up in general. The whole movement is my weakness as I see it. Down the line if I determine my hams were holding me back I'd wager that toe elevation would help. Just a hunch.

I remember some random quote somewhere that said "when you GM more than you squat, it ain't assistance work anymore" . I would think that assistance work for a personal weak spot is always a good idea, and by shifting the focus of an exercise to more directly target that spot, you're probably doing something beneficial.

good point. I use GMs as assistance exercises to deadlifts where my lower back is the weak link & its less than 1/2 my DL weight. Raised heels or wearing oly lifting shoes (I wear on squats only) would be a disaster on deads- so hows that gonna be on GMs??? i think you would be bentover too much

 

[Jim Ouini]

Raised heels or wearing oly lifting shoes (I wear on squats only) would be a disaster on deads- so hows that gonna be on GMs??? i think you would be bentover too much

I was leery of this as well, but I've been deading in my oly shoes for the past several weeks and you know the 'sit back on your heels' feeling while squatting in your oly shoes, that's kinda how I feel when I dead. Did a lot of practicing around 60% 1RM and now at 80-85% and they still feel pretty good.

 

[Guinness5.0]

good point. I use GMs as assistance exercises to deadlifts where my lower back is the weak link & its less than 1/2 my DL weight. Raised heels or wearing oly lifting shoes (I wear on squats only) would be a disaster on deads- so hows that gonna be on GMs??? i think you would be bentover too much

Yeah, if your back is the weak spot then I suppose any GM would be fine, just b/c you'd be limited by it and not your hams.

Come to think of it, I've done GMs in normal running shoes (little heel) and wrestling shoes and not noticed much difference. I guess it's something you would need to play with to see if it matters much.