External video — Hyperextension (Single Leg) by Operation Badass.
How to do it
- Setup
- Hips against the pad of a 45-degree (or horizontal) hyperextension bench, ankles secured under the rollers. One leg's foot stays flat on the footplate and does all the work; the other leg trails behind, unweighted, touching nothing, for balance only.
- Execution
- Lower under control by hinging at the hip — not the lower back — until you feel a stretch in the working-leg hamstring/glute, torso and legs roughly in line with the bench. Drive back up through the working-leg heel to a flat-back finish. Stop level with your legs at the top — do not keep arching past that into a lower-back extension.
- Common error
- Letting the trailing leg push off the floor or bench to help (defeats the unilateral point), or continuing to arch the lower back past flat at the top instead of stopping there.
- Feel
- A building stretch through the working-leg hamstring/glute at the bottom, a firm glute squeeze at the top — the top position should feel like a strong contraction, not a backward bend. No pinching or strain in the lower back itself.
Hips on the pad, one leg doing the work, the other trailing for balance only — hinge at the hip, not the lower back.
Used in
- Week 1 · Mon — Legs · Reconnection
- Week 1 · Thu — Back · Reconnection
- Week 2 · Mon — Legs · Groove
- Week 2 · Thu — Back · Groove
- Week 3 · Mon — Legs · Load
- Week 3 · Thu — Back · Load
- Week 5 · Mon — Legs · Rebuild+
- Week 5 · Thu — Back · Rebuild+
- Week 6 · Mon — Legs · Push
- Week 6 · Thu — Back · Push
- Week 7 · Mon — Legs · Peak
- Week 7 · Thu — Back · Peak