9123 Ghd & Sissy Squats – Hamstring Bench

Used as Hamstring Bench (Nordic Norwegian Curl) it is effective in training part of the posterior muscle chain (hamstring muscles, trunk muscles) mainly through eccentric (slowing down of the load) and isometric (stopping the load) yielding exercises.

In this way bench 9123, combined with the fundamental exercise of the deadlift, makes the training of all types of muscle contraction (isometric, concentric, eccentric) and therefore of all the components of force production practical. As for the GHR 9013/1 remember that this type of training can be essential to prevent and limit injuries to the anterior cruciate ligaments, often due to asymmetries between the posterior (short and poorly performing) and anterior muscles of the thigh.

Similar, though more specific, is the use of bench 9123 like Sissy Squat Bench; quadriceps muscle training squat pairing.  Also in this case we are faced with a complementary exercise, with the particularity, given the presence of the "shin block" cushions, of being able to easily vary the workload through the inclination of the bust, more or less backward, or, in addition , through the use of weights (dumbbells, discs placed on the chest, or barbell positioned on the trapezius).

In some ways, the use of weights betrays the role of complementary exercise aimed at analytical, intense, high-repetition work to "exhaust" the quadriceps, even if, for sports such as alpine skiing, the "unnatural" posture assumes on Sissy Squat Bench reproduces the backward position to which the skier is often called during load movements on the skis in certain phases of the curve, where the overload is extremely high.

A condition, the latter described, where the patellar tendon and anterior cruciate ligaments are subjected to very high tensions and stresses, to the point of involving a careful evaluation of the danger-benefit ratio of the type of exercise and the relative overload.

A couple of clarifications: the Sissy Squat Bench it is actually one Roman bench, or Roman chair, born for Roman Chair Squats. The term Sissy Squat (name that derives from Sisyphus, a mythological character depicted with enormous thighs) instead identifies the famous, but different, exercise made known by Vince Gironda. The Roman chair is back in the news with the name of Sissy Squat Bench thanks to the dissemination of "old school" training. Finally, quadriceps training is not the only use of the tool, which is also effective for chain exercises dedicated to the core.