Muscles developed: hamstrings
Problem areas in the lift: hips too high at start of lift
The glute ham raise is truly an amazing exercise. When my glute ham goes up, both my squat and deadlift go up so I incorporate them as often as possible into my training.
For me, my low back was too strong in relation to my hamstrings. On heavy weights, I couldn’t sit back into the optimal pulling position. My hips would come up too fast, my torso would cave over, and the bar would “drift” out in front of me causing missed lifts. I would end up using my low back to finish the weight. However, by doing tons of glute hams, I was able to get my hamstrings up to par. I was then able to “sit back” even more into my optimal pulling position due to the increased strength in my hamstrings. The result was a better starting position, improved pulling posture, and a smoother pull throughout