The glute-ham roller (often referred to as a glute-ham slider) is a lesser-known yet, wise piece of equipment to own (or at least use). Whether you’re building a home gym on a tight budget or with limited space, or you just want to use a great piece of equipment, consider this little guy to be an absolute staple. It’s simply one of those pieces of equipment that make perfect sense to own or use. Once you’re aware of its benefits, it becomes an enticing purchase if you’re serious about doing great exercises in a no-nonsense manner.

Benefits of using the glute-ham roller include its ability to be used by novice and experienced individuals alike while affording great exercise versatility and challenges. It also takes up very little space, is very gentle on the wallet, and will likely last a lifetime.

I’ll be elaborating on each of these benefits in greater detail below, so if you’ve got any interest in wanting to add some seriously great strength training accessory exercises to your workouts, and need some reasons to use this little beast, keep on reading!

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Why use a glute-ham roller at all?
Benefit 1: It can be used by beginners and pros alike
Benefit 2: Plenty of exercises and variations
Benefit 3: It can be used with added resistance
Benefit 4: A tiny footprint (it takes up virtually no space)
Benefit 5: Relatively inexpensive & gentle on the wallet
Benefit 6: It will last a very long time (likely longer than you)

Related article: No Equipment Required: This Hamstring Exercise Will Light You Up!

If you’re looking to purchase a glute-ham roller, my personal recommendation is the glute-ham roller by Bells of Steel. I have been thrilled with mine for quite some time now. It’s priced quite fairly and comes ready to use.

You can check it out here on the Bells of Steel Website

Please note: this is an affiliate link, which will provide me with a small commission at no extra cost to you. I use my commission earnings to offset the cost of running this website.

Why use a glute-ham roller at all?

While there are certainly plenty of great ways to challenge and strengthen your glutes and hamstrings, a glute-ham roller offers some unique benefits over similar exercise methods for strengthening these muscles. If you’re looking to build a bulletproof body, strengthening your posterior chain (which consists partly of the glutes and hamstrings) is an absolute must.

Athletes and average Joe’s alike with a solid posterior chain experience less back pain and plaguing injuries than their counterparts with weak ones. The evidence in literature is overwhelming when identifying the correlation between a weaker backside and the likelihood of experiencing decreased functional capacity and increased pain and disability. Don’t become part of this crowd. Back pain can interfere with every aspect of your life when it’s severe enough (I would know).

The best way to recover from injury is to never become injured in the first place. And if you’re already injured, rebuilding your tissues and movement capacity is imperative if you want to get on with your life to a pre-injury extent. So, respect your backside and give it the attention it deserves when it comes to your pursuits for training and strengthening this critical area of your body.

“What makes the glute-ham roller such a worthy piece of equipment to own or use is that it’s basically a “plug and play” device — you don’t need any special training on how to use it. You don’t have to switch knobs and positions to make adjustments to make it fit for your body.“

– Strength Resurgence

Why not use other similar pieces of equipment?

If you’re wondering why to opt for a glute-ham roller instead of performing seemingly similar exercises with a stability ball or slider pads, here’s a few things to keep in mind:

Having or using a stability ball and exercise sliders is a smart move to make, and I’m in no way saying that you shouldn’t own or use them. Instead, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are times when a glute-ham roller may be a bit more ideal to use based on certain factors.

Stability ball hamstring curls are a great exercise (I do them frequently). Still, you’ll likely find that they’re not quite as aggressive on the backside since the feet are higher up off the ground. You may also find that you need something that’s a bit more stable/less wobbly. In either case, you’ll want to use the glute-ham roller.

You could, of course, use exercise slider pads (again, I use them a lot) since they’re basically just as challenging as a glute-ham roller. Again, they are great to own since they’re dirt cheap, take up virtually no space and cost next to nothing. You can also perform a million exercises with them. However, the problem here is that they don’t work well on hard rubber flooring, which is often found in many gyms and home gyms alike. A glute-ham roller does not have this issue. So, if you’re working out on rubber flooring, the glute-ham roller tends to be the way to go.

Benefit 1: It can be used by beginners and pros alike

You don’t have to be any sort of experienced fitness professional to use a glute-ham roller. But even if you are, it will still humble your hamstrings (and other muscle groups) when used appropriately. The amount of challenge often comes down to specific technique or execution along with the exercise volume (sets and reps). There are always various ways to take any exercise and regress it to make it easier or progress it to make it more challenging.

What makes the glute-ham roller such a worthy piece of equipment to own or use is that it’s basically a “plug and play” device — you don’t need any special training on how to use it. You don’t have to switch knobs and positions to make adjustments to make it fit for your body.

There’s none of that at all. Just put it on the ground and start exercising. This is great for beginners who are intimidated by complex equipment or don’t have experience with exercise equipment that may require some advanced knowledge to use safely (or effectively)!

Related article: Reviewing the Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar: All You Need to Know

Since the glute-ham roller offers a stable base of support (albeit one that rolls), it’s also great for those who may not want to use a stability ball (which can wobble a lot) or for those who want to focus more on the muscles they’re working and less on any balancing or stability that may be required to successfully complete the movement. I often find myself in this category; I want to focus entirely on the movement without concentrating on maintaining my balance.

If you happen to be a fitness rockstar or talented athlete, there’s no shortage of ways to light up various muscles that you can train with the glute-ham roller. You can make each exercise as challenging as you want as long as you’re willing to get a bit creative with how you set up and execute your movements and exercises!

Benefit 2: Plenty of exercises and variations

While perhaps most commonly used for the hamstrings and glutes, the glute-ham roller can be used for plenty of other muscle groups as well. In addition, each exercise can always be performed with variations to the movement. Variations are great since they can target muscles slightly differently, make an exercise easier or more challenging, provide variety and eliminate boredom or some combination of all these factors.

I will include few examples below. However, keep in mind that they are nothing more than the tip of the iceberg. Take some time to play around with things, and you’ll soon realize that the sky is the limit.

Exercise variations

Some great variations for the standard hamstring curl can include:

Frog leg curls (great for targeting the outer hamstrings a bit more)

Single-leg curls (very challenging!)

Exercises for other muscle groups

Other standard exercises for challenging different muscle groups can include:

Abdominals & core: Front rollouts and side rollouts

Related article: The Six Best Alternative Exercises to The Ab Wheel: You Will Feel It

Quadriceps: Standing lunges

Related Article: Activate & Strengthen Your VMO With This Science-Proven Exercise

Adductors: Side squats/Cossack squats

Benefit 3: It can be used with added resistance

If you’re looking to kick things up a notch in terms of resistance, keep the following in mind: the glute-ham roller can be attached to a band, making exercises much more challenging, which is something that can’t really be done with the stability ball or slider pads, at least, not all that easily.

All you have to do is loop a thin exercise band around one of the glute-ham roller bars and then have the band anchored to a secure object (such as a squat rack). Now, when you try to perform the curl, you’ll have an accommodating resistance that gets more challenging the further you pull your legs underneath you.

This can also be done with abdominal rollouts. You can make the movement easier or more challenging based on where you anchor the band. If you anchor it behind you, it will be more challenging to roll out but easier to roll back in. Conversely, if you anchor the band away from you, rolling out won’t have any increased resistance, but pulling the roller back towards you will prove to be a much more significant challenge for your core!

Benefit 4: A tiny footprint (it takes up virtually no space)

Dedicated hamstring and glute equipment certainly have their merits. Still, they suffer from two universal issues: they tend to be very expensive and tend to take up a large footprint of gym space. Just look at prone hamstring curl machines or even seated hamstring curl machines. Even equipment such as glute ham developers tend to be the same way.

Now, don’t get me wrong, these are all fantastic pieces of equipment, but they’re not always viable if you’re training in a small garage or in your apartment. Even if money isn’t an issue, space often still is.

Does the glute-ham roller provide you with the capability of as much resistance as a prone hamstring curl machine? No, but it still has immense capacity in building more robust, toned and injury-resistant hamstrings, all while taking up less floor space than a small fraction of what other equipment often does. Plus, it can be easily transported around, which is always a nice bonus.

Benefit 5: Relatively inexpensive & gentle on the wallet

Sometimes, fitness enthusiasts and athletes alike have the space for equipment but not the funds. Or perhaps they do have the funds but may not want to drop thousands of dollars for a piece of equipment that only provides one or two specific exercises in return.

Again, while the glute-ham roller is not meant to replace these dedicated pieces of equipment, for less than a hundred dollars, it’s a great accessory piece of equipment to have on hand and one that makes a BIG difference to have access to when starting to own your first couple of pieces of equipment for a home gym or home studio.

I always recommend that people start with versatile and simple equipment when starting to build a home setup. The goal is to have equipment that can be used in a variety of ways while maximizing available floor space whenever possible. As time goes on, you can add larger, more expensive, and more dedicated pieces of equipment, but if you’re just starting out, start small and work your way up from there.

Benefit 6: It will last a very long time (likely longer than you)

A good glute-ham roller doesn’t exactly have a lot that can go wrong with it; there aren’t really any “moving parts” aside from the wheels. It’s essentially just a solid metal frame with a wheel on each corner. There are no cables that can break, no pieces that go missing, or any other headaches or inconveniences that are often experienced with larger, more sophisticated (and expensive) pieces of equipment.

There’s virtually no maintenance with this piece of equipment. One day, all you might be required to do is to either grease the bearings or replace the wheels. However, so long as you keep this thing indoors and use it on smooth surfaces, you likely won’t ever have to do either of these.

Essentially, treat this thing with even a mild amount of respect, and it will likely outlive you. And since you’re taking care of yourself, that will probably be quite some time!

Final thoughts

It really makes no sense not to opt for owning or using a glute-ham roller. It’s a feisty piece of equipment that can help you avoid injury while providing you with a plethora of exercises. Plus, it won’t interfere with your available floor space for the rest of your home gym, and you’ll have plenty of dollars left over when purchasing one.

The glute-ham roller is incredibly effective, versatile, compact and inexpensive. What’s not to like about it?