Adarq.org

I have no idea. In terms of specificity, yeah, the RDL does indeed seem more specific. I think the thing with the deadlifts (of any kind) is that you can do them wrong - using your back. And if you do, you'll think you're training your hamstrings, hip extension, this and that, when in reality even a slight misposition of the pelvis is significant in terms of recruitment patterns etc.

In the GHR there's less chance for that (unless your form is horrible or something).

When I used to do them, natural GHRs, I didn't had that great of a form either but it was definitely the hamstrings that were recruited, since they were the only ones who could flex the knees (with assistance from the calves).

Also, what you do with the ankles is important too. If you plantar flex your ankles that puts the calves into active insufficiency and they cannot assist the hamstrings in flexing the knee (since the calves are then being shortened both at the knee and the ankle joints) - so if you plantar flex during your GHRs you isolate the hamstrings. If you dorsiflex, you put the calves at a more advantageous position, you negate the active insufficiency, and you're assisting the hamstrings with your calves and make the movement easier.

So, plantar flex the ankles = harder, isolates the hamstrings.
Dorsiflex the ankles = easier, hamstrings are assisted by the calves.

Something to keep in mind.

A few videos of my GHRs (that's the only place where I can do them, BTW, safely):

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9g5brtWUL0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9g5brtWUL0</a>

And one GHR with the arms overhead (extremely difficult):

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHBoX8B_U8g" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHBoX8B_U8g</a>

You can see in the videos I'm bent quite a bit at the hips. That's for two reasons:

1) I'm not strong enough so I shorten the length of my torso by bending at the hips and making the movement easier (since my head/upperbody is closer to the origin point and easier to move around);

2) It's almost impossible to keep completely straight hips since the hamstrings are biarticular and they enter active insufficiency when the hips are extended and the knees are flexed, meaning you can't have both. That's why the leg curls machine has a small bent at the middle - to flex your hips a bit to some angle (say 15-20 degrees) in order to prevent active insufficiency from occuring.

It's funny but I was looking through some of my old stuff in my computer and found a picture called "adarqui baseline plant" where I took a screenshot of adarqui before his plant, with his legs thrown almost parallel to the ground in front of him (mid-air). Weirdly enough, that followed his regular extremely quad dominant position.

That screenshot was from the clip above.

As for the relaxed part - it's only true about the run-up. If you're stiff during the run-up, you're already consuming a tremendous amount of energy and the muscles arrive at the plant point already fatigued/exhausted, being subjected to a very high tension with each step you took to get there in your run-up.

So the "relaxed part" is really an euphemism for movement efficiency.

Oh, so they're not free barbell calf raises?

I have to say, 20 reps at ~70 kg is impressive, to me. I mean, I'm doing sets of 10 with 55 kg and the 10th rep already is somewhat uncoordinated, like I accumulate nervous fatigue that makes my intermuscular coordination to start to suck. Imagine what would happen in the 20th rep (not to mention the amount of cardio fatigue).

My only problem would be the calf raises - you seriously struggle with 8 rep sets @ BW+90 kg?

Interesting, you stay RL when you take the bar off the squat rack.

10000 were made by me to see the answer to the question about play/played and pay/paid.

Yeah well it depends on a lot of things... like how bent the knees are, the stance width etc. Weirdly enough, I feel better activation with the legs straight, but I'm speaking in general terms, not during the hip thrusts themselves (like if I try in bed to activate the glutes, I activate them much better with the legs straight than with the knees bent). Theoretically, the more the knees are bent the less the hamstrings contribute since you're putting them close to active insufficiency, but... the reality is that the glutes really really work well when the legs are straight. Whatever.