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Espi · 03-20-2008, 08:57 AM

Excercises You've Never Tried Before #2

Texas Arm Wrestler Curl

This one is apparently a favorite of competitive arm wrestlers. Here's how it's done:

Straddle a flat bench with your feet on the floor. Place your forearms and hands along your quads while holding a loaded barbell. The back of your hands should be near your knees. Sit up straight and concentrate on keeping the whole body tight and rigid by contracting your abs. Take a deep breath and hold it, then explode the heavy weight off your thighs into the finished curl position. Lower the bar back to your legs under control and repeat.
Try not to bounce the weight off your thighs, though. Rest the bar across your legs between reps for a full 4 seconds. (This is to keep you from cheating and using momentum, you sneaky bastard, you.)

Remember, too, that this exercise is meant to be done heavy. It's only a partial curl, so you've got no excuse to use one of those pre-set barbells that only go up to 85 pounds. Shoot for 4 to 6 maximal reps.

And, like always, don't cheat by lurching and gasping and drooling like the town drunk.

25kg x 3

Either I’m a weakling, or I was already too fried by the EZ bar arm curls. , as the 25 kg bb I tried to do it with only went up 3 times. Apparently the text led me to believe that 85 lbs /38kg was a wussy weight so 25kg would be an extreme wussy weight.. ok, I’m a wussy girl.
No explosive drive up either.

Opinion: negative, can’t be bothered to try this one again.

Zercher goodmorning

Zerchers are in fact sort of a hybrid good morning where instead of putting the bar on your back, you cradle it in the crooks of your arms.

Arrange the hooks on a power rack about chest high. Rack an Olympic bar on the hooks. Approach the bar and pick it up by cradling it in your arms. Hold the bar tight against your body by placing one hand against your upper chest and then grabbing onto that hand with the other.

Assume a wide stance and with the knees slightly bent, bend forward at the waist until your elbows scrape your inner thighs (remember to hold the bar against your chest tightly!). Coming out of the movement is basically a hip thrust, i.e., you explode your hips forward. This movement will bring you back to the start position.
While a standard Good Morning emphasizes the hamstrings a bit more, the Zerchers are primarily for strengthening hip flexors. However, they do also work the hamstrings, along with the spinal erectors.

If you like, you can start doing this movement with a 25 or 45-pound plate cradled against your chest instead of the barbell, which requires more concentration and is a little bit more brutal on the skin on the inner elbows.

Did this one immediately after the normal good mornings with an easy weight: just the empty bar, by getting my head behind the bar on the bench press station and then cradle it in my arms, get up and do good mornings.

Opinion: negative, why would I want to hurt my elbows and do an exercise like this? Didn’t bother to try it with a disk, thought hat might have been a more decent alternative.

Farmer's Walk

Pick up a pair of heavy, really heavy, dumbbells and take a walk around the gym. That's the essence of the farmer's walk. This killer old school exercise will set your lungs on fire, annihilate your grip, forearms and traps, and build a ton of mental and physical toughness.
Here's Strongman Competitor Chad Coy doing the Farmer's Walk with 330 pounds in each hand.
You can perform a designated number of "sets" for a certain distance or just see how far you can go with a certain weight. Each week, try to increase your distance or use heavier weights. Most men can easily start out with 100-pound dumbbells.

2x30 kg x few steps.

Again, OK so I’m a weakling. Took the heaviest dumbbells of 30kg out of the rack, fully expecting to be able to walk around the gym as well, I figured I’d be strong enough.
But unexpectedly this was prevented by the sides of the db digging very painfully into my wrists so decided to put the weights back into the rack.

Opinion:neutral. Could be a good exercise if you’re willing to do Strong(wo)man events where this is part of the required routine, but it’s hard to find weights that are really heavy enough and it’s a clumsy exercise to boot. Can’t really see a benefit for non-strong(wo)men other than ‘having fun doing weird stuff’.

Jerry Telle Chest Routine
This is a series of dumbbell flyes that transition into a modified dumbbell bench press. Telle's idea of an effective workout involves two important factors: high-fiber tension and fatigue. This chest routine will provide both in spades.

Start with a 135-degree wide-angle fly; in other words, with very little bend in the elbows. Lower the dumbbells to a count of three seconds, take a one-second pause then raise them back up. Continue until failure. Rest for only ten seconds and lie back for another set.

In this second set, you'll do flyes again, but this time bend your elbows more until you're doing about a 90-degree fly. Again train to failure, rest for ten seconds, and lie back for a third and final set.

On this last set, you'll perform standard dumbbell bench presses on the concentric portion, or lifting part of the lift, and then "fly out" on the eccentric portion, or lowering part of the lift, until failure. In other words, press the dumbbells up as if you were doing a standard dumbbell bench press. Then, with your elbows locked and while keeping your arms at a 135-degrees wide angle, lower the dumbbells all the way. To initiate the next rep, bring the weights to your side by bending the elbows (i.e., bring them into the start position for a dumbbell bench press). Ouch!

One final note: Use the same weight for all three sets..

Wasn’t exactly sure what weight to use because it’s been eons ago I did flyes. So, just picked an 8 kg dumbbell which didn’t seem too hard nor too easy.
Managed: 8 reps for 1st wide angle set
Managed 5 reps for 2nd 90° angle set
And only got up to 3 reps for the 3rd db press + flye out

Opinion: positive, looks like a good extra for a chest routine with db flyes as an alternative to regular drop sets to fatigue with.

Single Leg Standing Deadlifts
Just when we think we've heard of every exercise in existence, Ian King hits us with these two one-legged versions of popular lifts.
Let's start with the single leg standing deadlift. Stand on one foot with the other foot slightly off the ground. Bend the knee of the supporting leg a little but don't change the knee angle during the exercise.
Bend at the waist while allowing the back to round (yes, round!) and reach towards the floor. Touch the floor with the hands or the dumbbells if you're using them and go back up to the starting position. Use a speed of three seconds down, pause for one second at the top and bottom, and three seconds up.
Start with bodyweight only and when you can do ten reps at the correct tempo and without losing your balance, use light dumbbells.

Because of the extreme small font used for the printout, I just looked vaguely at the pic and only remembered the part about standing on 1 foot. And discovered pulling up a 40kg bb wasn’t a good idea. Upon reading the text tried again with BW only and managed 10 reps, but only barely.

ETA: here's a better video of a single leg DL/SQ

Opinion: negative, too much balancing too little weight

Single Leg Standing Goodmornings
Now for the one-legged good morning. It's basically the same as above only you'll be holding a light barbell (or even a broomstick until you get used to it) across your back. The shift in external resistance will make it feel a bit different than the single leg deadlift. Follow the same rules as above.

Because I’d just done normal GMs, did them as BW only. Apart from the balancing act, it was fairly easy. Could’ve done them with a light bb.

Opinion: negative, again too much balancing with too little weight

Ham pull through

This is a favorite of guys like Dave Tate and Coach Davies. Attach a rope like you'd use for triceps pushdowns to a low pulley cable. Face away from the weight stack, straddle the cable and hold the rope at crotch level. (Yes, you'll find the rope in a peculiar position!)
Spread your feet to wider-than-shoulder-width, with a slight bend at the waist. Now walk out a little so you'll be able to keep constant tension. Start the eccentric (lowering) part of the movement by pushing the butt back and reaching your hands through your legs. Full extension of the movement comes as your forearms/elbows touch the sides of your knees. The concentric or lifting part of the movement is a forward, upward explosion to a standing position, where your hands return to the crotch position.
These ought to hold you over until our next installment. If, in the meantime, you've got some fancy-schmancy exercises that are either new or were somehow left behind in the old days of weight training, let us know and we'll think about using them in the column?as long as you don't want any free stuff as a reward or anything.

Funny, I’m doing this series of ‘Exercises You’ve never tried before and the 2nd instalment has you do the pull through, which is currently part of my normal (apparently not so normal) routine. No suprises here.

11,3 x 17-20 (last week: 8,8x20-22)
Form is improving, same amt of reps as last week!! On towards higher weights.

This is really a good hamstring exercise, but you have to pay attention to not let the arms go too far up and turn it into a front raise. Remember pulling the cable from way behind to just near the knees. The tricky part is that the weight to be used is deceptively low. Because of the constant tension on the hams, the TUT (time under tension) becomes very long. So, very small weights can result in major DOMS.

PS: upon rereading the explanation I see that I still do it wrong. I don't become erect in the final position, but keep a bend at the knee.. probably because i'm terrified to get another shoulder incident by accidentally making it into a front raise like I have done before.

Opinion: positive of course, otherwise I wouldn't have added it to my normal routine.

03-20-2008, 08:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
Espi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: NLs Posts: 1,992 My Profile	Excercises You've Never Tried Before #2 Texas Arm Wrestler Curl This one is apparently a favorite of competitive arm wrestlers. Here's how it's done: Straddle a flat bench with your feet on the floor. Place your forearms and hands along your quads while holding a loaded barbell. The back of your hands should be near your knees. Sit up straight and concentrate on keeping the whole body tight and rigid by contracting your abs. Take a deep breath and hold it, then explode the heavy weight off your thighs into the finished curl position. Lower the bar back to your legs under control and repeat. Try not to bounce the weight off your thighs, though. Rest the bar across your legs between reps for a full 4 seconds. (This is to keep you from cheating and using momentum, you sneaky bastard, you.) Remember, too, that this exercise is meant to be done heavy. It's only a partial curl, so you've got no excuse to use one of those pre-set barbells that only go up to 85 pounds. Shoot for 4 to 6 maximal reps. And, like always, don't cheat by lurching and gasping and drooling like the town drunk. 25kg x 3 Either I’m a weakling, or I was already too fried by the EZ bar arm curls. , as the 25 kg bb I tried to do it with only went up 3 times. Apparently the text led me to believe that 85 lbs /38kg was a wussy weight so 25kg would be an extreme wussy weight.. ok, I’m a wussy girl. No explosive drive up either. Opinion: negative, can’t be bothered to try this one again. Zercher goodmorning Zerchers are in fact sort of a hybrid good morning where instead of putting the bar on your back, you cradle it in the crooks of your arms. Arrange the hooks on a power rack about chest high. Rack an Olympic bar on the hooks. Approach the bar and pick it up by cradling it in your arms. Hold the bar tight against your body by placing one hand against your upper chest and then grabbing onto that hand with the other. Assume a wide stance and with the knees slightly bent, bend forward at the waist until your elbows scrape your inner thighs (remember to hold the bar against your chest tightly!). Coming out of the movement is basically a hip thrust, i.e., you explode your hips forward. This movement will bring you back to the start position. While a standard Good Morning emphasizes the hamstrings a bit more, the Zerchers are primarily for strengthening hip flexors. However, they do also work the hamstrings, along with the spinal erectors. If you like, you can start doing this movement with a 25 or 45-pound plate cradled against your chest instead of the barbell, which requires more concentration and is a little bit more brutal on the skin on the inner elbows. Did this one immediately after the normal good mornings with an easy weight: just the empty bar, by getting my head behind the bar on the bench press station and then cradle it in my arms, get up and do good mornings. Opinion: negative, why would I want to hurt my elbows and do an exercise like this? Didn’t bother to try it with a disk, thought hat might have been a more decent alternative. Farmer's Walk Pick up a pair of heavy, really heavy, dumbbells and take a walk around the gym. That's the essence of the farmer's walk. This killer old school exercise will set your lungs on fire, annihilate your grip, forearms and traps, and build a ton of mental and physical toughness. Here's Strongman Competitor Chad Coy doing the Farmer's Walk with 330 pounds in each hand. You can perform a designated number of "sets" for a certain distance or just see how far you can go with a certain weight. Each week, try to increase your distance or use heavier weights. Most men can easily start out with 100-pound dumbbells. 2x30 kg x few steps. Again, OK so I’m a weakling. Took the heaviest dumbbells of 30kg out of the rack, fully expecting to be able to walk around the gym as well, I figured I’d be strong enough. But unexpectedly this was prevented by the sides of the db digging very painfully into my wrists so decided to put the weights back into the rack. Opinion:neutral. Could be a good exercise if you’re willing to do Strong(wo)man events where this is part of the required routine, but it’s hard to find weights that are really heavy enough and it’s a clumsy exercise to boot. Can’t really see a benefit for non-strong(wo)men other than ‘having fun doing weird stuff’. Jerry Telle Chest Routine This is a series of dumbbell flyes that transition into a modified dumbbell bench press. Telle's idea of an effective workout involves two important factors: high-fiber tension and fatigue. This chest routine will provide both in spades. Start with a 135-degree wide-angle fly; in other words, with very little bend in the elbows. Lower the dumbbells to a count of three seconds, take a one-second pause then raise them back up. Continue until failure. Rest for only ten seconds and lie back for another set. In this second set, you'll do flyes again, but this time bend your elbows more until you're doing about a 90-degree fly. Again train to failure, rest for ten seconds, and lie back for a third and final set. On this last set, you'll perform standard dumbbell bench presses on the concentric portion, or lifting part of the lift, and then "fly out" on the eccentric portion, or lowering part of the lift, until failure. In other words, press the dumbbells up as if you were doing a standard dumbbell bench press. Then, with your elbows locked and while keeping your arms at a 135-degrees wide angle, lower the dumbbells all the way. To initiate the next rep, bring the weights to your side by bending the elbows (i.e., bring them into the start position for a dumbbell bench press). Ouch! One final note: Use the same weight for all three sets.. Wasn’t exactly sure what weight to use because it’s been eons ago I did flyes. So, just picked an 8 kg dumbbell which didn’t seem too hard nor too easy. Managed: 8 reps for 1st wide angle set Managed 5 reps for 2nd 90° angle set And only got up to 3 reps for the 3rd db press + flye out Opinion: positive, looks like a good extra for a chest routine with db flyes as an alternative to regular drop sets to fatigue with. Single Leg Standing Deadlifts Just when we think we've heard of every exercise in existence, Ian King hits us with these two one-legged versions of popular lifts. Let's start with the single leg standing deadlift. Stand on one foot with the other foot slightly off the ground. Bend the knee of the supporting leg a little but don't change the knee angle during the exercise. Bend at the waist while allowing the back to round (yes, round!) and reach towards the floor. Touch the floor with the hands or the dumbbells if you're using them and go back up to the starting position. Use a speed of three seconds down, pause for one second at the top and bottom, and three seconds up. Start with bodyweight only and when you can do ten reps at the correct tempo and without losing your balance, use light dumbbells. Because of the extreme small font used for the printout, I just looked vaguely at the pic and only remembered the part about standing on 1 foot. And discovered pulling up a 40kg bb wasn’t a good idea. Upon reading the text tried again with BW only and managed 10 reps, but only barely. ETA: here's a better video of a single leg DL/SQ Opinion: negative, too much balancing too little weight Single Leg Standing Goodmornings Now for the one-legged good morning. It's basically the same as above only you'll be holding a light barbell (or even a broomstick until you get used to it) across your back. The shift in external resistance will make it feel a bit different than the single leg deadlift. Follow the same rules as above. Because I’d just done normal GMs, did them as BW only. Apart from the balancing act, it was fairly easy. Could’ve done them with a light bb. Opinion: negative, again too much balancing with too little weight Ham pull through This is a favorite of guys like Dave Tate and Coach Davies. Attach a rope like you'd use for triceps pushdowns to a low pulley cable. Face away from the weight stack, straddle the cable and hold the rope at crotch level. (Yes, you'll find the rope in a peculiar position!) Spread your feet to wider-than-shoulder-width, with a slight bend at the waist. Now walk out a little so you'll be able to keep constant tension. Start the eccentric (lowering) part of the movement by pushing the butt back and reaching your hands through your legs. Full extension of the movement comes as your forearms/elbows touch the sides of your knees. The concentric or lifting part of the movement is a forward, upward explosion to a standing position, where your hands return to the crotch position. These ought to hold you over until our next installment. If, in the meantime, you've got some fancy-schmancy exercises that are either new or were somehow left behind in the old days of weight training, let us know and we'll think about using them in the column?as long as you don't want any free stuff as a reward or anything. Funny, I’m doing this series of ‘Exercises You’ve never tried before and the 2nd instalment has you do the pull through, which is currently part of my normal (apparently not so normal) routine. No suprises here. 11,3 x 17-20 (last week: 8,8x20-22) Form is improving, same amt of reps as last week!! On towards higher weights. This is really a good hamstring exercise, but you have to pay attention to not let the arms go too far up and turn it into a front raise. Remember pulling the cable from way behind to just near the knees. The tricky part is that the weight to be used is deceptively low. Because of the constant tension on the hams, the TUT (time under tension) becomes very long. So, very small weights can result in major DOMS. PS: upon rereading the explanation I see that I still do it wrong. I don't become erect in the final position, but keep a bend at the knee.. probably because i'm terrified to get another shoulder incident by accidentally making it into a front raise like I have done before. Opinion: positive of course, otherwise I wouldn't have added it to my normal routine. __________________ Odd Exercises You've Never Tried Before journal: Go with the flow Contrarian & anti-KISS!