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Espi · 03-20-2008, 09:01 AM

Excercises You've Never Tried Before #4

Wrong Way" Pull Over
This movement was "discovered" by doing dumbbell pullovers the wrong way. With traditional pullovers, the lifter attempts to keep the arms relatively straight, but if he bends the elbows and keeps them fixed, he'll get one heck of a triceps exercise!

Lie on a flat bench and hold one dumbbell with both hands. The elbows should be pointed behind your head and the upper arms should remain relatively fixed throughout the movement. Lower the dumbbell into an extreme stretch position, pause, then bring it back up and squeeze your triceps for two seconds at the top. Given that the arms are kept at an angle, tension remains on the triceps for the entire movement. The end result is that the movement is much more effective than traditional seated dumbbell extensions.

Go heavy with this one and shoot for four to six reps per set.

9x 6 – 7

Ouch.. with the slight pain from doing oblique crunches on Sunday, this really felt like ripping apart my rib cage. Only a 9kg db was hard. Only thing I had a problem with is knowing how far up to raise the db. Above the face or keep the arm extended backwards all the time.

Opinion: positive, feels more effective than a regular pullover. If I want to do those again, I’ll definitely do them this way.

Reverse Incline Hammer Curl

Take an incline bench and adjust it so that it's at a 60 to 70-degree angle. Then, after grabbing a pair of dumbbells, sit backward on the bench so that your chest is leaning against the bench. Let the dumbbells hang straight down, and using a hammer grip, curl both dumbbells up so that they touch your shoulders.

This is a cool movement for a variety of reasons. First of all, it's impossible to use body English on them. Secondly, it makes it really difficult to recruit the front deltoids, which allows for a more "pure" biceps movement. It also allows you to draw the elbows back a bit as you curl the weights up, which helps recruit the long head of the biceps, which seems to be underdeveloped in most bodybuilders. And lastly — and this is subtle — it forces you to straighten the arm out completely. Most lifters have some sort of a Popeye syndrome where they almost never fully extend their arms, but by doing this movement — straightening the arm out completely — it may actually feel like the elbow is hyperextended.

(2x6)x14
(2x7)x11

Apart from the funny way you sit, a good exercise Feels better than a normal hammer curl, even with less weight.

Opinion:neutral-positive. Too much isolation work to my liking, but if you must do a hammer curl, this is a good alternative.

Towel Chin-up

This one will set your back, biceps, and forearms on fire! All you need is a towel, a chin-up bar, and a high tolerance for pain. Now, without tying any knots in the towel, throw it over the bar. Grasp the towel and hang on tight. Now perform as many chin-ups as you can. After a few sets, when you can no longer pull yourself up, just grab the towel and hang off of it. Then call a cab, because you won't be able to steer your car home.

BWxF

No f*ing way I can do this. Keep sliding down and can’t even hold on because I’m lacking grip strength. Probably too small fingers. The weird part was when I asked an innocent girl, that I’d just met in the gym to try it. While she didn’t seem strong, she was able to hang onto the towel. Yet she proclaimed to not be able to do any pull-ups. We figured it was because she is taller than me and didn’t need to jump high in order to keep in the highest position. Along with her being taller, she has longer fingers too, enabling a better grip, despite lower strength. Boy was I ever pissed!

Opinion: neutral-positive, despite the failure. Neutral because I wonder what the actual advantage is of this exercise. Positive coz’ I love everything related to pull-ups (macha thing yanno )

Superman

This is a very basic but very neglected core exercise that's great for athletes and bodybuilders alike. Lie on the floor facedown with your arms and legs outstretched. Lift your arms and legs as high as possible and hold them there for a three to five second count. Return to the floor and repeat. Leaping tall buildings with a single bound optional.

BWx6, holding for 5s each

Seems easy but is more difficult than I had imagined. Hurt at the hip when raising the legs.

Opinion: positive, can be a good exercise to increase flexibility

Iron Cross

This is a great overall conditioning exercise we picked up from Coach John Davies. It also makes a good warm-up or finisher.

Hold two light dumbbells or plates in your hands and squat from a wide stance with the buttocks pushed back. Arms should be held straight ahead, parallel to the ground and thumbs up. As you squat up, push your hips forward while simultaneously moving your arms to the sides in a cross position. Return to the start position by moving in the precise inverse fashion and keeping your arms constantly parallel.

(2x4kg)x6

Didn’t do it to failure. Had expected it to be really hard to balance myself, but while the front raise was challenging on its’ own, the exercise was really far less difficult than expected, and really fun to do!

Opinion: positive, a great warm-up & balancing exercise!

Excercises You've Never Tried Before #4

Cable Row to Neck with Rope (or face pull)
Here's an exercise 90% of gym rats should be using. Why? Because they probably spent a good part of their lifting careers doing a lot of bench presses and very little reciprocal work for the upper back (which can negatively affect posture.) Cable rows will make up for those youthful indiscretions.

Set an adjustable pulley so that it's directly in front of your pecs. Use a triceps rope — it'll reduce the stress on your forearms and wrists. Grab the ends of the rope as if you were grasping a pair of hammers. Start with the shoulders protracted and the forearms extended. Begin the movement by retracting the shoulder blades, and immediately bend the elbows to continue the movement until the forearms make contact with the upper arms.

Make sure to eliminate the lower back from the equation by keeping it perpendicular to the floor at all times. If the development of your rhomboids is lacking, you may choose to pause for a moment when the shoulder blades are retracted.

11,3x20
13,8x8

Not a new or odd exercise at all. Been doing this one for a long time now. Previously always seated, later as a standing ‘face pull’ as I tend to call them. Seated ones are way easier.

Opinion: positive, otherwise they wouldn’t have been a mainstay of my routine for so long.

Rolling Swiss Ball Press
Charles Poliquin can do two things well: come up with unique exercises and bake brownies. (You should see the big guy in an apron. He's adorable we tell ya!) He refuses to let us post his brownie recipe here, but here's one of the unique chest movements he invented.

Lie back on a Swiss ball as if you were about to perform normal dumbbell bench presses. Press the dumbbells up and (here comes the interesting part) drop your hips until you're now in an incline position. Now lower the weights slowly. After a pause, roll back up to the "flat" bench position and start over. In effect, you're doing a flat bench on the way up and an incline bench on the way down.

Since you're weaker in the incline press than in the flat press position, you'll use the strong leverage from the flat position to help you get the load up in preparation for the eccentric part of the movement. A very cool use for the 'ol Swiss ball.

(2x8)xF
(2x4)x12

Not sure what happened, but when I started with 8 kg dumbbells my hip suddenly gave up on me again, so I scurried back to the weight rack and took a pink weight of 4 kg.
Weird exercise, but actually quite a lot of fun to do.
Opinion: neutral, it is a fun exercise, but unsure about how practical it really is.

Excercises You've Never Tried Before #4

Plate Pinch

Grip strength isn't all about crushing power. It's also about finger power, or what some call "pinching" power. To improve finger strength, try doing plate pinches. Grab a pair of dimes (newbie translation: ten pound plates) and place them together, smooth side out. Hold them with your finger tips and keep them pinched together. That's probably easy, so now move up to a pair of quarters (25's). Keep track of how long you can hold them and each time you try it, see if you can squeeze out a few extra seconds. You're a certified bad ass if you can do it with 45s!

2x5 kg x 20s (left)-30s (right) while walking around.

Here it shows again these articles are biased for men. There’s no way I can pinch 2 10kg disks as even lifting them up is impossible. It is possible to do this for two 5kg plates and walk around with them. It feels very easy at the start, but gets progressively more difficult.

Opinion: neutral, probably good exercise if pinch gripping strength is important to you, like for rock climbers. But personally, I can’t see the benefit of it. That was it folks. Had wanted to try the most fun exercise of them all, viz. iron cross, but I was a bit tired from all the disk swapping I had to do for the wave loading. [/color]

03-20-2008, 09:01 AM	#4 (permalink)
Espi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: NLs Posts: 2,010 My Profile	Excercises You've Never Tried Before #4 Wrong Way" Pull Over This movement was "discovered" by doing dumbbell pullovers the wrong way. With traditional pullovers, the lifter attempts to keep the arms relatively straight, but if he bends the elbows and keeps them fixed, he'll get one heck of a triceps exercise! Lie on a flat bench and hold one dumbbell with both hands. The elbows should be pointed behind your head and the upper arms should remain relatively fixed throughout the movement. Lower the dumbbell into an extreme stretch position, pause, then bring it back up and squeeze your triceps for two seconds at the top. Given that the arms are kept at an angle, tension remains on the triceps for the entire movement. The end result is that the movement is much more effective than traditional seated dumbbell extensions. Go heavy with this one and shoot for four to six reps per set. 9x 6 – 7 Ouch.. with the slight pain from doing oblique crunches on Sunday, this really felt like ripping apart my rib cage. Only a 9kg db was hard. Only thing I had a problem with is knowing how far up to raise the db. Above the face or keep the arm extended backwards all the time. Opinion: positive, feels more effective than a regular pullover. If I want to do those again, I’ll definitely do them this way. Reverse Incline Hammer Curl Take an incline bench and adjust it so that it's at a 60 to 70-degree angle. Then, after grabbing a pair of dumbbells, sit backward on the bench so that your chest is leaning against the bench. Let the dumbbells hang straight down, and using a hammer grip, curl both dumbbells up so that they touch your shoulders. This is a cool movement for a variety of reasons. First of all, it's impossible to use body English on them. Secondly, it makes it really difficult to recruit the front deltoids, which allows for a more "pure" biceps movement. It also allows you to draw the elbows back a bit as you curl the weights up, which helps recruit the long head of the biceps, which seems to be underdeveloped in most bodybuilders. And lastly — and this is subtle — it forces you to straighten the arm out completely. Most lifters have some sort of a Popeye syndrome where they almost never fully extend their arms, but by doing this movement — straightening the arm out completely — it may actually feel like the elbow is hyperextended. (2x6)x14 (2x7)x11 Apart from the funny way you sit, a good exercise Feels better than a normal hammer curl, even with less weight. Opinion:neutral-positive. Too much isolation work to my liking, but if you must do a hammer curl, this is a good alternative. Towel Chin-up This one will set your back, biceps, and forearms on fire! All you need is a towel, a chin-up bar, and a high tolerance for pain. Now, without tying any knots in the towel, throw it over the bar. Grasp the towel and hang on tight. Now perform as many chin-ups as you can. After a few sets, when you can no longer pull yourself up, just grab the towel and hang off of it. Then call a cab, because you won't be able to steer your car home. BWxF No fing way I can do this. Keep sliding down and can’t even hold on because I’m lacking grip strength. Probably too small fingers. The weird part was when I asked an innocent girl, that I’d just met in the gym to try it. While she didn’t seem strong, she was able to hang onto the towel. Yet she proclaimed to not be able to do any pull-ups. We figured it was because she is taller than me and didn’t need to jump high in order to keep in the highest position. Along with her being taller, she has longer fingers too, enabling a better grip, despite lower strength. Boy was I ever pissed! Opinion: neutral-positive, despite the failure. Neutral because I wonder what the actual advantage is of this exercise. Positive coz’ I love everything related to pull-ups (macha thing yanno ) Superman* This is a very basic but very neglected core exercise that's great for athletes and bodybuilders alike. Lie on the floor facedown with your arms and legs outstretched. Lift your arms and legs as high as possible and hold them there for a three to five second count. Return to the floor and repeat. Leaping tall buildings with a single bound optional. BWx6, holding for 5s each Seems easy but is more difficult than I had imagined. Hurt at the hip when raising the legs. Opinion: positive, can be a good exercise to increase flexibility Iron Cross This is a great overall conditioning exercise we picked up from Coach John Davies. It also makes a good warm-up or finisher. Hold two light dumbbells or plates in your hands and squat from a wide stance with the buttocks pushed back. Arms should be held straight ahead, parallel to the ground and thumbs up. As you squat up, push your hips forward while simultaneously moving your arms to the sides in a cross position. Return to the start position by moving in the precise inverse fashion and keeping your arms constantly parallel. (2x4kg)x6 Didn’t do it to failure. Had expected it to be really hard to balance myself, but while the front raise was challenging on its’ own, the exercise was really far less difficult than expected, and really fun to do! Opinion: positive, a great warm-up & balancing exercise! Excercises You've Never Tried Before #4 Cable Row to Neck with Rope (or face pull) Here's an exercise 90% of gym rats should be using. Why? Because they probably spent a good part of their lifting careers doing a lot of bench presses and very little reciprocal work for the upper back (which can negatively affect posture.) Cable rows will make up for those youthful indiscretions. Set an adjustable pulley so that it's directly in front of your pecs. Use a triceps rope — it'll reduce the stress on your forearms and wrists. Grab the ends of the rope as if you were grasping a pair of hammers. Start with the shoulders protracted and the forearms extended. Begin the movement by retracting the shoulder blades, and immediately bend the elbows to continue the movement until the forearms make contact with the upper arms. Make sure to eliminate the lower back from the equation by keeping it perpendicular to the floor at all times. If the development of your rhomboids is lacking, you may choose to pause for a moment when the shoulder blades are retracted. 11,3x20 13,8x8 Not a new or odd exercise at all. Been doing this one for a long time now. Previously always seated, later as a standing ‘face pull’ as I tend to call them. Seated ones are way easier. Opinion: positive, otherwise they wouldn’t have been a mainstay of my routine for so long. Rolling Swiss Ball Press Charles Poliquin can do two things well: come up with unique exercises and bake brownies. (You should see the big guy in an apron. He's adorable we tell ya!) He refuses to let us post his brownie recipe here, but here's one of the unique chest movements he invented. Lie back on a Swiss ball as if you were about to perform normal dumbbell bench presses. Press the dumbbells up and (here comes the interesting part) drop your hips until you're now in an incline position. Now lower the weights slowly. After a pause, roll back up to the "flat" bench position and start over. In effect, you're doing a flat bench on the way up and an incline bench on the way down. Since you're weaker in the incline press than in the flat press position, you'll use the strong leverage from the flat position to help you get the load up in preparation for the eccentric part of the movement. A very cool use for the 'ol Swiss ball. (2x8)xF (2x4)x12 Not sure what happened, but when I started with 8 kg dumbbells my hip suddenly gave up on me again, so I scurried back to the weight rack and took a pink weight of 4 kg. Weird exercise, but actually quite a lot of fun to do. Opinion: neutral, it is a fun exercise, but unsure about how practical it really is. Excercises You've Never Tried Before #4 Plate Pinch Grip strength isn't all about crushing power. It's also about finger power, or what some call "pinching" power. To improve finger strength, try doing plate pinches. Grab a pair of dimes (newbie translation: ten pound plates) and place them together, smooth side out. Hold them with your finger tips and keep them pinched together. That's probably easy, so now move up to a pair of quarters (25's). Keep track of how long you can hold them and each time you try it, see if you can squeeze out a few extra seconds. You're a certified bad ass if you can do it with 45s! 2x5 kg x 20s (left)-30s (right) while walking around. Here it shows again these articles are biased for men. There’s no way I can pinch 2 10kg disks as even lifting them up is impossible. It is possible to do this for two 5kg plates and walk around with them. It feels very easy at the start, but gets progressively more difficult. Opinion: neutral, probably good exercise if pinch gripping strength is important to you, like for rock climbers. But personally, I can’t see the benefit of it. That was it folks. Had wanted to try the most fun exercise of them all, viz. iron cross, but I was a bit tired from all the disk swapping I had to do for the wave loading. [/color] __________________ Odd Exercises You've Never Tried Before journal: Go with the flow Contrarian & anti-KISS!