Thread: Most Underrated Excercises

I’m not one to separate strength and hypertrophy because well, a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle (or has the capability of being a stronger muscle)…

That said

1) step ups

In an EMG study I’ve seen they beat the pants off of every hip extension exercise for glute activation, and you get the advantage of working each leg unilaterally. It can also be tailored by using a bigger box, doing them from the side, different variations, etc

2) trap bar deadlifts

Going off my point above, following different step up variations, the trap bar beat out every other exercise for glute activation.

Moving away from glutes, they are just an all around better way to deadlift. The shoulders are in a stronger position, there is less shearing on the spine (a good thing, btw and no, more shearing on the spine =/= erector hypertrophy), more power off the ground and in my experience, moving loads between 4-500 lbs for reps, when the hips start to fatigue the load is shifted more to the upper back and quads where in a conventional deadlift, the lower back tends to take the brunt of it.

The study in question, see figure 2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art.../#!po=0.925926

Aaaaaand for the inevitable “trap bar deadlifts are more like a squat” comments out there…some statements just won’t die no matter how untrue they are.

https://www.strongerbyscience.com/tr...deadlifts/amp/

Scroll down to the “hinge-squat continuum” to see what I mean.

Originally Posted by pinfante

Funny you should say step ups... The LA Fitness I started going to more regularly has decent size boxes and was thinking I should incorporate that into my routine. Are you doing this with dumbbells or body weight for reps?

I personally don’t do step ups, but when I program them it usually goes body weight up to a taller box or higher surface, then start back at the bottom with load, and rinse and repeat with a bigger load next time.

So 12” box > 16” box > 20” box > 24” box with bodyweight, then start back over on the 12” box with a moderate load then work their way back up.

Weighted pushups (+ pushups in general)

Reverse hypers

Reverse curls

Bulgarian split squats

Leg extensions

Anything that takes you through a pretty deep stretch preferable at long muscle Lengths.. Or something that starts from a complete dead stop/zero stretch reflex.

A few I hate/love

Defecit Bulgarian split squat
So, front foot elevated on a 2-4" block
Rear foot elevated as usual
Slightly longer stance
Drop in deep
Cry about it after

Baysian cable curls
Seated cable curl
Incline
Cable set at the bottom and behind you
Think incline db curl turned up to 11

Dead stop triceps extention
Lay on floor
Do an extention from just above head
Slow eccentric
Don't turn injury pull over

Cambered bar dead bench
Start with bar on safeties
Press out from complete dead stop
Rom starts 2" below usual bench rom

Bonus.
Anything that feels good and you can tolerate for enough work load & rekstive intensity.

Originally Posted by BeginnerGainz

Aaaaaand for the inevitable “trap bar deadlifts are more like a squat” comments out there…some statements just won’t die no matter how untrue they are.

Only if you blast your knees as far l forward as possible ... I've started doing then again and I do mine more like a stiff leg 😂

🖕Take that trap bar squatters!

Originally Posted by MyEgoProblem

Anything that takes you through a pretty deep stretch preferable at long muscle Lengths.. Or something that starts from a complete dead stop/zero stretch reflex.

A few I hate/love

Defecit Bulgarian split squat
So, front foot elevated on a 2-4" block
Rear foot elevated as usual
Slightly longer stance
Drop in deep
Cry about it after

Baysian cable curls
Seated cable curl
Incline
Cable set at the bottom and behind you
Think incline db curl turned up to 11

Dead stop triceps extention
Lay on floor
Do an extention from just above head
Slow eccentric
Don't turn injury pull over

Cambered bar dead bench
Start with bar on safeties
Press out from complete dead stop
Rom starts 2" below usual bench rom

Bonus.
Anything that feels good and you can tolerate for enough work load & rekstive intensity.





Only if you blast your knees as far l forward as possible ... I've started doing then again and I do mine more like a stiff leg 😂

🖕Take that trap bar squatters!

Still a hinge m8 🤣🤣

I do mine with LESS quad pop than conventional, but not quite stiff legged. Never felt my ass working in deadlifts until I gave the hex bar an honest try lol

Originally Posted by BeginnerGainz

Still a hinge m8 🤣🤣

I do mine with LESS quad pop than conventional, but not quite stiff legged. Never felt my ass working in deadlifts until I gave the hex bar an honest try lol

I know at least 2 guys personally with Gibbon arms who can pull a trap bar with all the knee travel and a legit vertical Torso..
Its an odd looking situation 😂 i can't do it

If im maxing the trap bar my ughhh 'optimal position' is knees a LITTLE further forward than my regular conventional pull. Its just where my body self selects this position for most horsepower.

Id honestly use it more if it had longer sleeves for more wheels, but at least it has 3 grip thickness to use to self limit loading for supplemental work.

Originally Posted by MyEgoProblem

A few I hate/love

Defecit Bulgarian split squat
So, front foot elevated on a 2-4" block
Rear foot elevated as usual
Slightly longer stance
Drop in deep
Cry about it after

Have been using this exact setup as my main leg exercise for a while and 100% agree on the love/hate comment - these are ****ing brutal and way harder than the regular ones.

Also starting to love/hate ATG split squats.

Originally Posted by BeginnerGainz

I’m not one to separate strength and hypertrophy because well, a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle (or has the capability of being a stronger muscle)…

That said

1) step ups

In an EMG study I’ve seen they beat the pants off of every hip extension exercise for glute activation, and you get the advantage of working each leg unilaterally. It can also be tailored by using a bigger box, doing them from the side, different variations, etc

2) trap bar deadlifts

Going off my point above, following different step up variations, the trap bar beat out every other exercise for glute activation.

Moving away from glutes, they are just an all around better way to deadlift. The shoulders are in a stronger position, there is less shearing on the spine (a good thing, btw and no, more shearing on the spine =/= erector hypertrophy), more power off the ground and in my experience, moving loads between 4-500 lbs for reps, when the hips start to fatigue the load is shifted more to the upper back and quads where in a conventional deadlift, the lower back tends to take the brunt of it.

The study in question, see figure 2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art.../#!po=0.925926

Aaaaaand for the inevitable “trap bar deadlifts are more like a squat” comments out there…some statements just won’t die no matter how untrue they are.

https://www.strongerbyscience.com/tr...deadlifts/amp/

Scroll down to the “hinge-squat continuum” to see what I mean.

I love trap bar deadlifts, but conventional are just so much easier to setup with the jack.

Honestly, I'm going to go ahead and say that it's the conventional, classic compound exercises which seem to be getting a curious amount of flak in recent years - though not from everyone, of course. For instance, I see a statement from an elite athlete like Jay Cutler saying that he's sworn off the bench press, inspiring a lot of novice/intermediates to do the same and maintain that it's poor for hypertrophy, when in many cases they've never even put up 315.

It seems that many trainers imagine that they're on the back half of the diminishing returns curve in imitation of elite athletes who are, well before that is actually the case for themselves and there is much they could continue to benefit from in performing them. That said, there are many ways to go about it and almost no form of consistent, concerted, hard work in lifting is going to be fruitless or without some kind of meaningful results. I also don't want to give unsolicited judgment on someone else's approach, especially if they're just having fun and doing what they like for whatever personal reason they have.

But to answer the question, I really would have to say that it's exercises like the flat bench, conventional deadlift, Pendlay row and such, which have been falling out of vogue to some kind of flashier, ostensible superior alternative. These exercises are hard and not 100% perfect, but they have worked excellently for generations and they're not going to stop being effective and excellent choices. Perhaps I'm too much of a simplistic devotee, however.

Originally Posted by EliKoehn

Honestly, I'm going to go ahead and say that it's the conventional, classic compound exercises which seem to be getting a curious amount of flak in recent years - though not from everyone, of course. For instance, I see a statement from an elite athlete like Jay Cutler saying that he's sworn off the bench press, inspiring a lot of novice/intermediates to do the same and maintain that it's poor for hypertrophy, when in many cases they've never even put up 315.

I think if we're talking about hypertrophy then focusing on the heavy drivers can be overall preoccupying to some inevitable degree. Time spent, injuries, dedication to bulk/cut cycles, opportunity of learning different exercises. For the most part it seems really possible to train like that and not get a clear picture of how the sausage is made. Like, once you stop training and it goes away, what do you really come back with? Has the particular way you trained been able to avoid critical injuries, serious or not? How much perspective are your muscles actually getting?

It seems that many trainers imagine that they're on the back half of the diminishing returns curve in imitation of elite athletes who are, well before that is actually the case for themselves and there is much they could continue to benefit from in performing them. That said, there are many ways to go about it and almost no form of consistent, concerted, hard work in lifting is going to be fruitless or without some kind of meaningful results. I also don't want to give unsolicited judgment on someone else's approach, especially if they're just having fun and doing what they like for whatever personal reason they have.

Since 2015 abouts I've bugged quite a bit of the trainers and I've been able to generally ping pong what I've learned here about fierce 5 and linear progression. It's not for nothing. I also remember a video with a guy saying that, in terms of marketability, Starting Strength certification grabbed the lion share. But I think it's true that a lot of people don't go for it based on the basic outline of the program and the stark and simple regimen it entails.

Everything you can do on the smith machine is highly underrated.

Bench
Incline
Seated press
Upright row
Skull crushers
Squats
Front squats
Split squats
Calf raises

To name a few.