No there isn’t one magic exercise for everybody that works for an unlimited amount of time to meet all your physique demands. However, doesn’t it seem like sometimes there is that one exercise that for a short period of time gives you miraculous results?
A year ago I put single legged leg press in my rotation and it just felt right. All of my leg numbers sky rocketed, my sweep grew much more impressive, my numbers on that particular exercise doubled, and I was sore after every one-legged leg press day. This continued for at least four months where the exercise was extremely beneficial. I still make progress on it now but it’s slowed down in that respect.
A month or so ago I found a new magic move for me. I tried this Nautilus Lateral Shoulder machine and it just felt right for my shoulders. My numbers on it have jumped by 50 pounds already and I can say that my shoulders look noticeably rounder already.
Have any of you experienced this? Where you find that new move that seemed to be the missing piece of the equation for a certain body part? And for a “brief” period of time you get really good results?
Not sure if it would count as a ‘magic’ exercised but when i first started deadlifting my glutes grew like a mofo. Even got a few female comments on it.
Good topic here. I recently ditched wide grip pullups for pulldowns and my lats have grown significantly. I noticed that the pump on pulldowns was also much more intense.
I’m not saying I will never do pullups again, but right now pulldowns with some body movement is giving me good results.
A nice little magic exercise I have found are Dimel deadlifts, I do thees and the end of all my SETS of barbell rows, as soon as my lumbars momentarily fail I go right into 'em. (for example: BB rows taken to lumbar failure(12 reps) then transition into dimels for 5-7 reps, then next set) I usually do these befor or after heavy deads or rack pulls and they work wonders for me. Check out the link on them here; http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=33919&tid=102, the only difference with mine are that I put more concentration into my back and pull the bar torward my torso as hard as possible through out the set.
SL Deadlifts with DB’s. My hamstrings have really responded very well after incorporating these on Ham day. 3x6. Each set with toes pointing in a different direction.
Had to post another magic movement, this works wonders for functional (yeah i said it) shoulder stability and strength, I call it the Olympic Walk, just stand up and lock out a barbell overhead (p.s you NEED to be proficient in “core control” and military presses to do these safely.) and start walking either in a straight line or in a zig-zag pattern, I prefer the latter over the former. because of the “reflexive fibers” that come into play, this really prehabs and strengthens the F*** out of the phasic and tonic shoulder fibers .
I and many clients have personally raised PRs in all variations of overhead presses by utilizing this movement in addition to our programming.
If you want to try this out I suggest doing it outdoors for 3-5 sets of 20-40 yards in a zig-zag walking pattern. I beleive the width of about 14 car parking spaces in a parking lot is 40 yards.(just a lil tip)
Even though I’ve heard people rip on it for it’s safety, I’ve incorporated behind the neck barbell presses and seen my traps/delts/upper back grow like crazy
Squats, DB Presses, and heavy weighted dips and chin ups. I suppose they should be part of any program.
I’ll add ghetto T Bar Rows, I get such a huge back pump off these and my upper back looks noticeably thicker and is much more stable on pressing and squattinge exercises
I don’t know why, but behind the neck barbell presses (to the traps for very light weights, to the ears for challenging weights) pretty much cured my shoulders when paired with the shoulder dislocates broomstick stretch. Also I have visible rear delts now (still not amazing, but they are existent now)
And dragon flags made me their bitch, my rectus has been beautifully sore for 4 days now. Hurts to sneeze…
First time I ever did behind-the-neck presses. Just reincorporated DF’s from about 4 months off of them.
[quote]HypertroPHd wrote:
Had to post another magic movement, this works wonders for functional (yeah i said it) shoulder stability and strength, I call it the Olympic Walk, just stand up and lock out a barbell overhead (p.s you NEED to be proficient in “core control” and military presses to do these safely.) and start walking either in a straight line or in a zig-zag pattern, I prefer the latter over the former. because of the “reflexive fibers” that come into play, this really prehabs and strengthens the F*** out of the phasic and tonic shoulder fibers .
I and many clients have personally raised PRs in all variations of overhead presses by utilizing this movement in addition to our programming.
If you want to try this out I suggest doing it outdoors for 3-5 sets of 20-40 yards in a zig-zag walking pattern. I beleive the width of about 14 car parking spaces in a parking lot is 40 yards.(just a lil tip)
[/quote]
I’ve done these with DB’s and liked them, but I always tended to go into lumbar hyperextension. Does the barbell minimize this in your experience, or should there be no difference?
cable pull-throughs have really helped my deadlift #s go up since i’ve added them in. also, a few years ago, the Hammer Strength wide press really helped my chest development and i got very strong on them (for me, that is) for a while. now that i only ever use the machine maybe once a month, i suck at it again though
For a while front squats seemed like the only exercise I needed for my entire body to grow. Now it just seems like once I got to around 275 they haven’t done much for me in over a year.