Post Your "Secret" Exercises

Does anyone have an exercise they came up with? Or a variation of the existing one?

If we told you, it would no longer be a secret :zipper_mouth_face:

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Safety squat bar squats like this

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Theyā€™re secret for a reason man. Posting them would probably get you banned.

Lying leg raises.

The twist is you do them on a comp spec bench press bench and only when other benches are freely available.

The secret is more about being an asshole than anything to do with results.

So I have subacromial bursitis in my left shoulder, due to this Iā€™m unable to properly activate the lateral and rear portions of said deltoid. The result is a gnarly imbalance between my left/right shoulder complexes that will more than likely correct itself post cortisone injection. However, I have a special variation of lateral raise that I use solely as with this variation im still able to adequately activate the lateral and rear portions of my left deltoid

I call the exercise the ā€œyeetfloopā€

Decline standing ab-wheel rollouts. Stand up on something - like one of those aerobic step-up thingies. Then do some ab-wheel rollouts. Fucking ouch. Or maybe they are technically inclines? I donā€™t know. But they are hard.

I also do super slow motion pull-ups. Just a single will do ya. Bonus points if you do a behind-the-neck variation, and extra bonus points if you can do it with an ā€œIā€™m, like, super boredā€ expression on your face.

not really secret, but i like to do pullups with a towel (to hit the grip a little more) and while in an L-sit (or atleast knees up) position as i find i feel it in the lower lats ALOT more (right near the bottom of the back where they insert) . . . . ive had friends try it who dont feel much difference, so it may just be something that is subjective to me and my bodytype ( or because i know i suffer with posterior hip tilt)

My only ā€œinventionā€ that Iā€™ve never seen anyone else do is towel curls. I had to Macgyver a way to do hammer curls without dumbbells or cables. Put a towel through the handle of a kettlebell and curled that way. Bonus points: the heavy part of the bell ends up right at crown jewels level, strict form guaranteed.

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I used to think your Rippetoe ā€˜look downā€™ jokes were a criticism, but now I realize that he doesnā€™t tell people to look down far enough for your liking.

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Not really a secret, but uncommon to see in the gym are steering wheel front delt raises. Not sure if this is the exact name of the movement. Looks silly, but nothing targets the delts quite like this technique; Pros use it too.

Reverse hypers. Not for any particular benefit either. I just like the word hyper, especially in the name of an exercise.

Like hyper squats. Hyper bench. Hyper zerchers.

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Single arm rope tricep press down.

  1. Put a knot in the rope attachment for the cable machine.

  2. Stand perpendicular to cable and bend over so your chest is facing the ground

  3. ???

  4. Profit!

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Thatā€™s a kickback, not a pressdown? I think?

Kickbacks youā€™re bent over facing the cables, Iā€™m perpendicular to it. Elbow stays in place and you push down rather than back. Iā€™ll have to post a vid next time I do it, one of my favorite tri exercises

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Yeah, the whole chest facing the floor thing is throwing my vision of it off.

Here it is, didnā€™t realize how rounded I was because Iā€™ve never taken a vid of this before but it feels okay.

Usually do 12-15 reps the first set and switch back and forth between arms without rest until Iā€™m only hitting 5ish reps a set. Takes a little playing around to find the right amount of elbow flare. Itā€™s deceivingly hard, usually use 1/4th-1/3rd the weight I would for a normal 2 hand press down.

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Click! Makes sense now.

Iā€™ve mentioned these before, but putting an incline Bench on 45 degrees and kneeling behind it with the seat closest to a cable attachment with a single handle to do one arm cable preachers. We have a cable preacher bench at my gym but itā€™s at such a low angle that at peak contraction the cable is running along your forearm, so itā€™s not pulling on your hand like a lever and properly stressing the bicep at its peak. You can raise the cable attachment with the single arm variation so that the cable is almost perpendicular to your hand while at the peak of the movement. Add some slow eccentrics and a dropset, the pain is real.

Stealin this