Doing the same routine at the gym day in, day out not only gets boring, but eventually yields diminishing results. Include these five lifts in your routine to reinvigorate your workout:
- Arnold Press:
Named after the most famous bodybuilder of them all, the Arnold press is a safer, more dynamic variant of the regular dumbbell press. Instead of starting the movement with your hands facing outward, start with them facing in and rotate out as you raise them. Pull them back in on the negative part of the exercise. The variation is healthier for your joints and feels more organic than the normal press.
- Alternating Hammer Curls:
Hammer curls are a popular secondary bicep exercise, used to isolate the outer head of the bicep more. Change up this lift by bringing your hand up to the opposite shoulder instead of directly upward. The modification will place greater stress on this outer head and your forearm, helping you bring shape and peak to your arms.
- Barbell Rows:
An old-school favorite. It is easy to use cables or machines for horizontal pulling movements, but there is a tendency to go light on a machine, and there is simply no replacement for free weight. Bend over a loaded barbell at roughly a forty five degree angle, with your back rigid. Pull the barbell off the floor and row toward your waist. The exercise will help with thickness, especially in the middle back, as well as core stability.
- Weighted Decline Crunches:
Stop listening to your school football coach and doing a thousand crunches to train abs. In contrary to common perception, abs develop the best under heavy resistance at normal repetition ranges. Create this resistance by doing your crunches at a decline while holding a plate. You’ll save time on your workout and will see far faster results.
- Walking Lunges
Hold two heavy dumbbells and step forward with one leg, dropping your back leg till it nearly touches the ground. Stand back up where your front foot is planted and repeat, stepping forward with alternate legs. Walk from one end of your weight room to the other. The exercise will train the quads, glutes, and hamstrings, as well as providing functional activation of your hips and knees, making it the perfect movement for athletic training.
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