The past year has brought some serious growth and reflection for me as a coach. During my transition from intern to full-time coach at Cressey Sports Performance, my eyes have been opened to the benefits of many exercises that I would have scoffed at a few years ago.
I haven’t been shy in my disdain for overly-creative “functional” exercises. If it wasn’t heavy enough to pop blood vessels in your eyes, I had no use for it.
But now, I’ve realized that some exercises that seem wimpy have a legitimate purpose in reaching an end goal of getting bigger, stronger or more athletic. Even if an exercise doesn’t directly make you stronger, it can still be the mortar between the bricks of your foundation of strength.
Sometimes we jump to conclusions too quickly (Deflate-gate, anyone?). Consider this my humble apology to these five exercises that I used to hate, but now I kinda like:
1. TURKISH GET-UP
As the first day of my CSP internship approached, I dreaded learning and coaching the Turkish Get-Up more than any other exercise. I’d never performed or coached it before. I thought it was more of a party trick than a useful exercise. I asked myself cynically, “What does that even work?” But I soon learned, as Tony Gentilcore always says, “What doesn’t it work?”
The Get-Up combines pretty much every movement assessment you could want into one convenient package. Shoulder stability, a hip hinge, a lunge pattern, core positioning… the list goes on. It’s particularly useful for baseball players, who need to be stable in an overhead position, but can easily be subbed in for an overhead press for everyday fitness enthusiasts.
There’s no shortage of Get-Up tutorials floating around the internet, so I’ll leave you with these tips:
- Start light, even if you’re using your empty hand.
- Go slow. You should be able to turn your head in both directions and take full breaths during each step.
- If you’re too strong for your heaviest kettlebell, make like Greg Robins and grab the closest 120-pound softball player you can find.
2. CABLE PULL-THROUGH
A deadlift… with a cable?! Talk about wimpy. I never imagined I’d see the day when I’d be advocating the use of cable pull-throughs, until I realized that not everyone deadlifts very well from day one.
While you’re hammering ankle and t-spine mobility and working on your toe-touch in hopes of being able to deadlift, you’d better be grooving that hip hinge pattern so you’ll be ready for the day when you finally step up to the bar. Plus, you can still get a decent training effect if you slow down the tempo and focus on squeezing your glutes at lockout.
3. PULL-OVERS
You know that old-school bodybuilder exercise that Arnold swore would “expand your ribcage” for a bigger upper body frame? Well, it turns out that, with a few tweaks, the dumbbell pull-over can be a great exercise for athletes and non-athletes alike.
Typically performed with the upper back on a bench, old-school pull-overs are done with a huge ribcage flare, allowing the ribs to fly up as the arms reach up and back. Now, this may build some big lats, but if those lats are already pulling you into a lousy pelvic position during big-money exercises like squats and overhead presses, you need to think twice about how you perform the exercise.
Instead, try it like this:
- Lay face up on the floor with your feet up, knees bent and big toes pressed together
- Drive you lower back into the floor and brace your abs
- Hold a dumbbell with arms straight up toward the ceiling
- Slowly lower the dumbbell toward the ground behind your head, keeping your arms straight and back flat as you go
- When the weight is just above the ground behind your head, exhale slowly and fully
- Return to the starting position without arching your back
You’ve now turned the pull-over into a killer anti-extension core exercise (think front plank or ab wheel rollout) and a serious lat stretch. Done like this, the pull-over can be a great progression of the deadbug if you’re sick of flailing around on the ground during your warmup.
4. LUNGES
Single-leg work has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember. It just never felt right. Looking back, I’ve realized that – big surprise – I’d been doing them wrong all along. I had to let go of my own bias against lunges and accept that there were many benefits to an exercise I hated.
I thought lunges were meant to be done with light weight for a bazillion reps to burn out your quads after heavy squats. Turns out, you can load up lunges with heavy weight too. We’ll often use them as our main strength exercise on a lower body day with our baseball players at CSP. Check out Kansas City Royals pitcher Tim Collins rocking some safety bar lunges with 300 pounds:
The key with lunges is using the right progression. If you’re brand new to lunges, master these exercises in this order:
- Bodyweight split squats
- Loaded split squats
- Bodyweight reverse lunges
- Bodyweight forward lunges
- Loaded reverse lunges
- Loaded forward lunges
Start with split squats so you can get comfortable on one leg at a time. Then, move on to reverse lunges before forward lunges, since stepping backwards requires less deceleration and it’s easier to keep the knees, hips and ankles in proper alignment.
5. CHOPS AND LIFTS
I thought cable chops and lifts were the epitome of lame “functional” exercises – until I learned how to do them correctly.
Once you learn to dig in with your back foot, squeeze your abs and glutes, and use your breathing to dictate the intensity, you’ll be sold on chops and lifts forever. A heavy set of 8 half kneeling cable chops with a full exhale at the bottom will smoke your abs and obliques more than any lame crunch or sidebend.
Chops and lifts combine the anti-extension benefits of a plank, the anti-rotation benefits of a bird dog and the anti-lateral flexion benefits of an off-set loaded carry. That’s all three planes of motion if you’re keeping score at home.
Here’s a challenge – swap out all your planks and crunches for these chop and lift variations for four weeks and report back to me. I’ll bet your abs will look and function better:
Week 1: Tall Kneeling Cable Chop – 3 sets x 8 reps per side
Week 2: Half Kneeling Cable Chop – 3 sets x 10 reps per side
Week 3: Tall Kneeling Cable Lift – 3 sets x 8 reps per side
Week 4: Half Kneeling Cable Lift – 3 sets x 10 reps per side
BONUS WORKOUT
I hope I’ve opened up your eyes to some great exercises that often get dismissed because they seem too geeky. Here’s a sample workout that incorporates all five exercises. I promise this will actually feel like a workout, not just a warmup or rehab session. Let me know what you think!
A1. Barbell Reverse Lunge (Front Squat Grip) – 4 sets x 5 reps per side
B1. 1-Arm Kettlebell Turkish Get-Up – 3 sets x 2 reps per side
B2. Cable Pull-Through – 3 sets x 10 reps
C1. Dumbbell Walking Lunges – 3 sets x 8 reps per side
D1. Half Kneeling Cable Chop – 3 sets x 8 reps per side
D2. 3-Month Position Dumbbell Pullover – 3 sets x 6 reps