Sometimes we get caught up trying to make things better through addition. Well, more isn’t always better. Better is better.
It’s an overused phrase, but it rings so true in the world of strength training. Eric Cressey nailed it when he simply said “you can’t just keep adding”.
Between moving, starting a new job, preparing for another powerlifting meet and ultimately being strapped for time, I haven’t used a ton of exercise variation. I’ve been forced to make the best of what I AM doing instead of worrying about what I’m NOT doing.
So before you add more workouts or more exercises to your routine, try these subtle variations to make the best of what you’re already doing.
1. ROW THE BAR TO YOUR CHEST WHEN YOU BENCH PRESS
One of the biggest bench press mistakes I see is when people passively lower the bar to their chest, or even worse, just let is free fall. To bench press big weight, you have to be in control of the bar. It’s just a brainless piece of iron – YOU control the bar, don’t let it control you.
After you unrack the bar, imagine “rowing” the bar to your chest with your lats and upper back. This will help keep your body tight, prevent your back from flattening out and “preload” your pressing muscles – kind of like compressing a spring before letting it explosively uncoil.
2. ELEVATE YOUR FRONT FOOT DURING LUNGES
Do lunges by stepping onto a small box, like a typical aerobics class step-up box. This unveils a couple benefits you can’t get with lunges on flat ground.
Elevating your front foot adds some extra hip extension on the back leg, which gives you a great stretch in your hips flexors. Pretty much everyone needs to stretch their hips more, and a loaded stretch like a weighted lunge can do wonders for mobility.
Also, when you raise your front foot, you also raise your front hip, which increases activation of the psoas muscle, a hip flexor that’s only activated above 90 degrees of flexion (i.e. top of the knee is higher than the crease of the hip). The psoas tends to “fall asleep” from lots of sitting, which can lead to poor pelvic alignment and low back pain. Elevating the front foot can help “wake it up”.
3. DO 4 SETS OF 8 INSTEAD OF 3 SETS OF 10
Bored with the cliché 3 sets of 10? Try 4 sets of 8 instead.
It’s a simple switch that can pay big dividends. Doing 8 reps instead of 10 means you can go heavier (assuming you’re stopping your sets a rep or two shy of failure), and you get 32 total reps instead of 30. That doesn’t seem like much, but that extra volume can build up over time. More weight + more volume = more opportunity for progressive overload = more muscle.
4. HOLD YOUR BELLY DURING GLUTE HAM RAISES
Put your hand on the top of your belly while doing glute ham raises, right where your abs meet the bottom of your rib cage. Do everything you can during the set to keep your abs flexed and ribcage “down”. Simultaneously squeeze your glutes to keep your lower back in a neutral position.
See, when you let your ribcage flare upward, you end up over-arching your lower back (called “lumbar hyperextension”). An over-extended lower back leaves the hamstrings and glutes at a mechanical disadvantage, reducing recruitment of these muscles and defeating the purpose of the exercise. Use your hand to monitor the position of your ribs, making sure you keep them down. You’ll feel the difference as your hamstrings and glutes suddenly function properly.
5. SUPINATE DURING BICEPS CURLS
This is a repeat from my post, 4 Quick Tips for Bigger Arms. One of the primary functions of the biceps brachii is to supinate the forearm. So to kick your arm workout into overdrive, keep your palm up the whole time during your biceps curls. Don’t turn it back toward your side at the end of each rep. And when you flex, try to touch your pinky to the outside of your elbow. It sounds strange, but when you try it, you’ll feel it and it will all make sense.
6. ADD MID-REP PAUSES
To increase the difficulty of certain exercises, add a mid-rep pause. This can make lots of run-of-the-mill exercises extra challenging. Ben Bruno utilizes stuff like this a lot – he’s the master of exercise creativity.
For example, during pull-ups, pull yourself halfway up, pause for 2 seconds, then finish the rep. You can pause on the way back down, too. This will really test your stability and be especially useful if you’ve stalled out on how many pull-ups you can do.
This is a great tactic for exercises where adding extra weight is tough and you need to get more stimulus with less weight. Pause halfway down during a split squat, hit the brakes midway up during a dumbbell flye, or stop halfway into the stretched position during ab wheel rollouts.
7. PUT A ROLLED-UP TOWEL UNDER YOUR ARM DURING ROTATOR CUFF WORK
External rotation exercises are a great way to strengthen the rotator cuff, which is vital for maintaining shoulder health. When you do exercises like side-lying external rotations or standing cable external rotations, roll up a towel and stuff it under the armpit of the working arm. This has been shown to increase the activity of the teres minor and infraspinatus muscles compared to having the arm pinned against the side.
8. DO SKULL CRUSHERS FROM THE FLOOR
Instead of lying on a bench, try doing skullcrushers with an EZ bar while lying on the floor. Lower the bar until it hits the floor behind your head, pause, then flex the triceps to press the weight back up. This can take some tension off the elbows in the most vulnerable position of the exercise and keep the elbows from fading too far back like you often see when people do ‘crushers on a regular bench.
9. USE MORE HALF KNEELING VARIATIONS
Half-kneeling variations are one of my favorite ways to make an exercise more ‘functional’ without making it completely suck. Like the previously-mentioned lunges, half-kneeling variations add a much-needed hip stretch component. And the staggered stance reduces lumbar extension and rib flare, which increases activation of the core and glutes to improve pelvic position.
The half-kneeling stance is fantastic for exercises where over-arching the back hurts the effectiveness of the exercise, like upper back work (face pulls, one-arm cable rows) or stability-based ab exercises (Pallof presses, anti-rotation chops).
10. HOLD STRETCHES FOR BREATHS, NOT SECONDS
When static stretching, instead of easing into a stretch and then holding it for 15, 30 or 60 seconds, hold the stretch for a certain number of big, exaggerated breaths.
For example, if you’re doing a lying hamstring stretch with a band, start off with a light stretch (just a tiny bit of discomfort), then take a deep breath of air into your belly. Hold it for a second, then let it out slowly. Now, before you take your next breath, increase the intensity of the stretch a bit. Repeat the process until you’ve done 5-10 big breaths, depending on your warmup/flexibility goals.
Using breaths instead of seconds makes stretching better for a couple reasons. First, it helps you RELAX. That’s the whole point of stretching, isn’t it? To reduce neuromusclar tension at a given muscle length? So if you’re tensed up, holding your breath while frantically counting down the seconds, you’re missing the whole point of stretching.
Secondly, deep breathing helps you forget about the “quantity” of the stretch and helps you focus on the quality. It’s a little mental trick that works wonders and helps ease some of the monotony of stretching.
WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE
Stop worrying about adding new exercises, running the latest-and-greatest exercise program and hopping on the newest diet trend. Hard work and persistence trump ingenuity and variety any day. So use these tips to make the most of what you’re already doing. Worry less, do more.