Get Strong With These Five Neglected Exercises

Brandon Rynka

How to get fit, strong, and resilient

These five overlooked exercises will help you build strength and protect your body from injuries. These five exercises are worth a look and you should add them to your training program.

People want to look good, perform well, and be free from injuries. This is not too much to ask. However, many lifters skip exercises that can help them reach these goals.

These exercises are often overlooked. Some of these exercises are just too hard or difficult. Other times, the ol’ ego just gets in the way. However, being strong and resilient takes taking risks. That’s where the greatest growth occurs.

Don’t be intimidated. These moves should become a routine. Here’s the breakdown for each one:

1. Deadlift at the Trap Bar

Most clients have this lift programed in some way or another. Compared to the conventional deadlift, the risk vs. reward ratio is reduced, yet we still get the loading capacity and results we’d achieve from lifting conventional off the ground. It includes a strong, stable trunk and a well-developed posterior chain. There is also a lot of intermuscular, neuromuscular coordination.

Chronic low back pain is becoming more common due to our increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Hip tightness, and total-body weakness. Hip-shortening is a common problem in people with weak backs and underactivated glutes or hamstrings.

Many lifters don’t train their backs, even if they train. They believe that loading the back will make it worse. People with weak and underdeveloped posterior chain strength are at high risk of injury or pain.

The trap bar deadlift strengthens all your muscles, from your feet and traps. It is a foundational movement for hip hinges and teaches you how your whole body can be connected harmoniously. Barbell squat is close behind. This particular deadlift variation places less direct stress on the lower back, giving you the best of both worlds – results and a low likelihood of muscle strains.

For strength, program trap bar deadlifts for low-to-moderate reps:

• 4 sets of 6 reps
• Three sets of eight reps
• 5 sets with 5 reps
• 5 sets with 3 reps

These rep ranges will allow you to adjust the tempo. For 6-8 reps, you can use a 5-second eccentric/negative and a dead stop at bottom.

2. Barbell Hip Thrust

Bret Contreras’ hip thrust has been a popular exercise for serious female lifters. Regrettably, this can’t be said for most men. Although high-level coaches use this movement, it’s still rare to see the average “gym bro” These should be incorporated into your daily routine. This must change.

Male lifters care primarily about getting yoked and looking great with their shirts on. For this to happen, male lifters need to push their bodies with decent intensity, while prioritizing big lifts like deadlifts and squats. These lifts, although they are a staple, can be very taxing on the CNS as well as your joints. These lifts can cause fatigue and nagging pains, particularly in the lower back and knees.

The hip thrust, a very heavy exercise that targets the glutes, is a great way of increasing hip extension without putting too much strain on the CNS. The hip thrust will also build strong glutes which is important to avoid back and knee injuries. And let’s not forget, looking symmetrical also requires having a pair of strong glutes This can keep your jeans up.

The rules: Chin tucked. Head forward. Feet 12 inches in front. Drive hips into extension. Tuck the pelvis. Lower with control.

Do 3-4 sets with 8-10 reps and a 221 pace. 90 second rest between sets.

3. Chin-Up

The chin-up is a fantastic muscle and strength developer, but most people don’t possess the strength to do a lot of them. Although the chin-up is the most powerful form of relative upper body back strength, it’s not often seen with good form. If you want to be strong and resilient, it’s time to change that. When done correctly, the chin-up can lead to larger arms, delts and backs. It also increases grip strength, trunk integrity and posture.

The best cue to do chin-ups with good posture is to drive your chest toward the bar.

You can start by using resistance bands or play around with negatives if you have trouble doing chin-ups. Do fewer chin-ups than you can do with your bodyweight. If this is the case, increase your reps and set more high-set exercises like 5×2 or 6×3. You can add weight for intermediate and advanced lifters. You can train quickly for heavy fives, triples, doubles, or even twos to become Viking strong and decrease your injury risk.

Regardless of where you’re at right now, getting strong with chin-ups is a smart way to spend your gym time.

4. Heavy Bear Hug Walk

Loaded carries These are life-changing. For pain-free performance, it is important to have a strong trunk and back. For body resilience, the bear hug walking is my favourite carry option. You’ll need some pretty heavy weight to give yourself the effect you’re after, like a sandbag, Atlas stone, or medicine ball.

• You should keep the weight high on your chest. Grab it tightly!
• Your trunk should be stable and your core should be braced.
• Keep your upper and mid backs slightly tucked in.
• Keep your head neutral.

Avoid unwanted rotations or movements that could cause you to be outside of tight, connected, and stable.

Do 30-yard runs for 4-6 sets after strength training. Recover periods can be adjusted depending on the session.

Conditioning Session: 45-60 seconds rest for moderately heavy loads
Strength Session 90-seconds of rest (as heavy or as long as you can lift 30 yards).

5. Face Pull

Face pulling is an easy way to increase upper and mid-back volume, which is often neglected. It also pulls the scapula back by requiring less shoulder volume.

It’s great for shoulder health because it allows you to work through rotation, retraction, and depression of the shoulder blades. This is very important because the shoulder, like the hip, is a smart joint and demands more attention.

These can be added in many ways:

• Warm-up for pressing exercises: Two sets of 15 reps
• You can use 2-3 sets of 20-30 reps to finish high-volume isolation.
• For strength exercises, only use loads that allow you to do 6-10 difficult reps.

Mix it all for stronger shoulders and a stronger back.

This list is very appealing to me. It included a MOVING exercise, which I love. Many. “greatest hits” Lists can be static. They ignore the fact that the human being is a thing made of locomotes. If all we’re good at is being strong while standing still, we’re going to get jacked up when we move.

Don’t forget to pull! Too many people train their muscles to see. A strong back is always in fashion.

You are absolutely right. Sprinting is something that every person who wants to be fit should do. I see many strong people that look like they’re training for the Special Olympics when they attempt to move fast. The long sprints, especially at 200m to 400m, are an excellent test of fitness and great body re-composition tools.

It is vital to maintain your ability to move quickly well, especially as you age. Sprinting, like all explosive movements, should be treated with care, and progressed slowly, especially for those over 40.

I find it interesting how foreign running fast can feel (and look) when you haven’t done it in a long time, when it’s really the first natural “fitness” Movement is something that a child learns. You can run sub-35 seconds for 200m. It is pretty good.

You don’t have to be argumentative. However, you can combine the first two using a regular barbell with deadlifts.

It’s great that you can also get weighted carries. This is why I still have an old heavy bag.

This is something I agree with. I am 55 years old, and have started sprinting more in my workouts. This is the only thing that I would suggest to an older man. Sprinting as an adult is different from sprinting when you were a teenager. I used to run track when I was in high school and college. “all out” Every workout. Now, I run like I lift. I have a goal. “RPE” Goals for each workout. Rarely do I exceed an RPE 8. I usually sprint in the 6- to 8 range most of the times. RPE 8 represents about 80% of the total sprinting effort. I tore BOTH my hamstrings when I tried Sprinting again four years ago. It was too much. I also avoid short work. I like to do 400m sprints and 200m runs. Not many 100ms, and I pray to the Lord that I will never do another 800m.

I was with you for 80%. Barbell hip thrusts…seriously? I don’t know what kind of gain a person can get from this bit of sillyness if they are back deadlifting trap bar sumo or conventional. The article was great! I loved the chin-up. Too many people do pull-ups, and they don’t realize how great the chin-up can be for your back and lats.

I am okay with these as long as the reader doesn’t make the inference that pressing weight is not needed to get strong.

I’m pretty sure you have to work hard to get a kid to STOP bench press these days, haha.

This is great advice. 80% is often the number I throw out. I’m 46, and still feel pretty snappy, but I certainly don’t even think about 100% RPE at this age.

I was also a Track & Field athlete in high school and college, but I was a middle distance runner, so our workouts weren’t enjoyable. I was a high school athlete who focused on 800m to 3200m. My strength was 3200m. In college, I ran 1500m – 5km with the 5000m as my speciality. 800m is the hardest event in T&F, IMHO, so I’m totally with you there. And you’d have totally worked me over at 100m. I never had the speed to run below 24-high at 200m, or 53s at 400m. Even 800m was close to my limit. Even in high school, good 800m runners can run between 49-50 seconds with relative ease.

However, we did a lot of speedwork. A typical workout consisted of 15-20 x 200m running in 26-28s followed by a jog around the infield and 8 x 400m running @ 60-62s. After that, a 30-second rest was taken. Brutal workouts were where you produced tons of lactic acids. It wasn’t the best protocol for our goal distance.

College was a lot more volume, but it was easier to work at race pace. I ran 70s in the 5k. I was 129lbs, and we ran 80+ miles/week. It looked like I had just escaped a North Korean prison camp.

These days, I think you’ve hit the best compromise – no 100m so you’re not tempted to blast the first 20m, and who the hell wants to go over 400m? Though I’d say good general advice is to roll into the first 20-30m, maxing at 80-90% effort, regardless of the distance. Do 1000-2000m of these a couple times a week, and you’ll see a huge change in body comp and overall fitness.