Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2627: The 8 Most Controversial and Awesome Strength Training Exercises

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

The 8 Most Controversial and Awesome Strength Training Exercises Every exercise is good if applied properly, with good mobility and stability. (0:49) The 8 Most Controversial and Awesome Strength Training Exercises, Who They’re For, Who Should Do Them, and How to Apply Them.  #1 - Behind the neck press. (3:00) #2 - Upright row. (8:14) #3 - Kipping pull-up. (11:10) #4 - Barbell good morning. (17:27) #5 - Box jumps. (19:14) #6 - Behind neck pull down. (23:53) #7 - Roman chair sit-ups. (26:29) #8 - Jefferson curl. (29:25) Honorable mention: Sissy squats. (33:25) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code 25MINDPUMP at checkout for 25% off your first month’s supply of Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic** June Special: Shredded Summer Bundle or Bikini Bundle 50% off! ** Code JUNE50 at checkout ** How To Behind The Neck Press Properly! (ADVANCED LIFTERS ONLY!) The Upright Row: Implications for Preventing Subacromial Impingement Shoulder Injuries in Individuals Who Participate in CrossFit Training Build Your Hamstrings- How to Properly do Good Mornings The effects of plyometric jump training on lower-limb stiffness in healthy individuals: A meta-analytical comparison How to Box Jump the Right Way to Activate More Muscle Fibers Correcting Upper Cross Syndrome to Improve Posture & Health-- Prone Cobra The Wall Test | Mind Pump TV Intervertebral disc herniation: studies on a porcine model exposed to highly repetitive flexion/extension motion with compressive force The Jefferson Curl: Benefits and Proper Form - BarBend Shrink Your Waist With The PERFECT Sit-UP (SIX PACK ABS!) Sissy Squat - The forgotten quad building exercise of the pros Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode, we're going to introduce you to eight of the most controversial strength training exercises and how you might apply them. By the way, this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, Seed. This is the world's best probiotic, hands down. If you want the benefits of a probiotic, go to Seed. Go to seed.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code 2 5 mind pump. Get 25% off. We also have a sale on some programs this month. The Shredded

Summer Bundle of Programs and the Bikini Bundle of Programs are both 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code June 50 for that discount. Alright, here comes the show. Strength training. It's one of the most effective ways to exercise but not all exercises are created equal. Today we're going to talk about the 8 most controversial strength training exercises and we're going to determine who they're for, who should do them, and who should not do them. Let's get into them. I like this, because there's value in these if done correctly. That's right.

If applied correctly. I'm so glad you said that. Strength training is a unique form of exercise in its complexity. There is no other form of exercise that is quite as complex. In other words, there's so many different exercises that could be done for strength

training and there's applications for each of them. And then there are applications that would not be suitable for each of them. So it's a good topic, very good topic. And some of them are just controversial, where a lot of people say avoid them. And oftentimes when I hear that, what's really being said is I just don't know how to use these properly or who they're for. These are all like your common knee-jerk reaction exercises that people hammer if they see a video

or see somebody performing these in the gym. They'll come up and be like, you're gonna hurt yourself. Yes, yeah, I think I learned that the hard way as a young, arrogant trainer who thought he knew better, trying to tell people what was right or wrong or that's not as safe for a good exercise, and then finding out that this person had a very specific goal that made a lot of sense to be doing that movement. I always taught my trainers, don't assume that that person doesn't have a very specific

goal that that movement applies to. You may think it's dangerous or silly or dumb or worthless, but that's the cool thing about strength training is there's basically a application from damn near every movement you've ever seen in the gym. And the question, now the question becomes, are they using it correctly for that and is that the best approach

for what they're trying to design? And so many times people are doing these movements that I'm sure you're gonna list, haven't seen them. But then their desired outcome doesn't align with that. I think that's where this conversation is probably. Yeah, and the risk reward is like not worth it in certain instances when it's not applied correctly. That's right, all right, we'll start with the first one.

The behind the neck press. This one is interesting because this one went from being like a bodybuilding staple in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, to suddenly becoming like leprosy. Like everybody runs away from this exercise. Totally. But I mean, back in the 90s, like this was how bodybuilders,

they almost all did behind the neck presses until people said oh that's dangerous don't do that so they stopped doing them. Now the the critique is that it places the shoulder joint in this really extreme externally rotated position and it's abducted that's true it is true it does require far more shoulder mobility and stability. It already has to be there. Yes, it requires more of your shoulder and all the muscles that support,

because the shoulder joint's pretty complex, right? You got the humerus and then you got the scapula and they all have to kind of move together in the right way. It requires far more mobility and stability than a standard overhead press, which also requires a decent amount of mobility. So I get the critique, but that's also one of the pluses I think of it. If you don't exercise this motion, you tend to lose it.

And I know this because I was this. I did behind the neck presses as a kid, then I became a personal trainer. My certification said don't do it. So I stopped doing it. Then in my 20s, I saw Mario Puczanowski. He was a strongman competitor and he used to be an Olympic lifter. And he literally had the bar sitting on his traps

and would press it up. Do like a push press from behind the head. Yeah, and I thought, this is weird. Like Olympic lifters do this all the time? And I went back to trying to do them, and it took me a long time to get back to being able to do it because I had lost the mobility. But once I did, it was like just a great exercise

for shoulder development. Yeah, and that external rotation, it's even more challenging these days because of all the forces against us with daily habits and what we do all day long. And so I understand the caution and concern because already our shoulders just aren't in a good anatomical position to start.

And so getting good posture first is, obviously that's the main thing we need to focus on in stabilizing the joint. But once you have stabilization, we can express that external rotation, have solid stability with that. Getting strong in that position, it just solidifies it. It bulletproofs your shoulders. It bulletproofs.

Yes. You don't have the opportunity for all of a sudden now where I'm getting impingements of my shoulders in that less optimal position where I'm getting impingements of my shoulders like, you know, in that less optimal position where I'm going to get more shearing stress. The truth is every exercise that you don't have mobility and stability in is dangerous. That's right. Um, curl.

Yes. Can be that way. If you lack the mobility and stability in a joint, uh, that it w that you're using to perform a movement, it's now dangerous. That's right. So this idea that we eliminate exercises for that versus going, hey, this exercise can be dangerous

if we don't, therefore we should train mobility and stability in this joint so that you can do these. Now the thing that I love about this and any movement that falls in this category is that once you put the work in to have the mobility and stability, continuing just to perform that exercise keeps it. And so that was like a big aha moment for me as a trainer because I fell into this category. In fact, my first national certification said do not teach behind the neck presses. Like that was a no,, no that you don't tell clients that or you tell clients not to do that. Then when I realized that any exercise without

mobility and stability could be dangerous and that we should train our body in a way that we have mobility and stability in all joints, in all ranges that we can, that's reasonable, especially movements that you could potentially do inside the gym or anywhere else. I went, oh my God. And then when I did the work and to get there and realized, oh wow, these great movements that we tend to tell people not to do, if you can get to a place where you can do them safely and then you just make sure you incorporate them periodically in your training routine, you keep great stability and mobility in that joint. That's crazy.

Now I'll tell you this, here's why bodybuilders used to love them. If you want a shoulder pump, the shoulder pump you get from behind the neck presses is insane. Precisely because of the the criticisms. The external rotated and abducted position. Like you are activating your lateral delts, even your rear delts, holding yourself into position. Again, this is with someone who can do this safely because they have the mobility. The pump that this produces in the shoulders, that's why bodybuilders used to love this exercise. Now Olympic lifters love it because when you're pressing a weight overhead like they do, you want the most vertical position possible any forward no momentum or you're done Yeah, it's all vertical and they do this a lot. In fact, they do it back

They do an extreme version of it where it's like like it's like they're doing a pushing it backwards on us Yes, a hundred percent. Yeah, next up is the upright row The criticism of course is pulling a barbell or dumbbells close to the body It's like lots of internal rotation the shoulders your wrist impingement There was a study in 2003 that linked it to certain issues in the shoulder joint itself. Again, these studies are based on everyday people who, you know, you're gonna have people doing it wrong, people having poor stability, mobility. This is another exercise that bodybuilders have loved

for decades and decades and decades. I love this exercise. This is a staple in my workouts and with my clients, my goal, one of my goals, there's lots of goals I have my clients with exercises but one of them was to be able to do these and not have pain and feel good and when I could do that I knew their shoulders were healthy. But again, bodybuilder favorite, I think this exercise was more one of the exercises that was responsible for my shoulders getting really round. I just noticed that when I did these really well, I got these really, really round looking shoulders. Well, I mean, it's a great way to heavy load the lateral head too, because if you do traditional lateral raises,

it's a long lever, and so you can only load that so much. Before it turns into like a swing or something. Yeah, before it turns into like another muscle completely overtaking the movement. And so, you know, this is a exercise that you can target that part of the shoulder and actually load it. And so long as you have the mobility and stability,

it's very safe to load and get after it. So it was a staple movement for me. It's so crazy too because this is again, this was another bodybuilding favorite for decades. And if you look at old bodybuilding videos from like the 70s and even the 80s, these giants had amazing shoulder mobility. You don't see this as often today,

but back then, like you watch Arnold do behind the neck presses and upright rows, and he had incredible shoulder mobility, and he was really well developed, obviously he was a bodybuilder, but it's because he practiced these exercises. Like you take these exercises out and you build these big shoulders without practicing these

kind of movements then they become dangerous because you don't have the ability to do them. And maybe one of the dangers or fears in this too is the mistake of, to the point I was making that you can load them, is that you don't have the proper mobility and stability and you go right to loading it really heavy the first time. Because the other way to also treat them with respect yeah is exactly is just like you should almost any first mood to movement for the first time is you know start light and controlled and make sure you do own the range of motion and the ability and the stability in that and then and then eventually loaded

but maybe that's why it gets maybe a bad rap is because you can first time if you've never done it go grab a decent Amount of weight, you know and then go do it Yeah Next up this one's very controversial because Because people do them wrong or for the wrong reasons Kipping pull-up now. I've definitely criticized these yes because people have replaced pull-ups with kipping pull-ups, but they were never meant, the real history of a kipping pull-up.

Gymnastics. Yes. It's a transitional move. It was never meant to replace a pull-up. Like if you want to do pull-ups to develop your lats and your biceps, there's a way you do them. If you're doing a kipping pull-up, this is a skill. That's what it is. Essentially a skill is a transitional exercise,-up, this is a skill. That's what it is. Essentially a skill is a transitional exercise.

Getting yourself up and over a bar. I think that they should be performed not to fatigue, like any explosive movement. Like that's a mistake. You start doing them until you fatigue, that's when you get issues. You train them explosively and it is a skill. If you get good at these, I don't practice these, but I could probably benefit from practicing something like this, because I could see that there's definitely some holes

with my upper body explosiveness and coordination, because I don't do stuff like this. So I could see that value. Yeah, yeah, again, it was never meant to be multiple repetitions back to back to back. It was to get you into a position where now we could perform a dip.

Now we could perform a lot of these other like grueling type movements. Again, too, these are people that have spent years and years developing the kind of strength to isometrically hold and support and build that kind of stability around the shoulder joint. So then the general public, you know, kind of going in a CrossFit gym where we're promoting

this. So that way too, this is like another way that we can increase the number of reps from a competition perspective. So for me, that was sort of the disconnect, was like the value of it really is to be able to get you into a position where now we're working on, you know, from a top position down, not necessarily to put all that velocity

and ballistic stress like all around the shoulder joint. It's actually ridiculous. So okay, yeah, I don't know what the full list is looking like. And so I'm not sure if the desired outcome is for us to agree on these movements or not, because this is not a movement I'm a fan of at all. Like, so yes, I can make the case of having the mobility and stability and strength to be able to do it is that's a good thing if you can and do it in a healthy way. But unless you're a gymnast, I would never train this with one of my clients. There's no, I would never take on a client and be like potential for tears and think of all the array of potential goals that you've trained. I would, between the three of us, pretty

sure we've trained them all. There's not a client who fits in that category, like, oh, you know what we're gonna make sure we include is kibbing pull-ups. That just, unless they were a gymnast, which I have trained gymnasts, and absolutely that's something that they would do, but everybody else, I don't see the application. Most of, no, that's because most of our clients

were everyday people, but let's say you had a client who's- Who's a gymnast, yes. No, not just a gymnast. But let's say you had a client who's a gymnast. No, not just a gymnast, but let's say they're really fit and they wanna like explore different movements and they're like a muscle up. How do you practice? Yeah, but wouldn't you teach them some sort of an Olympic movement?

Strict muscle up, that's the thing. Right, but I can see this technique being taught as a way to coordinate your body. I can see the value. I'm not saying I would use it necessarily, but I could see the value. Because there is a value, but it's kind of narrow, right? Is what you're saying.

It's a narrow value. You're limiting it to gymnast. Yeah, because the other ones that we've talked about so far, there's a much broader appeal to them. Sure, absolutely. Going back to the upright rows, for example, like great shoulder development for them. You know what I'm saying?

And if you were to compare the two of them, relatively safe compared to that. I could see this as a stepping stone, first off not to fatigue, but as a way to get someone to be able to do the first muscle-up to learn how to get this body to swing up. It's kind of that first step. It's almost like what do you call that one squat where you pick the barbell up from the side, bring it up here. You'd be just doing that a bunch of times. You know, like that's a transitionary move that's really high risk. So why would I repeat

that a bunch of times? It makes no sense. Well, the problem- Not to mention, even your argument to get it to do a muscle up, like muscle ups got popular because of the stupid Instagram. Before that, that was never a thing. It's like, again, another gymnast type of cool move. But it's like, what, you're a client doing a muscle up. It's just so advanced that I probably wouldn't have had a client doing it.

But I can see- Climb up over a fence. Yes, but look. Yeah, you run from the cops? That's your desired outcome? Well, I can see the value, stupid. I can see the value. Hey, John, let me teach you this thing. I could see the value in a muscle-up because it's coordinating pulling and pushing all in one movement.

And there's not very many exercises that do that. I like straight muscle-ups. Yeah, it's really hard. They are really hard and it's an upper body coordinated strength skill that I think is really awesome. I think it's hard and yes, it's a very narrow scope. I can't think of a single client, maybe Doug, would have been someone that we trained to try to get here because he was so consistent. Yeah. But my point with this is,

and you know the thing is CrossFit really bastardized this because they turned it into its own exercise and they did it till like time of 15. And I guess the reason why I'm pushing back so much right now I can only I can see the next two that are coming up and I already see only one I have contentious yeah I can see application purpose because I'm like there are a lot of these other ones like I can make a case for a lot of different clients that I trained that like either we did do

these movements or I would want them to work towards that, I just didn't have that. And I mean, I don't even see anybody that would want to do that until the movement of CrossFit came out. Then of course it becomes like a thing that people want to learn how to do. And even like the muscle up, the muscle up was not a thing that people wanted to do before until it got popular on Instagram. Well, the original muscle ups with the rings, that's what they were. Pull yourself up to the rings to press yourself up. Yeah, yeah. All right next up, barbell good mornings. This one's gained a little bit of popularity but for a while there this was like nobody touched these. It requires really good technique and form. You got to really maintain your spine in this nice strong stable but man, it is a great hamstring and butt exercise.

Who's popularized this? Female fitness influencers. They've made this popular because they're so interested in developing their backside. They have made this more popular, yet this has been a long-time bodybuilding movement. Oh, this was a powerlifting and bodybuilding movement. This is in Arnold's book.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, this was a powerlifting and bodybuilding movement. This is in Arnold's book. Oh yeah. Yeah, so this is not new, we know this is great for this movement. The left side had it. Yes, you can, like a super brand new person, dangerous exercise, but a great exercise to get people to build. I mean, it teaches that thoracic, like scapular retracted, thoracic stability,

lumbar stability. Great core, your core strength to do that, your posture to do that. And then the posterior chain, I mean, it's just, and then it takes also the, uh, like if you ever had somebody who, um, wants to develop hamstrings, but then have issues with hands or wrist or something like that. So cause it can't hold on, hold onto like a normal stiff leg, a deadlift, like you can load it on the back like that. So yeah, no, I I find this to be power lifters love this for a long time great movement And you know bodybuilders in the 40s would actually this was actually one of the exercises they would they would show off their strength

So you'd see these guys lift tremendous weight way back in the 1940s one of my favorite exercises for the posterior chain And it didn't until, you didn't see these in gyms at all. In fact, if you tried doing this in a gym, when I was a trainer. Oh, it would stop you right away. Oh, God. People would come up to you and say.

They think you're doing a bad squat. Hey, you could snap your back in half. That's right. All right, next up, box jumps. Box jumps are controversial because. They're bastardized. They're awesome. They're great for what they're for.

When used correctly, they are awesome. Problem is, nobody does. If you go in the gym right now, if you're listening right now, you can look around, there's probably somebody doing box jumps right now. Wrong. There's a 50-50 shot if you're in the gym right now listening to this podcast, look around, there's somebody doing box jumps. And 90% of them are doing it. Yeah, they're doing high reps, sloppy, and you for time for repetitions fatigue yeah the box jumps became a

filler exercise so there's a lot of exercises that bet that bad trainers uses fillers when they're creating a circuit when they're creating a circuit they like to think of hard stuff to do so you go do this over here for a minute these box jump yes like they just throw in these filler extra like another one is where you hold on the bench and jump back and forth over it. They're just coming up with like stuff to do just to get people sweaty and for some reason someone thought a box jump which is like you just took an explosive power movement, which that's what that's what it's good for. High skill. Like if in the way you practice them is you jump as hard

as you can, explode, come down, wait. Soft landing. Soft landing, wait. Wait until you're ready to explode again. Fatigue makes this exercise not effective and also makes it now something stupid. You might as well do jumping jacks if you're just gonna do this to fatigue.

And that's what trainers did. So you go into gyms and it was just a hard exercise for people to do. People were just eating shins and flying across the fatigue. And that's what trainers did. And so you'd go into gyms, and it was just a hard exercise for people to do. People were just eating shins, and flying across the gym. But box jumps, you know, plyos have been around for a long time. The Soviets really pioneered this kind of training

for their sprinters and athletes. And this is a great way to teach the body to express strength in a fast way. The Marinoviches, yeah, check out their training. Oh yeah, Todd Marinovich, crazy amounts of like playing. Football, Todd Marinovich? Oh wow. You should check out his training sometimes.

Now I- Related to me, you know that? Huh, is he? Related to me, yeah, so his brother Paul is married to my stepbrother's mom. No way. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Small world. Yeah, he's a local guy. Yeah, He's a local from over River Bank that direction. Teacher over there. Yeah. Now I will say this, I think box jumps regressed way down have some value for everyday people because here's this is a fact and I know this personally. You don't practice jumping, you lose a skill. Yeah. You suddenly lose a skill. You'll jump off a curb or something and you're like, ouch, what happened?

I can't do this well anymore. Now what this looks like for beginner clients is you'll jump in place and you'll practice something like that and then the box is super, super low. You're not trying to see how high that you can jump but rather practice the skill. And not trying to do 50 reps. Yes, but it's valuable for everyday people,

because if you stop jumping, you'll forget. Your body literally forgets. I guess you would, because this is probably almost a category by itself of all plyometrics. All of them. All plyometrics can be amazing, but most often done incorrectly.

Totally. So you throw ice skaters, you can throw all these tuck jumps, you can throw all kinds of cool plyo moves throw all kinds of like cool plyo moves. Those are all filler exercises in trainer circuits. Yeah, that's a problem is that they could have been really good, or can be really good movements but they've been bastardized by the industry to just get people tired between other exercises.

So I mean just to put it differently, when you see trainers do this where they have like 10 exercises put together with all these plyo exercises, you could replace the way that they're doing it, you could replace every exercise with jumping jacks. You could have 10 jumping jack stations and they get the same benefit. Get the same result. That same result. How funny is that? Yeah, no, if I'm doing box jumps with an athlete, because that's typically who I'd be doing that with, that is the only thing we're doing.

Yeah. And we are taking, and if anything, we are taking powerlifting extended periods of time and breaks, and I'm breaking down what I saw. Like, okay, look, your hips were too low here, you need to pull your arms back, explode with your, I'm watching every time they do one, then they, while they're resting,

I'm talking about what I saw. Like, you rocked forward too much on the balls of your feet, or you're on your heels too much, or your arms didn't come back. I'm critiquing the entire movement and getting them to try, and each time they go back to that jump. Just create that power.

Yeah, they got higher and more explosive each time because I made minor adjustments to how they loaded the body before they exploded. Like that's how a box jump is taught. It's not taught in repetitions and definitely not taught in repetitions with something else. That's just stupid. That's right.

Next up is the behind the neck pull down. This is another one of those bodybuilding exercises that was a favorite. You could not find a bodybuilding article in the 90s or 80s that did not include like a bodybuilding article in the 90s or 80s That did not include like a bodybuilding back workout that did not include behind the neck pulldowns This is what they did and then suddenly it became like the most unpopular back exercise ever because why it strains the shoulders Wrist rotator cuff damage impingement blah blah blah

I love behind the neck pulldowns because it really helps maintain shoulder mobility. Strengthen is reinforced as being able to be in like and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth

and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth

and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth and then you're gonna do the back and forth do that, you'll do this. That's right. So, you know, again, if you gain the stability and mobility in order to do that in your shoulders, then both these movements, just keep them in your routine and you'll forever keep that ability.

Like you don't have to like actively work on mobility and stability all this time. You just do those two movements periodically in your routine and you'll keep incredible short mobility. I still do these probably, if I work out my back twice in a week, once for sure. So at least three days, three times out of a month, do I train behind the neck pulldowns?

I mean, I like to warm up the lat pulldown like that. Oh, yeah. Just light and do it just to keep that ability. The problem is, I think, when people like force the position. Oh yeah, when they don't go forward. Yeah, yeah, their head's protruding too far and they haven't done a lot of the work to be able to get those shoulders

fully externally rotated and so it's like. It looks like a curl forward. Yeah, they're looking forward, they're kind of shrimping their posture to make it work. It's not for you, You don't own it yet. Great priming movement for bull throws, prone cobras are a great way to prime. Wall press.

Yeah, or wall press are great movements to prime to get you in the position to bull. That reminds me, there was, I remember now one of the contributing factors to why this fell out of popularity. In the, I want to say the late 90s, there was a story of a man who was doing just obviously terrible form, too much weight,

the cable snapped, he slammed the bar down on his neck and got paralyzed. And so everybody was like, don't ever do these. That is literally the worst case scenario possible. He slammed the bar on his neck. Yeah, because he was yanking it and going forward and then the bar came down and he hit himself in the neck.

Now nobody wants to do it. If that happens, that's super rare. Next up, Roman chair sit ups. So Roman chair sit ups, this is where you have, your hips are essentially supported. Now most people do hyperextensions on these. Yes, yes, yes. This was a favorite bodybuilders in the 70s.

Arnold loved doing these. Wrestlers loved doing these. So are you sitting reversed then? You are. Okay, so the average, because Justin and I were talking about it when you mentioned this, it was like, I always thought the Roman chair was a different machine.

It was a leg raise. It was a chair you hold, and then you bring your knees up, but it's not that. But we're wrong. It's the one you're talking about. And then what most people use the Roman chair for are for hyperextensions.

That's right. So you go backwards on it. You anchor your feet. Now, here's why they're controversial. Because you could turn these into hip flexor blasters. If you're not focused in the abs, you're not extending and then flexing at the spine, you're just doing so as know, so as raises essentially.

And yeah, that'll hurt your back. That'll definitely hurt your back. And a good amount of strength is required to do these. If you don't have really strong core muscles, then this is not a go-to starter exercise. But if they are strong and you can do these right, man, these develop the abs like almost nothing else. It's a great exercise.

Obviously the theory of that is just because the range of motion. Oh, gnarly range of motion with no support. Like you're leaning back, there's air behind you. Yeah. You know, so you can see how somebody will hurt themselves if they don't have... Yeah, so far the exercise that like this would be the second least I would use. So if you were to go... You would go decline bench. Yeah, there's like a lot of things I would do first. And although I could see somebody who has great control

stability there and they really want to develop abs and like I could see maybe working this way where I see nothing where I would ever do a kipping unless I was a very sport specific person. So, but I would, if I had to order these, this would be the second least. Typically you'd have something supporting, you know, your lower back on yeah, just a precursor well, because what I'm also the the game I'm playing as you're going through these is like

Go through all the people you ever trained in all the goals Yeah, and I'm trying to think of a person that would that has ever told me a goal where I'm like Oh, I have a movement we're good We got you where that would that would surface to the top. Some of these other ones, they absolutely would, you know, would go there. This one's... You know what's funny about the Roman chair sit-ups? In the 70s, like Arnold was famous for this.

They would do this for time, not for reps. So they'd do Roman chair sit-ups for five minutes. And they'd just go, yeah, back, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, no, no, no. I know, isn't that funny? I mean, that's an example, too. Isn't this wouldn't well I guess yeah you would still is not what you would call what

Rocky is doing off the off the hey hey always hanging upside down. I mean no but I mean that's also a great I don't know where you'd be able to do that. It's kind of like that. Yeah similar. Get those boots where you hang upside down like on the yeah. Gravity boots. Yeah gravity boots. I've never done those. All right, the last one is by far the most controversial. In fact, if you do this in a gym, I would love reaction videos. I would love seeing people who can do these properly

to do them and then film the reactions. So it's called a Jefferson curl. And what a Jefferson curl looks like, it looks like a terrible deadlift. It looks like you're trying to hurt your back. It looks like, yeah. And essentially what you're doing is you're holding a barbell and you are literally deliberately flexing the spine, literally deliberately rounding your back on the way down and coming

all the way up. Now this was a wrestler staple for Greco-Roman wrestlers Especially Soviet wrestlers and they did this Zurcher style they they would stand on a block and they would yes They would Zurcher it and they'd go all the way down all the way up now. Why I mean in in Greco-Roman You're picking up dead weight dudes off the floor moving weight And that's what you look like when you're picking up dead weight dudes off the floor moving weight and that's what you look like when you're picking them up off the floor now the risk here is if

you let your spine support you if you allow the your end range of motion of your of your your your discs support you yeah you're gonna hurt yourself so there's a there's a death a high level of stability and control that's required to be able to load this but this is an exercise that like, you know what I'm saying? You gotta have high body IQ to pull this off, for sure. Yeah, most controversial for sure on the list, maybe, or at least up there for sure with kipping.

Although, what I know now, and this is not something I trained, I did not train clients on this, but what I understand now, I could actually see myself doing this with more, and not who you would think. Like I would take advanced age people that are, but with no weight.

No weight. That's right. And just little bit of- Just teaching them how to articulate each vertebrae. Because of the benefits of you being able to articulate every vertebrae slowly and controlled like that. Totally. And I would just regress it to like nothing, right?

And then eventually holding like 10 pounds. And then if I got that client to be able to do that with a decent amount of weight, boy, are you really protecting them? I was not familiar with the Jefferson curl until later in my career. But I did exactly what you said with clients. When I had people who were at advanced age

and they had back pain, and we get them to a point where we could do certain things, I would have them you said with clients. When I had people who were at advanced age and they had back pain and we get them to a point where we could do certain things, I would have them reach down with their hands and I'd have them articulate their spine all the way down until we reached a point where they're like, oh, that's a little iffy, and then I'd have them roll back up. And here's what happened over time.

They got lower, over months, right? They were able to go lower and lower and lower and no back pain. So bulletproofs it. Yeah, and then you do the opposite of the perfect push-up where you're articulated up in each individual. Perfect sit-up you mean?

Yeah, perfect sit-up is what I meant. Yes, that's what I mean. Perfect sit-up and Jefferson curl to me are movements that I didn't use a lot in my career early on, purely out of fear and what I thought was so dangerous, but looking back now, I go like, oh, I would just regress the shit out of that and actually could see a actually a wide application for a lot of people for just overall safety and protecting them you just have it is it is highly dangerous but

when we look at the list of things that you listed off today like I see regress this yes I see more application for this than some of the other ones so protective once you get stronger well you know what even though it's the most controversial. And what they teach people, which is terrible, is, oh, you have back pain, don't move that way anymore. So gradually over time you lose- It's completely prune it, right? Yeah.

That much more susceptible. It's like, oh, you got knee pain, stop squatting. Oh, you got to stop pressing. It's like, oh my God, you're going to lose that mobility. What about when I have to? That's right. And then you're totally screwed. No, so it's funny because I did this movement with people, but we don't load it just to be able to stop pressing. It's like, oh my God, you're going to lose that mobility. What about when I have to? That's right. And then you're totally screwed. Toast.

No, so it's funny because I did this movement with people, but we don't load it just to be able to articulate squat. Yeah. But then later, like I said, I found it by watching videos of these wrestlers and they would hold them in, like I said, in these zircher positions and they would load them. But that's what you do in those wrestling matches. You're picking people off the ground. Oh yeah, you're scooping them off the ground, which is a really low position. Yeah, I actually

thought you were going to add a sissy squat to the mix just because of people's looking, from outside perspective, and the stress of the knee, you say, would say. I got to say, I think we're responsible for bringing that exercise back. For sure. When we started the podcast, nobody knew what it was. I didn't know what it was until you introduced it to me. I was already over 10 years in my career and didn't know what the hell that was

and then you showed it to me and then I remember attempting it and then the learning curve and then getting good at it and then I went, oh wow, I fell in love with him. So those are great. I prefer him especially to ladies, didn't you? Oh yeah. And I see them now, I see people doing it.

You know, I used to, it's so funny, because I remember we were, I was, he had a bodybuilding when you guys, we were all got together. I would hold the leg extension machine to balance myself and to do it. So I'm sure people were like, what the fuck? You're using the wrong, you're pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, I totally used to do that. So, so funny. I love those. That's a good honorable mention. That is a great honorable mention for sure right there. Look, if you like us, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin. I'm at Mind Pump DeStefano.

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