Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Kyle Hunt on Underrated Exercises You Should Be Doing

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

Are you bored of the same exercises, day after day in the gym? Kyle Hunt and I discuss often-overlooked and underrated exercises you can try next time you train to add some spice to your program while getting bigger and stronger. In this episode, repeat podcast guest Kyle Hunt and I talk about underrated exercises. It’s fairly common to bust myths and talk about overrated exercises you see many people doing in the gym, but we’re taking the opposite approach here. These are exercises that have value, but which a lot of people overlook or judge more harshly than they should. Whether you just don’t know about these movements, don’t do them because you heard they’re dangerous or ineffective, or if you’ve simply forgotten about them just because they’re not “popular” on social media, these exercises can benefit your programming and train your muscles in new ways. Specifically, Kyle and I chat about . . . Chest-supported rows and how they can help when you don’t have heavy dumbbells The value of handstand pushups and one-arm pressing The importance of “intensity discipline” and AMRAP sets Tips for safety bar squats, pistol squats, and good mornings Loaded carries (and how to program them) Trap-bar deadlifts and nordic hamstring curls Different types of pullovers (and what muscles they train and why you’d add them) And more . . . In case you’re not familiar with Kyle, he’s a competitive powerlifter, coach, author, and owner of Hunt Fitness, who’s worked with hundreds of powerlifters and bodybuilders alike. He’s also the host of The Absolute Strength Podcast, which I’ve been a guest on a number of times. So, if you want some new ideas on exercises you can incorporate to add some variety to your training while still training effectively (and hitting your muscles in different ways), you’re going to enjoy this podcast! Timestamps: 0:00 - Go to buylegion.com to save up to 30% on everything in our store this week only! Save big during our Spring Site Wide Sale! 5:56 - What are some underrated exercises? 7:41 - What is incline prone dumbbell rowing? 15:06 - What are your thoughts on intensity discipline? 17:45 - Handstand pushups 23:40 - What are your thoughts on the seated one arm overhead press? 24:49 - What are your thoughts on unilateral exercises? 27:20 - Safety bar squats 39:40 - Chinups for biceps 42:08 - Suitcase carries, farmers walks, and loaded carries 45:11 - How do loaded carries affect GPP (general physical preparedness)? How does GPP improve your performance? 49:28 - Good mornings 51:48 - Pistol squats 53:49 - How to program pistol squats 54:02 - Trap bar deadlifts 59:38 - Pendulum squats 1:01:29 - What are your thoughts on nordic hamstring curls? 1:04:37 - Pullovers 1:06:49 - What are your thoughts on dumbbell pullovers? 1:08:23 - Where can people find you and your work? Mentioned on the Show: Our first big sale of the year is taking place at www.buylegion.com. Save up to 30% on everything in our store! Save big before we run out of stock! Kyle Hunt’s Absolute Strength Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-absolute-strength-podcast/id1146086687 Kyle Hunt’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huntfitness/

Hello, hello, and welcome to Muscle for Life. I am your host, Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today to learn about underrated exercises. This was an episode that I was excited to record because it occurred to me that I haven't written or spoken about this much at all, if at all, actually, over all of these years. And so I got my buddy Kyle Hunt to come on and talk about often overlooked and underrated exercises that can help you add some spice to your programming, some effective spice to your programming, meaning not just change for the sake of change or change for the sake of novelty, which can help if you're a little bit more excited to do your workouts. If you enjoy you're a little bit more excited to do your

workouts. If you enjoy your workouts a little bit more, you are probably going to work a little bit harder in those workouts and that can produce better results. But often doing new exercises for the sake of just doing new exercises or doing new exercises too often or just introducing too much change too often will actually get in the way of progress. And so if you are going to try some offbeat exercises, for example, or if you are going to periodize your training by working in different rep ranges, you want to go about it systematically. You want to make sure that you know why you are changing exercises or rep ranges or whatever else, and it is in service of specific goals that you want to achieve. And this episode will help you with one piece of the puzzle, which

is exercises, changing exercises, because some exercises are better than others. If you are a regular around here, you know that the best exercises, if we're talking about bang for buck, bang for effort, are the big compound exercises. But then we get into the gray area of many different types of isolation exercises or exercises that are compound exercises, but not in the same way as a deadlift or a squat or a horizontal or vertical press. Think of like a barbell row, for example, not exactly an isolation exercise, but not exactly a compound exercise like the big compound exercises, right? And so in this episode, you're going to learn about exercises that many people don't do because they've heard they're dangerous or ineffective, or maybe they have never heard of them at all, or maybe they did hear of

them at one time and forgot about them. Many of them are not popular on social media, for example, but they can be a great addition to your routine depending on your circumstances and your goals. For example, the chest supported row. We talk about that, the handstand pushup, the one arm press, safety bar squat, pistol squat, good morning, and more. And lastly, but not leastly, if you are not familiar with my guest, Kyle, he is a competitive powerlifter, coach, author, and the owner of Hunt Fitness. He has worked with hundreds of powerlifters and bodybuilders, as well as many, many everyday people who just want to get into great shape without living in the gym or following strange

and restrictive diets. And Kyle is also the host of the Absolute Strength podcast, which I've been a guest on a number of times. Also, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you wanna help me do more of it, please do check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, because while you don't need supplements to build muscle, lose fat, and get healthy,

the right ones can help. And that's why over 350,000 discerning fitness folk have chosen Legion for their supplementation needs. Well, that and the fact that we have 100% natural products, we have clinically effective ingredients and doses, and no hassle money back guarantee. Plus, Legion is currently holding its first big sale of the year right over at buylegion.com. And that means for the next few days, you can save up to 30% on everything in our store, including our protein powders, our pre-workout and post-workout supplements, our fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. So skedaddle on over to buylegion.com, B-U-I-L-E-G-I-O-N.com now and save big before we run out of stock of at least

a thing or two. Sometimes it's a flavor or two. Other times it's a product or two because demand is much higher than we forecasted. It's basically impossible to predict these things perfectly. And so when we have these big site-wide sales, which we only do a couple of times per year, we do tend to run out of stock of things. So if you don't want that to happen, do tend to run out of stock of things. So if you don't want that to happen, buy legion.com, lock in your savings and bask in the post purchase glow. We're here to talk about underrated exercise. And this is something that I'm excited to talk to you about. It's something that, you know, I, I'm thinking, um, could be, could be repurposed into, could be shared in many different ways because I haven't, I don't know if I've ever really done a social media post or an article.

I remember I've done at least a couple of things on exercises that are overrated, popular exercises like weighted side bends. Just don't ever do a weighted side bend or a weighted hyperextension for a lot of people. Now, I understand if you're maybe a powerlifter, you have a very specific reason why you're doing that, but otherwise it's for a lot of people. Now I understand if you're maybe a power lift, you have a very specific reason why you're doing that, but otherwise it's not a very useful exercise. Um, but, but underrated exercises, I don't think I've done. So, uh, here we are. And I think we can probably just lead into if there's any sort of preamble you want to open with. Um, otherwise we can just start talking about exercises that a lot of people

don't do, and maybe because they just don't know about them, or they avoid them because they have heard they're dangerous or ineffective. Yeah, no, I love this topic because the way I look at it, it's like, okay, well, underrated. So what do we mean by underrated? When we say something's underrated, we're saying, well, the general perception of it is less valuable than what it probably is. And the key with that is it's not necessarily better. You know what I mean? Because I'm like you, I'm a barbell purist. I love the basics and the basics are great. But there's a couple of reasons why I do like to think and kind of dig into underrated exercises or kind of unique exercises. For one, I think a lot of times people do get bored with just the same five exercises over and over again certain exercises that maybe people think, like you said, are maybe dangerous or with body weight exercises specifically, when people start

lifting weights, a lot of times they're like, oh, well, I'm lifting weights now. What am I going to get from a body weight exercise? You can't gain strength or build muscle doing a body weight exercise, which isn't always true. I think bringing up some of these exercises to give people ideas to throw into their training is pretty valuable. And in some cases, the exercises are just kind of obscure. People just don't know about them. Sometimes it's related to equipment. Like I think the belt squat is a great exercise, but you need to have the equipment for it. In other cases, and I'm sure these are ones you'll talk about, I like the chest-supported dumbbell row.

Oh, yeah, the incline-prone dumbbell row? Yeah, it's great. It's great. I'll let you explain, but one of the things I really like about it is there's the obvious in terms of being able to really isolate the muscles that you're training and you feel very stable. It puts no pressure on your lower back, but also it's a great rowing. It's a great pulling exercise you can do that doesn't require a lot of weight to, uh, to, to achieve a good training stimulus. I think I'm up to maybe 80 or 85 pounds now on it, which even a lot of hotel gyms have, you know, up to 80 ish pound dumbbells. Yeah, we can start with that one. I have that on my list and that's an awesome exercise.

So what we're talking about is when you set the bench at an incline, you lie face down, so prone, and then you have two dumbbells and you do a chest supported row, which I mean, I love chest supported rows in general. I just think, you know, I mean, I don't really do many barbell rows anymore, not because they're not a great exercise, but they just, I don't know, for some reason ends up tearing up my lower back. So it's like, man.

Same, exactly the same. Yeah. I wish my gym had a seal row, my previous gym had. Which is why I actually like this exercise so much because seal rows are great, but if you don't have a seal row bench, it's a pain in the ass to set that up. You know what I mean? You got to get boxes and put a bench up. It's a pain in the ass. Now, if your gym has a bench specifically designed for a seal row, then great, use it. But if it doesn't, it's a pain in the ass. Now, if your gym has a bench specifically designed for a steel row, then great, use it. But if it doesn't, this is a great option because you're still getting that chest support. You're still getting the same basic movement if you're able to set the incline at a relatively low angle. And like you said, it's self-limiting. So you're not going to

be able to use 120-pound dumbbells on it probably. You're going to be know, make do with what you have. A hundred pound dumbbells would probably, if you could get up to where you're doing a hundred pound dumbbells, that'd be extremely strong. Yeah. Really, really strong. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, I'm doing, I'd have to pull up my spreadsheet, but I'm 80 or 85s for sets of eight right now. That's where I'm at. And, and I have a, I've always had a pretty good pull on, on single arm dumbbell rows for sets of eight. I'd have to look. I don't want to oversell myself, but probably 120, 125, something like that. Pretty strong.

And something I like, I'll add to this, is the single arm dumbbell row to get, uh, uh, at least a similar training stimulus, like let's just say eight reps with zero or maybe one good rep left, like right up to the point of failure, which is nice that this is an exercise you can do that. And there's no risk. Whereas I don't like doing that as much with a, with a hunched over barbell row, for example. Um, but in this case to achieve that with a one-arm dumbbell row, you can, and you can do it safely, but it requires more weight. And just a couple of weeks ago, I was doing one-arm dumbbell rows, and I just must have braced myself in a little bit of, I don't know,

I just, my bicipicipital groove kind of biceps tendonitis kind of flared up from just that i just want the brace hand yeah and and so so now i i know that um it's a combination of factors if my lat my subscap and it's hard to say if it's infraspinatus or teres um get tight, eventually it starts to manifest. And that's nothing unique to me. I mean, that's just how it works. But those now I've been working on like foam rolling them, lacrosse balling, it doesn't feel good, but it works. You work out those trigger points. And I also see a massage therapist once a week. And so she's able to do things that I can't even do myself. And it's almost gone. It's not like some big problem, but just that, that one arm, that

bracing is my right arm is, is kind of what, what threw it off. And so, um, for what it's worth with the chest supported row, even something like that can't happen. Whereas with a one-armed dumbbell row, again, not a dangerous exercise at all, but there is more weight involved and it's a, minimally it's, it's a little bit awkward when, you know, you have 130 pounds on one side of you or 120 or whatever. Yeah. Well, the other thing too, with, with dumbbell rows is when you get close to failure, you have more variables at play to affect your form. So you can rotate your shoulder back a little bit. You can shorten the range of motion. You can change the angle of pull to where maybe the first six reps were ideal. The last two or three, well, you kind of lost it.

With a chest support row, yeah, of course, your form can break down, but there's lots of variables. I mean, you're keeping your chest planted up against the bench and you're really just focusing on pulling the dumbbells back. So, I mean, you do have that advantage too. Yeah, that's a great point. And that's something that I've been paying more attention to in my training. You could say technique discipline, I guess. Also intensity discipline, which I think might warrant a podcast unto itself because it's something that I noticed in my training and I'm sure other people, I'm sure you've experienced this before. And specifically what I noticed is I was ending too many of my hard sets a little bit too soon. I was being a little bit too generous with myself in terms of reps and reserve. little bit too generous with myself in terms of reps and reserve. And so I started to just push myself, even though I had gotten used to saying like, yeah, that's probably one or two good reps

left. And then because it's an exercise that I can just go to failure on, I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't go to absolute failure on a deadlift or on a squat necessarily um bench press if maybe if i had a spotter but these were these were more isolation or just exercises are very safe to go to failure on and i i mean it was i remember in one case so this was a calf raise just a calf raise and i would have normally ended the set at like i think nine thinking that I had one or two left and I got like 14. Yeah. And, and then, and then that's actually what triggered it. And, uh, and then I started doing the same thing in all of my exercises where it's appropriate, uh, going to absolute failure, at least for one set, just to recalibrate my perception of intensity.

And I was surprised and disappointed. My intensity discipline had slipped a lot. Now, it's not to say that I was training like a wimp. I still was training kind of hard, but I just had lost. It had been some time since I really pushed to failure. And so then my reps in reserve just became mismatched with reality. I think I've been okay on the squat and the dead lift and the bench press because, I mean, I can think of some of the last hard sets that I've done. It's pretty hard. I have trained to failure in those exercises.

And if I'm off by maybe one rep, like in my fourth set of deadlifts, I put one to two in my spreadsheet, and it was actually two to three. Not a big deal. But there's no way. No way that was a five. No way. I'm thinking, you know, they're like not going to happen. a five. No way. I'm thinking, you know, they're like not going to happen. So anyways, it's a, it's a random tangent, but I think it's, it's something that might help some people listening. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it. Yeah, no intensity discipline. I like that,

that phrasing. I actually wrote on this a couple of weeks ago. I wrote an article where I was going over and I actually turned it into a podcast where I was going over percentages, RPE and RIR. And one of the things I talked about within RPE and RIR is you have to throw in some, whether it's AMRAP sets or failure sets occasionally just to recalibrate yourself on what that is, especially with the accessory movement. So especially those lighter exercises, because we know the further you get away from failure, it's harder. But plus, we also know the higher reps you get, it's harder to gauge reps in reserve too. Absolutely.

So when we're doing sets of 10 to 15, if you don't actually push failure on that and test yourself relatively frequently, and I mean, you don't have to do it every training session, but relatively frequently to know what that is, you'll lose it. You'll lose that intensity discipline. And you mentioned AMRAP. This is probably one reason why I think that I've maintained it fairly well on my big lifts is I do AMRAPs every four months. And those are hard. I mean, I don't want to go to absolute failure, like on a deadlift. I don't want to go to absolute failure, like on a deadlift. I don't want to go to the point where I'm just stuck and can't move the weight. I don't think that's necessary, but I'm getting right up to that.

I'm really trying to go for as many reps as I can. And by that last rep, the bar has slowed down a lot. My legs are on fire. I mean, it's like cardio at this point. It's pretty difficult. lot my legs are on fire i mean i'm it's like cardio at this point it's pretty difficult so that has probably helped me um maintain that intensity discipline on the bigger lifts but i wasn't doing that because i don't really care the point of doing that in my programming is to to see where my my new one rms approximate one rms are more like testing yeah i don't i don't need to test my biceps curl i just keep doing them until I can do four sets of whatever the top of the rep range

is and add five pounds and see what happens, you know? Yep. So, yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, when you're able to reference that on the big lifts, it helps. But then, like you said, if you're not doing that on an accessory movements that, that top end range kind of gets lost in. not doing that on an accessory movements that, that top end range kind of gets lost in. Totally. No, it does not translate just because, um, let's say, let's say intensity discipline is good and tight on, on a barbell squat. That does not necessarily mean that your perception is also going to be, uh, is also going to be accurate on a, on a leg press or, uh, or a hamstring curl machine or a leg extension or whatever. Let's get back to the exercise though.

What's another underrated exercise that you like to incorporate? Yeah, so I want to bring up a body weight one because I have a bunch of those too. And this one is, I think the reason this one's underrated is probably because the level of difficulty, but a handstand pushup. I love handstand pushups because, and really the reason I started doing them is from a powerlifting standpoint, which, you know, you don't,

I don't know of any powerlifters that really do them regularly, but I've never seen one. That would be a site. Yeah. A big dude with, well, well, barbell overhead presses.

For some reason, they were, they were just jamming up my shoulders. Like my, my shoulders would feel like shit whenever I went heavy on a barbell overhead press and i can handle i'm kind of like built the bench press so i can handle a ton of of bench volume but i couldn't really handle much overhead volume i'm like well well shit what am i going to do for my shoulders i mean yeah i love the accessory movements i love side raises and stuff to get the side delts but what can i do from a

pressing standpoint and I do like some dumbbell stuff, which I actually have some shoulder dumbbell exercise I want to include too. But I'm like, all right, let me try a handstand pushup. So I tried it up against a wall and fell in love with it. I just love the way it feels. Now, like I said, it's difficult. So a lot of people will have to progress to a handstand pushup. And whether that's starting with a pike pushup or a feet elevated pike pushup, and then getting up to the point where you're doing just handstand holds, trying to build that overhead stability. And then maybe even getting to the point where you're doing

handstand holds and like eccentrics or handstand holds and like half reps. And then eventually kind of build to the point where you can do against the wall handstand pushups. But when you can get to that point, I'm a big fan of them. And did you find that that helped at all with your barbell overhead or did it just, the exercise doesn't play well with your anatomy? Yeah, for some reason, the exercise just doesn't play well for me.

So I pretty much just replaced it with handstand pushups. Yeah, I mean, it's an extremely difficult exercise. Yeah, it's really hard. So that's why I wanted to say that up front. It's hard to progress on. Yeah, it's hard hard. So that's why I wanted to say that up front. It's hard to progress on. Yeah, it's hard to progress. So it's almost like the way I program it is more from a volume standpoint.

So I'll have a certain amount of reps I'm going for for the training session. And then really, I'm just trying to get it done in as few as sets as possible. So that's the progression. So it's like, oh, if I'm doing 50 reps and it takes me four sets you know, let's see if I can get it done in a less amount of sets. That makes sense. Something that the gym I go to now has that I don't remember seeing. I probably have seen it before. I'm just not remembering, but it certainly was not in my previous gym is I should have looked to if looked, uh, if I would have thought of this,

would have looked online. It might be. So what it is, is you're standing, you have handles, it's plate loaded. And there's like, kind of like almost like a, for people, it sounds like, you know, exactly, but for people listening, it's like a little mini, a little mini rack in front of you and you stand in front of it and you can just press overhead. And I started doing it because when I pissed off my shoulder dumbbell rowing as like, eh, using a barbell, it doesn't feel great even on the barbell bench press. So for, for people listening, I think a good little tip to share is if something is hurting, something's off, don't force yourself to keep doing what you normally do and try to work through pain because that usually does not work. Usually

it just gets worse. And so instead find something else you can do that. It doesn't have to be completely pain-free. I'm okay with a little bit of discomfort, like maybe a one or two out of 10, where I feel it a little bit, but it's not a problem. But I don't want like a five or six plus out of 10. And so for me, that was this, I guess it's called a Viking press. I just learned today. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. Not 100% sure, but 90% sure. Yeah. Plate loaded machine, press overhead. And then for my chest pressing, my gym has these nice, they're made by Atlantisantis and you lie down it's it's kind of like a bench press but it's plate loaded and it's just locked in place and i prefer

this as opposed to a lot of chest press you're you're sitting upright or at an incline and i tried those but i like these others where you're lying down it's it really it really duplicates the bench press experience, but it's a machine. Yep. Yeah. The Viking press is a staple in Strongman. So that's why it's pretty popular there. I've done it before. See, I can do that and that doesn't bother my shoulder. I think it's great. I will go back to the barbell just once my shoulder is not bothering me at all, but that's something I'm just going to include in the rotation because um you're able to put a bit more weight on it obviously because there's there's less stability in play it's just kind of raw pushing power and um you're able to you're able to push right up to the point of you have to go to absolute failure

but you can push yourself a little bit harder and not worry about, you know, if your back kind of bending out of place or, or something going awry, it's, it's, it's easier in that regard. Yeah. While we're on shoulders again, I have a, I have a, I've just always tried to work around using the barbell overhead press. So another one I like is a one-arm dumbbell shoulder press standing. So the uniqueness of this, obviously you're using one dumbbell. So you do have, it has a lot more core activation demand. So that's kind of, it's kind of self-limiting in that sense. But I also like just using one dumbbell from the sense that it allows you to really have a lot of control over your scapular position because you're not using two and you're not

using the barbell. So, I mean, you can really play around with it, get a good range of motion. And like I said, self-limiting, you're not going to be able to use as much weight as you could with like a seated dumbbell overhead press from the stability standpoint. And you're just using one arm. So it's a little bit different demand, but I love that exercise. Have you tried seated one arm? Yep. I've done that. And that works great too. Yeah. I'm a little bit heavier with them, but I like that. I prefer the standing probably just be probably for the added core demand.

I just like it. Not that I'm trying to get that, but I like that you have to stay super tight. Yeah. Well, you got to, I like the idea that you have to be super tight. And when I program that for people, I like doing the single arm standing shoulder pressing. And I also like just like a one-arm dumbbell bench press too, for the tightness that you have to get. Because a lot of people struggle generating that tightness on like a barbell bench. They struggle with getting their feet set and their back set, everything tight, getting braced. But when you're using a one-arm dumbbell press, you really don't one-arm dumbbell press, you really don't have an option not to because that's what's required to do the movement.

And would you program that instead of a bench press? Would you do, even if it's just for a couple of months, or would that be something you might follow up so you might open with your bench or vice versa? Usually it's as an accessory movement. It's not something I would replace the bench with it's something i would replace regular dumbbell bench with yeah yeah what are your thoughts on on other unilateral exercises or taking something that maybe is normally thought of as a bilateral and turning it into a unilateral i know that's

something at least i've seen a bit more on social media these days. And I think there are useful use cases for that. Well, another one that comes to mind would be like a single leg dumbbell RDL. I like those. Big balance demand. So that's probably one reason why you don't see a lot of people doing

those is just because you you do have to focus on balance so you got to like pick a spot on the wall or something really focus on it but the reason i like those is because for one they're really hard so you can't use a lot of weight and for for strong people i mean i like dumbbell just two-armed dumbbell rdls too but the problem is when you get strong, I mean, you kind of run out of- The weights get heavy and then you're like, okay, I guess I'm going to strap. Yeah, you got to strap. Then they're awkward because you got like 200 pounders and then a lot of people who are strong, I mean, you could probably even get up to where you're doing 120s. And then that's probably just harder to get them off the rack and everything.

So doing a single- Kettlebells are better for that, but I mean- They don't go that heavy. They don't go that everything. So doing kettlebells are better for that, but I mean, they don't have heavy enough kettlebells. Um, so yeah, the, the single leg variation kind of as a workaround because you're higher demand and balance, and then you're only using one leg. So weight's not going to be a factor. And that also makes, uh, for a good exercise to include like in a, in a traveling routine, for example, where you're just hotel gym, for example, you're going to have dumbbells. If you're lucky, they're going to go maybe up to 80. You're going to have a few machines and a pull-up station, dip station.

Really, that's it. Maybe, maybe a cable setup as well. Yeah. Well, a lot of these exercises, like I said, when we started talking about them is they're not necessarily better exercises. They're just alternative exercises, you know? So it's like, Hey, when you're traveling and you don't have heavy dumbbell or they only have 60s or 80s, whatever, do a one-arm variation, whether it's, you know, the dumbbell shoulder press or bench press, do the one arm. It's going to be a lot harder. You're probably going to get a good workout with less weight.

Do the single leg dumbbell RDL. You're going to be able to get a good workout with less weight. You can also do some pull variations as well. If there's a cable setup, you can do some single arm versus double and get more out of whatever you've got. It comes down to having the equipment, but a safety bar squat. It's popular within powerlifting, but you don't see a lot of just kind of your general lifters taking advantage of it.

And if your gym has a safety bar squat, I highly recommend it for a couple of reasons. One, I love it as if you're squatting more than once a week, I love it as a secondary squat exercise simply for the reason it's designed as a safety squat bar. And the reason that the safety is included is it allows you to grip the bar in front. So it really has, you know, no shoulder demands. And a lot of people are probably thinking, well, what's the shoulder demands of a squat? Well, especially when you have a tight pack, a lot of power lifters, you know, tight packs, you're kind of internally rotated, getting into that squat position, specifically a low bar squat position, can bang up your shoulders if you're doing it multiple times per week.

So that's why the safety squat bar works really well as a secondary squat day. Or you can use it as your only squat as well because it also mimics, it's pretty similar to a front squat position. similar to a front squat position, but a lot of people struggle getting into a good front rack position and then they don't like the crossed arm or they can, you know, don't, doesn't feel stable with, um, you know, like wrist wraps around the bar. And then also with a front squat, a lot of people struggle with the upper back demand. Cause I mean, it's a struggle to fight, to stay upright. So that ends up becoming the limiting factor is just upper back strength. But you throw in the safety squat bar, similar position, but with less unique demands. And also less demand on your lower back, probably a little bit more knee friendly just because of the position that you're in. Yeah, I safety bar squatted for the first time. I mean, it's probably close to a year

ago now, but I did four months of it and made good progress because it was new. And then I did four months of front squatting and got fairly strong. I'd have to look on my spreadsheet, but I think I ended my 1RM in low 300s, probably three 15, three 20, something like that on, on one RM. Um, I got to about three, the best on my front was, uh, or sorry,

my, my safety ended probably about three 30, a little bit higher. And so I do that. And then I haven't back squatted now for eight months. And I go to back squat thinking that my one RM is what? Three 70 carry over. Yeah. Like three 70, three 80. I mean, this is going to be great. And I go to back squat thinking that my one RM is what? 370? You can do all this carryover.

Yeah, like 370, 380. I mean, this is going to be great. And no, no, not even close. I mean, 245 for sets of four to six were hard on the back squat, which the lesson learned was if you want to stay good at the back squat, you can't not back squat for eight months, even though I made progress on these other exercises and I achieved a pretty decent strength standard on both of those because I started obviously with decent strength in the beginning. But anyway, so now I'm six months back into back squatting and it it's hard to say i haven't i'll be am wrapping in a few weeks and

we'll see but i'll probably be 350 so it's it's coming back but i was a little bit surprised that did not carry over well yeah all that uh specificity factor always uh comes into play yeah i love it's just tricky though because it feels very similar like you are squatting you don't even there's just enough of a difference well what i was gonna say is i love front squats but i've never really got a ton of carryover from front squats into my back squat but i love them like i don't know i feel like maybe i'm just like built to to be a good front squat actually one time i was um you know who travis mash is he used to be a good front squat. Actually, one time I was, you know who Travis Mash is? He used to be like, he's an old time powerlifter,

but then he also did Olympic lifting. And I think he actually coached like the junior Olympic weightlifting team. So Olympic weightlifting. And I was in a gym with him one time. This was like probably like, I don't know, six or seven years ago. And I just, I had front squats that day,

which is kind of a lot of Olympic lifters do that. And he was watching me and he was like, you know, he was like watching you front squat. He's like, I think you should give up powerlifting and just do Olympic lifting. He's like, cause you're built to Olympic lift. I was like, well, the problem is I'm like 25. So what are my chances of doing anything with that? Not very high, but you could still be a good front squatter yeah yeah uh-huh i was like i was like listen i was like if they put the bench in in olympic lifting then i'd be all for it but i'm not giving up the bench yeah that's you had mentioned like that's

yeah that's my lift yeah that's that's your favorite that's where you shine um yeah yeah i like i like the front squat. I like the back squat. I don't think I'm particularly great at either of them. My anatomy works against me in both cases. Long legs, long femurs, never been a great squatter. But I've been able to achieve pretty decent strength. My kind of maybe short-term-ish, I think maybe within the next year or so goal,

if I can, if I can get back to, I've had a one or I'm on the back squat about low four hundreds. I've had that in the past. I think I can get back to that. If I just stay patient, um, that's not, that's not that extraordinary. That's just strong. That's not even super strong. You know, you're, you're built more to deadlift probably, right? Yeah. Yeah. But that's only because I have long monkey arms. But all that really does, I feel like is negate the disadvantage of the long legs. And so it's allowed me to do better on the deadlift than the bench press overhead press and squat in terms of just progress relative to body weight. Um, but my, my deadlift one RM, it'll probably be four 40 to four 50.

I'm guessing at the end of this training block. And so it's okay. You know, it's nothing, that's nothing great by anyone's standards. And yeah, you could say that, you know, I stay pretty lean and I don't train particularly for strength. It's kind of a hybrid approach. But, but still, if I, if I'm just objectively honest with myself, yeah, if I were to put on 20 pounds and all the food that goes with that and all the calories and change my training, could I pull 500 for one or so? Yeah, I could probably get there um but that's still there's

still 50 or 60 pounds that have to go on the bar from where i'm at now so i don't i don't think it's realistic for me to think that i could pull 600 uh and excluding drugs we take drugs out of the picture maybe i'm pessimistic but that that's my assessment of, of, of really my anatomy. Well, well, last time I came on, we talked about powerlifting. I thought I, I thought I had, I had you convinced to, uh, to do a meet. To go, to go embarrass myself, go, go, go take last place. It makes me think of some of these, uh, these endurance, I guess it's, I don't, I'm not in, I've never been an endurance athlete and it's

um it's something that i'm not i'm not really involved in that space but one of the guys i work with is i mean he's i think he's done over a hundred triathlons he was really into it for a while and now he's more into lifting but he's still he still is um i guess, kind of hip on what's happening in the endurance space. And I guess one of the popular trends recently is low volume training for high volume events. And so it's a nice sales pitch, right? Where if you're going to be training for this a triathlon and it's going to involve all of this volume uh in one day well you could train just 10 hours a week to to get there eight to ten hours a week and and he he says absolute nonsense yeah that doesn't look at the training volume of of the people who do well at that stuff and like, no, it's like 30 to 40 hours of training per week.

I mean, he was talking, he was telling me about a cyclist, I believe, who he was cycling, cycling. So this is, I'm sure he was doing other things too. He was cycling six to eight hours a day, seven days, seven days a week. Oh yeah. Well, the triathlete, the training for that is, I mean, it is volume. It's high volume. It's like a part-time job

because it really is. I mean, it really is because, I mean, if you think about it, you have three events. It's like, I don't know the exact numbers, but it's like a,

I don't know, two-mile swim, 114 miles on the bike, and then you run a marathon in one go. Exactly. And then you run a marathon at one go. Exactly. And so the pitch that you can train 10 hours a week to do that, the joke is like, yeah, you'll not only come in last place, you'll post some of the worst numbers maybe ever

in the event's history. But sure, you can say that you did it. But if you want to be good at it, don't buy into that. Well, yeah, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, well, shit, I don't even, I'm sure a lot of these events have like a time cap. I don't even know if you could make the time, unless you were maybe like really genetically good at it or something, you could make the time cap with limited training. But I doubt it.

Wasn't that, wasn't that kind of CrossFit's marketing angle for initially? It was like, you know, you could do, you know, three to five workouts a week at a half an hour each. And then you can be as strong as a power lifter and run a marathon and do sprints. And was that actually, I think so. I think that was like maybe glassman's like one of his pitches early on again it's a good pitch for people who want to believe if they want to believe that we see some of that in the body composition space the pitch is if you

train super intensely just one two max three times per, you can do just as well, if not better than training five times per week at any intensity, any programming variable doesn't matter that one to two, three times per week, super intense. Plus a bunch of recovery is just better. And I wish that were the case. If it were the case, then I would do it myself. And I would recommend it at least as an option, but it's just not true. Well, a lot of, you know, when you've been in fitness for a while, everything recycles, like all this stuff recycles and it's like packaged as new. And it's like, no, this was, you know, let's trace this back to the origin, like that style of training.

What's that go back to? Like Arthur Jones back with Nautilus. That was like their thing. You know, you train a couple of times a week. You just do one set to failure. And then that's what went into Mike Mentzer with the high intensity training. And then eventually Dorian. What was it?

Heavy duty. Heavy duty. That's right. Yeah. The heavy duty. And then, you know, then Dorian and, you know, then it gets repackaged in a slightly different way. You see the same thing with nutrition, like with keto and low carb diets or intermittent fasting, like it's just a, a cycle and then it gets repackaged slightly different and then

presented as something new. Yeah. It's just usually some marketing shading. Somebody gets a, a clever idea to tie it to something usually related to science or history or some combination of both, even if it's pseudoscience or pse, and you are getting at least something out of it, would you mind sharing it with a friend or a loved one or a not so loved one even who might want to learn something new? Word of mouth helps really bigly in growing the show. So if you think of someone who might like this episode or another one, please do tell them about it. Let's get back on track. What's another underrated exercise that you wanted to share? Yeah. So another one I think is great and it's not collectively, it's not that underrated, but the way I'm going to explain it, it is, that's doing chin-ups for biceps. I think a lot of people don't necessarily think of a chin-up as a bicep exercise. And actually, I don't think of it as a bicep exercise per se, because I would still classify it as a back

exercise. But in terms of bicep development, so using the underhand grip, maybe even a little bit closer grip, and then trying to stay vertical, I think you can get a lot of utility out of that as a bicep exercise. And it's a heavy exercise, meaning you can, obviously with your body weight, that's quite a bit of resistance for a lot of people. But then if you're strong, you can get to the point where you're doing weighted chin-ups. So really in terms of load, there's not many exercises that are going to get that heavy with your biceps. get you know that heavy with your biceps yeah i do chin-ups um i mean it's always in the rotation sometimes i'll drop it for um some sort of machine but i always will come back to it and for adding weight my my accessories usually i'm not doing more than or sorry you're not doing fewer than six reps uh sometimes i'll do some fours if,

if I want to, like, I like doing fours with biceps curls and a couple of other things. This might be one where I would, where I, you could do fours, but it's going to require, uh, it's going to require a belt for, you know, I've, I've, if I can, I can snatch maybe 20 or 25 pounds, just put a dumbbell on the ground. Um, but if I need more weight than that, it gets, gets a bit awkward. Yeah. Having a belt, having the belts nice. Cause I mean, you can, you know, you can use it for, for multiple things. So if the gym doesn't have one, I'd probably even recommend grabbing one and putting it in your gym bag. Yep. And then forget it every time. Like me have it because I don't have, I don't have a gym bag,

but I have in in in my car there's um the the little little trunk in the trunk in the back um where i keep all my lifting stuff and i don't know how many times i would just forget to get my dip belt and then not want to go back to the car and then be like oh it and just just grab a dumbbell or just do more reps than I wanted to just use body weight. But yeah, I agree. It's a great exercise. And if you can hang 45 pounds and get six to eight reps, that's strong. Yeah, that's strong. Yeah. And the benefit is that it is still a back exercise too. So, I mean, it's not, you kind of get, you know, kill two birds with one stone there. Yeah. Yeah. It's just more bicep centric if you do it the way that you described. Yep. Yep.

Another one that's great. And it kind of goes back to initially when we were talking about overrated exercises, we talked about like one of the most overrated ever is the dumbbell side bend. Well, if you want a better version of that, not really a version, but a better idea of that same exercise, do a suitcase carry. version of that, not really a version, but a better idea of that same exercise, do a suitcase carry. So grab a heavy dumbbell, one dumbbell, hold it in the position like you do a dumbbell side raise, but then just maintain that position and then walk. Love that exercise. I mean, from a core activation standpoint, anti-rotation, and you get the grip strength element as well.

Kettlebells work nicely for that too yeah and and is uh is farmer walks is that on your yeah so i mean same concept same concept pretty much all carrying two instead of one yeah pretty much all loaded carries i would say are underrated and why don't you talk a little bit about that i i think i had dan john on some time ago and i think he spoke a bit about it but for people who didn't hear that interview or don't remember, I think it's worth taking a few minutes to explain the value of a loaded carry. And also, I'm curious how you would program it. Is that something you'd throw at the end of a workout? Yeah, loaded carries are great.

I know Dan John, he's big on them. He probably, I read his book. He puts it up there with, you know, a hip hinge and a press. Yeah, he puts it up there as like a main movement pattern to do. I got probably, actually, if I think about it, I probably got these originally from

him. These in barbell complexes. He's big on those, but I don't use them as like a training thing. I use them for a warmup a lot of times, like a barbell complex, just take an empty barbell and do, you know, you can do, you know, five or six different exercises with just the barbell and do that as like a warmup. I used to do that a lot, but yeah. So loaded carries, they're great for a number of reasons. One, just from the element of're moving throughout the gym with weight. So you're getting the added

benefit of it's a little bit of a cardiovascular element, not really cardio per se, but you're getting some movement in with weight, which is unique. Like there's not really anything else we're going to do in the gym that's like that. I hate to use the word functional, but when you think about it, there's not many things in the gym that we can actually say, this is 100% how we would need it in the real world without bastardizing the exercise. You know what I mean? Like, no, this is the exercise you hear, you carry two heavy things and you walk, you do that in life. Like literally when, when we had the twins, I remember groceries or groceries, but when we had the twins, I would be carrying the two car seats around. I'm like, well, I'm glad I did all those farmer carries. Uh, uh, so yeah, they're great for that.

Great for your grip too. Um, and from a programming standpoint, a lot of times I'll throw them in at the end is like a finisher because you don't want to necessarily get your, your grip fatigue before any other exercise. So you throw it at the end. And really, you can throw it at the end of an upper body workout or lower body workout. You can kind of program it either way. And what are your thoughts on how they can impact the acronym? Another acronym is GPP. I think it's just general physical preparedness and how that can improve your performance in all of your training. Yeah, yeah. I would put that into the GPP category.

I would like like a prowler too. Same idea. And just kind of improving your general physical preparedness. I mean, you're going to see a lot of benefits into your training too. I think we talked about this last time, but really just improving your base level aerobic conditioning, which shit, walking could be included as an underrated exercise too, just general walking. But you'll notice that your recovery time in your training session will improve. So you can actually improve your training density, get more work done in less time. So that's probably the biggest benefit I've

noticed with myself and with clients just from improving GPP. And if, if rest times are usually pretty set, you know, like I like to rest maybe three and a half minutes in between a set of maybe three, three and a half. If it's a heavy set of squats or deadlifts, I usually don't go to four. Maybe it's if it's my fourth set and I'm doing sets of like eight or 10 on the deadlift, which is the hardest stuff that I do in all of my training, maybe I'll rest. And then my accessories are usually two and a half, unless it's like a calf raise, maybe I'll go two, but I like two and a half. And so if people listening are the same way and then they improve their GPP, then they'll find that not only will their training density improve, but their training, their intensity. Yeah, it's going to be better.

rep or two with a weight that they wouldn't have been able to get because they gave themselves, you know, they're not necessarily watching their heart rate or, or they're just giving themselves three and a half minutes. And after three and a half minutes they go. And if, if you're going from, let's say poor aerobic conditioning to good, then that, that can make a big difference, even though three and a half minutes is, it is kind of a long time, but it really just depends where you're at and what you're doing, right? Yeah. I mean, that's why I would say, you know, just walking is another underrated exercise, but really it's just low intensity cardio. I think that's underrated just for this reason. That's easy to do. I mean, you can do it while you're on a business call. You can do it while you're watching a show, watching YouTube,

watching Netflix, or I haven't, you know, just any type of conversation and you will see a benefit in your performance in the gym from including it. Makes it easier to maintain the body composition that you want to with more food. So that just makes it more enjoyable. Even, even if you're not cutting, even if you're just maintaining, or even if you're, if even if you're just maintaining or even if you're if you're lean bulking i mean obviously too much cardio becomes counterproductive even if all it does is make you just have to eat more food yeah you probably after a bit of lean bulking you don't want to eat more food so that doesn't actually help you um but i think that including some cardio in a lean bulking regimen is beneficial. There might be some nutrient partitioning effects. I know it's a little bit speculative, but it's not going to hurt.

That's for sure. And then there's also, it probably will help you when you switch to a cut that you're already in the habit of doing that. I know just practically speaking, hearing from a lot of people to go from eating like a slob for at least that's how it feels, right? For months and months and months and doing no cardio and just, you know, doing a bunch of weightlifting to then less food and then trying to get into the habit of doing cardio. Um, I know that people can find that more difficult than if they just keep it in throughout the whole lean bulk.

Yep. If you're already doing it, then when you start dieting or a fat loss phase, you can pretty much just adjust your nutrition and then maybe add a little bit of cardio rather than implement something completely new. Like you haven't been doing cardio. So now it's, oh, we got to reduce calories and add this on top of it. It's just an extra thing to do. Yep. Exactly. Exercises is, let's see, is the good morning. What are your thoughts on? I have the good morning listed too. It's not an exercise I do a ton, but it is an underrated exercise. Another movement that was really popular in powerlifting, but you don't see it a ton in

general lifting, general strength training. But if you think about it, it's really the same. If you look at it from the side, you're pretty much getting the same hip hinge position that you'd get with an RDL. So I mean, from a lower back and really posterior chain standpoint, it's excellent. And then we talked about the safety squat bar. If you have a safety squat bar at your gym, they weren't great for good mornings. Interesting. I've never done that. I can see that though. Yeah. They weren't great for good mornings. Yeah. But yeah, big fan of those. And, um, they're definitely this that's definitely underrated in terms of general strength training. My only personal asterisk with it is I

noticed that, let's see. So in that training block, I was front squatting. I'm always doing some sort of deadlift, whether it's a trap bar or a just conventional. And I think I was also doing a barbell row or a T-bar row, but with no chest support. And so adding the good morning on top of that, it was fine for a bit, but then it started to irritate my, my hips. It was just too much hip hinging with all of that. So just, just throwing that out there for people to think with. It's definitely a movement that you want to make sure you have your, your form dialed in. You know what I mean? It's, it's because, I mean, think about it. There's a, there's a lot of things that play for one. You don't want to turn it into like a modified squat where you're bending your knees too that play for one. You don't want to turn it into like a modified squat where you're bending

your knees too much. And then you also don't want to get rounded over because it's going to be bad for your lower back. So you, you do want to make sure you're maintaining good position. You're, you're really comfortable with a hip hinge. You know, it's not an exercise. I'd probably include right off the bat with someone if they've, if they're not comfortable hip pinching, you know what I mean?

Like you gotta, I would have someone do an RDdl first and if you can handle rdls and can maintain good position on rdl that's when okay well maybe we can throw in a good morning as like a variation to that i don't do it i love i love rdls so a lot of times it's you know if i do you know throughout the year i may do you know eight to ten training cycles with rdls and then it only leaves you know one or two for something like a good morning. Yeah. Yeah. What are your thoughts on the pistol squat? Yeah. So that's another one I included. I love the pistol squat. Again, it's one of those exercises where it's really challenging. So it's probably why it's underrated.

The balance is such a huge pain in the ass. It's such a pain in the ass. Yeah. So I used to do them back in the day and then I got away from them until 2020. And then before I even got my home gym set up, like that first month, because I didn't know what the hell was happening, I just trained at home, just not even in the garage, like literally in my office with some adjustable dumbbells, a pull-up bar, and that's basically it. So I started doing pistol squats again. And at first I kind of lost the ability to do them, which was like, okay, this is, this kind of sucks. So, okay, I got to restart this whole process. So, but it didn't take me long. I pretty much just did like a box pistol

squat onto, I'm trying to think what I used, like maybe like one of my daughter's chairs or something. And you know, did that for a couple of weeks. You can also do a supported, like if you have the strength, it's just very awkward, which yeah, it is until,

until you get it. You can also just put your arm and, you know, something. You can brace yourself on something. Or if you have like a TRX, you can do a TRX or even you have like a trx you can do a trx or you can even if you have a box see a lot of times the problem that people have is with the uh the non-working leg not having anywhere to go so you have to fight to keep it up so you

can do a pistol squat while you're standing on a box and then you can allow the the other leg to kind of dangle down that's another good progression but. But no, the piscis quads. I've never done that. Yeah, I can immediately see how that would be a great place to start if you have a good foundation of strength. Yep. Yeah, because if strength's not the issue, it's going to be probably a mobility or stability and really being able to maintain that non-working leg up.

But if you stand on a box, you can kind of let it dangle and now you're really just focused on that one working leg yeah and for programming would you consider that an accessory as well yeah yeah i'd consider it like a quad movement because the other thing is you're getting a lot of forward knee travel which is good for, for quants. I mentioned the trap bar deadlift. That's, um, something that I know, I guess, I guess I know Mark Ripito hates it. I don't agree with him on that point, but I know he hates it, but I don't, I don't know if I've, uh, heard that. So, yeah. So, so, um, it's been some time, so I'm going to put words in his mouth. But what I remember is he doesn't like that you're less, this is how he explained it, that you're less stable in the top position that you can move around more. Whereas with a barbell, you're more locked into place.

And I mean, he's not wrong in that obviously there's there's more wiggle room and in in the trap bar deadlift but i don't think that makes it an unsafe exercise or an ineffective exercise no just reinforces good bracing at the top because actually if you think about it i think that's an issue that sometimes people have with regular deadlifts is that they're bracing bracing then they get to the top then they relax i made that mistake and hurt my si joint yeah that happens yep so it was heavy weight it was the last rep and i just it was stupid i just wasn't paying attention let out uh tension and then felt my hip kind of shift in a way i was was like, Ooh, that's, that's not good.

That's not supposed to happen. Yeah. So that, I mean, it happens. That's pretty common. So, um, yeah, I never really thought about that, but actually with a trap bar, because you do have less stability at the top, you do have to keep braced. Like it's, you know, probably good reinforcement there. Yeah. Yeah. Any other benefits that you like? Yeah. Well, I like the trap bar because it's, it's a movement that you like yeah well i like the trap bar because it's it's a movement that you can put people on pretty quickly you know if anybody who's actually done like personal training in the gym before i mean it's a it's a pretty low learning curve and it's it's kind of especially the high handles you know it's the high hand

almost just intuitive like yeah it's pick that up good job it's pretty easy um in terms of deadlifting um you know the whole hip hinge for people who aren't comfortable with that can be a challenge so getting a low buried entry high handle trap bar deadlift you know go to town on it but but even for more advanced people too it's it's a good exercise to throw in it's for more advanced people too, it's a good exercise to throw in. For more advanced people, it can almost kind of be a hybrid squat and deadlift because it's not like a complete, not the exact same as like a regular deadlift, sumo deadlift, or even like an RDL or anything like that. You're not getting the same hip hinge with a trap bar. So it's like a hybrid movement. Yeah. I like to flip the bar over and do the low bar just for a little bit

more range of motion and um unfortunately i don't like the trap bars that my gym that my gym is great they have all kinds of they have they have safety bars they have um a pendulum squat i'm doing that for the first time yeah that's difficult when i quick tangent so um i'm doing it for the first time and this is my third exercise in a lower body so this is i've already done i've already done eight sets and that includes some heavy squats and so i hadn't done this before and i was like oh i can see you know the cantilever this is going to be a little bit more difficult maybe like three plates or four or so just you know that's not that much weight yeah and then and then did maybe half of my first rep and was like uh no no no yeah so now now i'm back up to 105 uh and i'm doing it's still my third exercise so i could do more it's my first but 105 for four and i think maybe i could do six

but um it's a tough exercise and anyway so the trap bar the the trap bars that my gym has are a bit awkward i actually don't even know how to describe uh so i could show it, right? So here, here are the, um, uh, what, what, what you load, you load the weight here and then your, your handles are here, but it comes up and around you like this. There is no backside to it. And so it, it just, when it's loaded and it starts to get heavy, it tends to tip forward. So, uh, I might, might end up just like getting my own and giving it to the gym. Hopefully somebody doesn't steal it. That's one of the problems with dip belts.

If you leave them in the gym, at least in this gym, they don't stay in the gym. But otherwise, I really like the trap bar deadlift. It's just, I don't like this type of trap bar. Yeah. That is the one thing about the trap bar is there seems to be quite a bit of variation between trap bars. So if you find one you like, because I've been at gyms where I was like, oh, I really like this trap bar. Then I had another gym. It's like if I'm traveling or something, trying to stay on the program to go, this trap bar sucks.

So this is, there was a whole wrench. It's totally different. Yeah, like completely different. My weight went down again because it's just an awkward bar. It tends to slip a little bit in my hands, tends to tip. Like, whereas in the previous gym, I don't, it might've been a rogue trap bar, whatever they had was great. Yeah.

And it just felt stable. All I had, I didn't, I wasn't thinking about, you know, keeping it from tipping or I was able to just pull hard, like basically with a barbell and everything stayed in place so long as I did the basic things right. That's not the case with this trap bar, unfortunately. Yeah. You mentioned the pendulum squat. I don't know if I'd put that on the list per se, but if your gym has one, I would, I'd definitely recommend trying it out. The first time I used one was actually, this is a funny story. I was, I was, I think I was maybe like a sophomore in college and I was, you know, Mark Lobliner, right? Yeah. So he, he had a online website. It was called machine muscle.

I was the editor of the magazine. Oh, cool. The online magazine. So we would always go to the Arnold and I would go with him and stuff. And there's this gym outside of Cincinnati, which is where Tiger Fitness headquarters is. It's called, I think it's called the Power Station. Like old school, hardcore, like you need like a tetanus shot when you leave. But they had a ton of really unique exercises. And one of them was a pendulum squat. And I was like, holy shit,

like this is unique. And yeah, I was like, damn, this is awesome. So now since that time, whenever I'm traveling or something, or I'm at a gym that has a pendulum squat, I always try to include it just because it's a unique movement and it feels pretty good. Yeah. You get a full range of motion and i like it in that it's kind of similar to a leg press in that you you just push push really hard basically and it's not hard to you have to um you have to work a little bit i've i've found to keep your back on the uh on the pad and so so you don't get into like a weird kind of a hyper extended type of, um, position, but that's similar to the, the leg press.

I was like, even on a leg press, you need to work a little bit to keep yourself locked into it. And so, which is, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just, it's, it's a nice, it's a nice follow-up I think to a squat. Yep. I agree. What else do you have on i think um oh something else here's one that i want to throw out to you that is is kind of popular these days a nordic ham string curl yeah so they're really popular now but but back in the day i used to do them when i was at it from social i think it's a social media i've seen a lot of people doing them

yeah i um yeah i used to do them them when I was in college and stuff. It was really only athletes know about them. For the most part, a lot of track athletes would do them, sprinters and stuff. But I would do them if I was at a gym that didn't have a glute ham raise, which is a powerlifting staple. So they're not the same movement, but similar enough to where I would set it up to where I'd have like a barbell holding my feet and stuff. Now, the problem with them is, and this is something else you can see on social media, is most people just aren't strong enough to do them. So they just end up doing them, but they look like shit. So, I mean, they're a tough exercise. lot of times it is tough if you want to do them

i'd recommend like you know having something to hold on to whether it's like a broomstick or something or anything just to hold on to so you can brace against and just really focus on getting a good eccentric and then you know using a whether even if you're doing it on the floor you can kind of use your hands to get back into position. When you get strong enough. That's what I was doing. Yeah. I mean, if you're strong enough, of course, I mean, do it. But I mean, a lot of times you'll have to use your hands or something, which is fine.

It's just, if you're going to get way out of position on the concentric, you're better off just, you know, giving yourself some assistance. Yeah. Or if you're not controlling the eccentric at all that's also not not the point yeah if you can't control the eccentric then there's you you're probably not ready for them yeah yeah i did uh i did quite a few sets of those when covid kicked off because like you i had some adjustable dumbbells i had some bands pull-up bar that actually i couldn't use because it was messing up the i guess maybe the term is molding, is messing up the doorway. Yeah, it messed up.

Yeah, I didn't even have that. But in the house I was in, in the mechanical room in the basement, there was an exposed I-beam. So I just did pull-ups on my little fingertips. But hey, actually, it worked just fine. on my little fingertips but hey actually it worked just fine and and anyway so i was doing a lot of of these um these hamstring girls and it was hard i mean i i was maybe exaggerating the eccentric a little bit just just because like trying but by by rep maybe six or seven or eight i mean it took everything i i had to just have a controlled eccentric and again i came into it being fairly strong so i was i was surprised that how difficult that was yeah they're they're a great exercise i mean especially if you don't have a lot of

equipment but you still want to get a good uh hamstring movement in they're great to include yep anything else on your list that we haven't touched on yeah i'm trying to think what else we equipment, but you still want to get a good hamstring movement in there. They're great to include. Yep. Anything else on your list that we haven't touched on? Yeah. I'm trying to think what else we, um, one that we haven't touched on. That's a, uh, a kind of a dumbbell or barbell or machine lift is a, uh, pull up pullover variations. So whether like a, a dumbbell pullover, barbell pullover, or my favorite is a

machine pullover, but again, you gotta to have the equipment. Old school exercise. I mean, back in Arnold's time, I remember looking at the Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. He had a lot of pictures of them. But the barbell and dumbbell, they seem to be probably more of a chest exercise, whereas the machine pullover is more of a back exercise. the reason i i throw them in is just because it's a unique movement pattern like you know there's not you know there's not many ways to to get that movement pattern in without doing pullover variations and if it's a a barbell or a dumbbell you would program that i'm assuming more as a chest i mean i, I guess if you really want to, it's going to be volume for, for both and the machine, which my gym has, and I actually, I haven't done it yet, but I'm going

to include it in my next training block because it's been a long time since I went to this dingy gym many years ago that had that and other things that you don't normally see in gyms. And this is one that I haven't seen in a while. And I only noticed it like a month or two ago. I was like, oh, that's one of the most difficult lat isolation exercises you can do. It's great. Yeah, they're tough. That's one I think Dorian probably made that popular.

Dorian Yates. He was big on those. Makes sense. Yep. He was big on those. Makes sense. Yep. He had big lats. Exactly. A to B. It's that simple.

Yeah. But yeah, if anybody listening, if your gym has, a lot of gyms don't have the machine, but if they do, then it's it's definitely worth trying if if you want to include it in some of your back volume and then i haven't done i don't know if i've ever done a dumbbell or sorry barbell pullover i've done dumbbell pullovers and um i guess personally i just didn't particularly like for chest there were just just so many other things. If I just want to even isolate pecs, I remember finding that just doing a pec deck machine just seemed to work better for me. And I felt my chest working more on the pec deck machine than on the dumbbell pullover. And then if I want to do something for my back, there are many other better options. So what are your thoughts on? Yeah. The dumbbell pullover is kind of hybrid. I know some people really like it, but

yeah, it's kind of a hybrid exercise to where it's, it's definitely not, it's definitely not as good as the machine pullover. The machine pullover is awesome. The dumbbell version, like I said, it's more of a chest movement. I don't love it for the same reasons you said, but in terms of underrated, I do throw it in once in a while, really just like I said, because it's a unique movement pattern. Yeah, it's true. Because some people will group that with the weighted side bend or something. Yeah. Which is kind of why I bring it up where it's like, it shouldn't be in that category, but it's also not something that if you looked at my yearly programming you're like damn you do dumbbell pullovers three quarters of the year now it's maybe one quarter of the year you know yeah like i said

really just because it's a unique movement pattern but yeah in isolation if you're going to compare it to like a peck deck well peck deck is probably better if you're going to compare it to a dumbbell press well dumbbell press is probably better you You know what I mean? Cable crossover. I'd rather do a cable crossover, but it's a unique movement pattern. Yeah. Yeah. Fair point. Well, we've been going for a while now. I think that's pretty extensive. Was there anything else that we didn't touch on? Nothing really of note. I feel like we went through everything that I wanted to touch on. Awesome. Well, I think this was a great discussion.

And why don't we wrap up with where people can find you, find your work. What are you working on specifically? Is there a book you want them to know about or anything else? Yeah. Well, you guys, if you like this conversation, you can check out my podcast. It's called The Absolute Strength Podcast. Mike's been on it about three, four times now. podcast it's called the absolute strength podcast mike's been on it what three four times now um yeah you know pretty similar we talk about the same stuff we uh that's probably why we enjoy being on each other's podcast because it's not too much of a it's always fun to hear somebody else yeah even if because they're always little things that are different it's different when you explain than i explain and yeah yeah yeah which is a reason for people listening at why you might want to,

if you haven't checked out Kyle's podcast, even if there's, it's not like everything is, is a overlap. There might be some overlap. When I say that, I think, you know, sometimes people think that, but it's more so just the,

the, I don't like the way we present stuff. It's different concept, different topics, but similar enough to where if you like one, you're probably going to like the other. True. Yeah. Agreed. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or

suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, Mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com. And let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.