The Best Gym Exercises You’re Not Doing

What are the best gym exercises you’re not doing? Here is a list of 4 for you to try next time you hit your local gym.

Can you guess how many different exercises a person can do in a gym? Endless right? And when you think of exercises in the gym, probably your mind wanders through a selected few that are considered a staple among gym goers like bench press, barbell squat, deadlift, bicep curls, or the regular treadmill, cycling machine or step ladder.

While those exercises are great – hence why they are among the most popular when programming workouts for clients – there are a few excellent exercises you could be doing at the gym, but sadly are not. Which exercises are those? Hudson White from the Buff Dudes has the answer.

The Buff Dudes is a YouTube channel with over 2.5 million subscribers. Despite the name of the channel, brothers Hudson and Brandon White are not your stereotypical bro-gym. They deliver clear information with a good background story while poking fun at how buffed they are.

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Hudson shared the 4 best gym exercises you’re not doing right now, but that you should. Check it out.

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The Best Gym Exercises You’re Not Doing

Here is a list of the 4 best gym exercises you’re not doing at the moment and that Hudson White thinks you should start incorporating into your workout routine.

1. Pin squat
2. Prone rows
3. Z press
4. Guillotine press

The term “pin squat” refers to a variation of the squat exercise performed using safety pins or squat rack bars set at a specific height. In a pin squat, the pins or bars are positioned at a certain point along the squat’s range of motion to limit the depth of the squat.

By adjusting the position of the pins, the lifter can perform squats at different ranges of motion, focusing on specific portions of the lift. For example, a lifter may set the pins at a height that allows them to perform partial squats, focusing on the top or bottom portion of the movement.

Pin squats can be used for various training purposes, such as overcoming sticking points, building strength in specific positions, or accommodating for mobility limitations. They also provide safety benefits by acting as a fail-safe mechanism, preventing the barbell from descending below a certain point if the lifter is unable to complete the repetition.

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Prone rows are a compound exercise that primarily targets the muscles of the upper back, including the rhomboids, trapezius, and latissimus dorsi, while also engaging the muscles of the arms, core, and shoulders.

Prone rows can be modified based on your fitness level and equipment availability. You can adjust the difficulty by changing the height of the bar or adjusting your body angle. For example, a more challenging variation is to perform the exercise with your feet elevated on a bench.

The Z press is a seated overhead pressing exercise that specifically targets the muscles of the shoulders, upper back, and core. It is a challenging variation of the traditional overhead press that places greater emphasis on core stability and eliminates the use of the legs for assistance.

The key characteristic of the Z press is that the lifter sits on the ground without back support. This sitting position removes the lower body’s involvement, forcing the lifter to rely solely on upper body strength and core stability to perform the movement. It also increases the demand on the shoulders and upper back muscles.

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The Z press can be performed with a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells, depending on your equipment availability and preference. It’s important to start with a weight that allows you to maintain proper form and gradually increase the intensity as your strength and stability improve.

Lastly, the guillotine press is a variation of the bench press exercise that involves lowering the barbell to the neck or throat area, rather than lowering it to the chest as in the traditional bench press. It primarily targets the chest muscles (pectoralis major and minor) but also engages the front deltoids (shoulders) and triceps.

It’s important to note that the guillotine press is an advanced variation that places more stress on the shoulder joint and the neck area compared to the traditional bench press. Therefore, it is essential to exercise caution when performing this exercise and ensure you have sufficient shoulder mobility and strength to maintain proper form and control throughout the movement.

To see Hudson’s explanation of each exercise, how to do them and why they are awesome, click on the video below.

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Compound Exercises

If you’re looking to get in shape, this list of compound exercises will help you do so. Compound exercises are effective for building strength because they work multiple muscle groups at once. They also recruit more muscle fibers than isolation exercises do. This means that compound moves build muscle faster and burn more calories over time. Ready to start getting fit? Here are some compound exercises you can add into your workout routine:

Squat

Squats are a great exercise for building your legs, butt, and abs. They’re also the most basic compound exercise you can do. If you want to build muscle mass and strength, squats should be at the top of your list of exercises—and there are lots of different squat variations to choose from!

The squat is performed by bending down with your back straight and lowering yourself until your thighs are parallel with the floor or lower, then standing back up again. There are several different types of squats.

Deadlift

The deadlift is a compound exercise that works several muscles in your body. It targets your core, legs, back and grip strength. The deadlift is one of the best full-body workouts you can do to build muscle mass and burn fat.

The deadlift also helps with other exercises such as squats, lunges and rows. If you want to improve your performance on these types of exercises then adding in some heavy deadlifts will help build up those muscles needed to get better results from those exercises.

If you are new to weightlifting or have never done any kind of workout before then I would suggest starting with lighter weights until you get used to how it feels when using heavier weights in order not hurt yourself by doing too much too soon!

Barbell Overhead Press

• Start with a barbell in the rack at shoulder height.
• Unrack into the front rack position
• Lift the barbell up above your head, keeping it at arms’ length and using only your shoulders to lift it. This is also called a shoulder press or military press.

Pull-Ups

Pull-ups are a great exercise to include in your workout routine. They can be done using a chair or tree branch, and they work the back, biceps, lats and abs.

Source: Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

You can also modify them to make them easier if you are just starting out on pull-ups or you have a specific injury that prevents you from doing the full movement of pulling yourself up with your arms. In general, the more challenging version is better because it will build more muscle mass throughout the upper body area by increasing strength in those muscles over time.

A good way to start developing some basic fitness levels before tackling this challenge is by doing inverted rows on an incline bench at home or at the gym; this will help strengthen core stability as well as arm strength for pull-ups later down the line.

Bench Press

The bench press is one of the most popular exercises among weightlifters. It works the chest, shoulders and triceps.

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To do the exercise: lie on your back on a flat bench with your feet planted firmly on the floor. Grasp a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and lower it toward your chest until it touches (about halfway down). Then push it back up to its original position. You can also use dumbbells for this exercise; just remember that you’ll have to increase or decrease the weight accordingly depending on which version you’re doing (the grip will be different).

These compound exercises will get you in shape quickly.

Compound exercises are the best way to get in shape quickly. They work multiple muscle groups, which helps you build strength faster and increase your muscle mass. As a result, compound exercises are the best way to burn fat and increase your overall fitness level.

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