Writing articles with catchy titles like “Why you suck” or “How to get jacked”, or “Top 5 Exercises You are Not Doing” is good because everyone wants to know why they suck, or how to get jacked right?
Well, the thing that is even better is that you may actually pick up a good exercise or tip in one of these that will help you.
Articles like these are like seminars.
If you spend $200.00, $300.00 or more on a seminar and you pick up one thing that was useful, that is money well spent to me.
It’s the same with articles with catchy titles. If you spend five minutes reading one and get one thing out of it to make you stronger, more mobile or more jacked that was five minutes well spent.
So, without delay I will give you my list of the Top 5 Exercises You are Not Doing.
Normally I’d make you read about what is going on here at TPS, Boston’s Best Gym, but not today. No Ain’t nobody got time for that this week.
See, I got you again. You fell for it. There was a delay.
OK, for real this time.
No tricks.
Here is my list of the Top 5 Exercises You are Not Doing in no particular order:
Turkish Get Ups
I can hear you all now; “Really Murph, are you on ‘effing crack? Those are stoopid.”
Well tough guys and gals, they aren’t stoopid, they are awesome.
TGU’s do a whole lot of good stuff to your body.
They improve mobility and stability in the shoulder. I don’t know too many legit strength athletes that don’t need at least normal mobility and tons of stability in the shoulder capsule.
They restore mobility to the hips. Again, if you never sit at a desk, drive a car or lift heavy stuff this does not apply to you.
To the rest of the population of the world, hip mobility is pretty important to prevent among other things, in laymen’s terms, lots of bad mojo happening to your body.
I know all the big words and terms like my good friend Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes, I just like to keep it simple.
Getups also make you strong. Think about it, you are lying on the floor and standing up to a position with a weight over your head.
That requires strength.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE HOW TO DO THEM
As Forest Gump says, that’s all I have to say about that.
The Press
I mean a strict Overhead Press.
There is lots of debate over this in the industry and many say it is bad for your shoulders. I cannot disagree more.
When the press is done wrong as it is almost all of the time, it is bad for your shoulders, and lower back and more.
When done correctly it is not bad for you at all, in fact, it makes your whole body stronger.
The Press is pretty technical.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE HOW TO DO THEM.
This video is kind of old, and does not have all of the cues we teach to our clients and athletes. I will shoot another one soon.
One cue we will add into the next video is to make sure you shrug your shoulders as high as you can at the start of the Press, meaning, start with your traps and shoulders elevated.
One thing I have found over the years is, and I may start a war here; the press has carryover to other lifts. If you can strict Press 275, I’ll be willing to bet you can bench 275 without much effort.
On the contrary, if you can bench 275, I am pretty sure you can’t Press 275 unless you train it.
Keystone Deadlifts
The Keystone Deadlift is a variation Dr. Squat Fred Hatfield taught me many years ago and I am glad he did.
The beauty of this lift is the devil of it at the same time. I’ll explain.
The Keystone Deadlift is much like a Romanian Deadlift with the exception that it STOPS at the knee. Stopping at the knee greatly reduces damaging shear forces on the lower back which makes it a better option for long term back health and strength.
Since the bar needs to be kept touching your body and does not cross the knee, this makes the range very short, which means you can handle a ton of weight. That’s the beauty and the devil.
To get the full effect, you need to load these up.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE HOW TO DO THEM.
Thick Bar Work
This is pretty easy and I shouldn’t get any flack.
Thick bars, Grip4orce, Rolling Thunders and the like all make whatever you are doing harder while improving the grip.
They also require you to squeeze the bar harder. Squeezing harder increase radiational tension, which allow you to generate more force.
Add in some thick bar, Rolling Thunder Deadlifts or anything with a Grip4orce and see what happens.
Your honor, the defense rests.
Finally, you are going to hate me.
The Bretzel
I’ll refer to the comments I made about TGU’s above here.
Bretzels are a great movement prep exercise and also as a stretch at the end of the training session.
Bretzels have an absolutely ridiculous name, but have a lot of function. They improve flexibility in the hips and quads and mobility in the T-spine.
Since most of us have tight hips and quads as well as T-spines that don’t move, I suggest you give them a shot.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE HOW TO DO THEM.
I wish I had time to tell you some training stuff, but I am busier than a one armed paper hanger and if I don’t get this up Dave will hit me with a stick.
Let’s just say that this week I squatted with the Yoke bar, 2 plates and 12 chains and had no pain.
That’s all for this week. As always, Jacked share this and please leave a comment.
Thanks for reading.
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Vincere vel mori
