Was lifting at a gym in my grandparents’ cabin gym. Squat rack with pull up bar, barbell and dumbbells up to 20kg. I remembered something I saw in a Ben video: cross body reverse fly with a dumbbell (video attached). Worked like A CHARM! Hit a pull day consisting of wide grip pull ups for the upper back, narrow grip semi-Chins for the lats, reverse dumbbell flies and incline curls. I’ll let the pump speak for itself. All this just goes to show: with a working knowledge of biomechanics, anywhere can give you a great workout, even if you don’t have the optimal cable and machine set up you see for everything on social media.

Recently got my hands on a leg extension pad and used it for my leg+spine workout today and WOW, what a game changer! I got the most insane pump in my quads that I think I’ve ever felt. Basically you put this on the leg pad of the leg extension to add another few inches of ROM. Might not seem like much, but a few inches is a lot ok! I’ve been full stacking the leg extension machines at my gym for a few months now and have gotten up to a rep range I find unproductive due to metabolic fatigue. This made me decrease the weight by 30+ kgs and work in a much more comfortable 5-8 rep range. It also makes the resistance profile more even (imo). The bottom gets harder and there aren’t any sticking points like I often experience without this pad (for reference I am using the hammer strength leg extension). Only con is that it’s kinda big and a pain to get in my gym bag… but otherwise a great investment! Bought this one from GymPin

I know that there aren’t really universal ‘best exercises.’ But if a beginner wanted a super minimalist routine and just wanted to train the body reasonably well in as little time as possible, what exercises or families of exercises would be ideal picks?

Ok yall so I’ve been adding in some new direct erector and ab work to my routine to build a stronger spine. I’ve ran into an issue though: the variations I’ve chosen (videos attached) are pretty hard to load. I’m using the 45 degree back extension bench, and for the movements themselves, they’re great. I get a full range of motion, they feel nice and I feel that I can really isolate the abs and erectors without recruiting other muscles like the hip flexors or glutes. Buuuut, the loading is hard. I’ve seen people use a barbell on the back extension bench, but this turns it into a hinge (which I am actively avoiding) and limits ROM. Any tips? PS: I’ve done Zercher and normal Jefferson curls in the past and they’re great, but I want something which isolates the erectors even more without adding to hamstring fatigue.

Some of these are incredibly niche and I think underrated. A lot of people have a very general negative reaction to “unconventional” exercises because they think it’s just overcomplicating training unnecessarily. Some people definitely are, but I still think there are a lot of exercises and even muscles that are very underrated. So here are some of my favs 1. Rear delt fly. I prefer doing them on a pec deck then turned to the side, but cable or even dumbbell is essentially the same. I recently heard a certain someone in the SBL space say isolating rear delts is a waste of time, and I used to agree. Now, I couldn’t disagree more. Rear delts add so much MASS to the shoulder and have a much bigger growth potential than people realize 2. External rotations. Saw these on a Ben video a while ago… WOW! Infraspinatus is super underrated! Even in a little over a month of doing them I see a visual difference in my back poses and my shoulders feel better than ever 3. Reverse grip curls (with a cuff). Brachialis and Brachioradialis have never felt better. I like doing a sort of mechanical dropset, where I firstly very strictly keep my wrist pronated, then as I hit failure like that I switch to a neutral hammer grip. Great way to do reverse curls without extensors fatiguing first. These are all some new favs of mine from the last few months.