More Forgotten Exercises: More Exercises People Should Do But Don't

Posted by PredatorAdmin at 16:29 10/01/12

I was very pleased to see how popular and well-received the first Forgotten Exercises article was when it was published over the summer. I sincerely hope that some of you are now regularly front squatting, doing cleans, loaded carries and decline dumbbell extensions. And if not, why not?


That article only documented four exercises and of course there are many more. Naturally I felt compelled to write a second instalment, so without further ado let’s jump straight in.
 

Trap-bar deadlifts

Everyone loves deadlifts, and I see most people doing them on back day. I personally do them on leg day but for a lot of people I find it more important that they are getting done regardless of the day. They are that important of a lift. For anyone that shares my idea of deadlifts being a lower body lift, you should look into doing the exercise with a trap-bar. The trap-bar is also known as the hex-bar – a hexagonal-shaped bar with the handles at the side – that you stand inside. It’s called a trap-bar because most of the patrons of the gyms that have one tend to use it for shrugs. Don’t get me wrong, shrugs on the trap-bar are great. But deadlifts are greater.

Much like how front squats allow you to focus the tension in the quads more than back squats, trap-bar deadlifts really let you focus on lifting with the legs. Regular barbell deadlifts require a lot more posterior-chain and glute/hamstring involvement. This was recently shown in a study comparing standard and hex-bar deadlifts. Building strength on this exercise can have excellent crossover into your squat strength. Much like with regular deadlifts, when doing them with the trap-bar you should be attempting to drive your feet through the floor. I am confident that this is a variation you can easily fall in love with.

 
For even more quad involvement you can do the equivalent of deficit-deadlifts (deadlifting on a box requiring you squat deeper for each rep) with the trap-bar. Exrx has this listed as a “trap-bar squat”, but the concept is largely the same.
 

Incidentally, if you do these with a trap-bar that has two sets of handles, I recommend you do them “upside down” to allow a deeper squat and thus slightly bigger range of motion.
 

Neck extension and flexion

I see a lot of guys doing shrugs to build traps and presses to build shoulders, so it’s clear that everyone wants a big yoke. If you say you don’t want a big yoke, you’re either lying, or Google has brought you to this page by mistake (for egg recipes try changing the spelling of your search string to “yolk”). The question is, why do I never see anyone training their neck directly? Sure, the neck gets indirect stimulation from deadlifting, squatting and cleans and snatches if you perform them, but you can make a big difference in the size of your neck by hitting it directly. And a big neck is like having a crown that sits below your head rather than on top of it.
 

My primary stimulus for neck training was American football. I wanted a stronger neck for tackling, and this was before it was suggested that neck training should be implemented for reducing the chances of concussions in the sport. I also noticed that whenever I dieted down I would get an emaciated look as my face got slimmer and my neck took on a distinct “pencil” look. I don’t suffer this problem anymore.
 

If you are fortunate to train at a gym that has a four-way neck machine that is awesome. Use it. Otherwise I’d suggest investing in a harness that you slip onto your head. The harness has a chain that you can hang plates from, allowing you to lean over and perform the exercises, or drape yourself over a bench. Alternatively – and this is my preference – attach the harness chain to a cable pulley (preferably one that can be adjusted higher or lower to suit your height) and perform the exercises standing up with a slight bend in your knees.

If you can’t afford a harness (I got mine for £10 so they aren’t expensive at all) you can get creative with plates balanced on your head, or uber-creative with a smith machine. That said, I’ve seen the latter performed and I’m not convinced enough by the safety measures of this to recommend it. There is also a form of neck training called bridging that you may have seen some Olympic wrestlers performing. This is fairly hardcore and not something I’d recommend until you have a good amount of neck strength already built up.
 

Neck training is not just for the cosmetic side of things either. There are a mounting number of studies including several published earlier this year showing that neck training can improve posture and remedy frequent neck and shoulder pain.


These are not exercises you want to get a heavy triple with or test your 1RM on. Stick to the 12-15 rep range. Based on a recent study the neck takes around three days to fully recuperate, and then two-to-four days further to build upon the strength it originally had. In other words, the neck doesn’t warrant a high frequency of training, and in fact, ideally train it in the same workout (but after) you deadlift as this exercise is taxing for the neck already. This gives you several days to recover and build strength before hitting it again. Or at the very least, do not train your neck the day before a heavy deadlift day.

Pro-lat bar pull-downs/pull-ups

Most back workouts will consist of a combination of horizontal and vertical rows, such as seated rows and chins, respectively. When I use “horizontal” and “vertical” I am referring to the plane of motion, so something like a T-bar or barbell row would also be considered to a horizontal row even though the bar is moving vertically. Workouts designed like this make sense as, generally speaking, horizontal rows help build middle-back thickness in the rhomboids and intermediate region of the traps whereas vertical rows build the muscles that contribute towards width like the latissimus dorsi (aka your “wings”). Some back workouts will also feature a deadlift of some sort for spinal erector and lower back training.
 

If you ask almost any trainee what exercise they are guaranteed to perform on any given back day it’s going to be a wide-grip pull-up or pull-down. This seems as ingrained in the bodybuilder’s manifesto as performing inclines before flat or decline presses on chest day (the same manifesto that proclaims Monday to be International Chest Day™ of course). I have another suggestion.
 

I’ve heard this bar called many things and have personally referred to it as a “hammer-grip” bar for years. Only recently I learned that it goes by the name “pro-lat”. Most gyms have this bar, but in all the gyms I have trained at I’ve never seen it used for its designed purpose. More typically I see it attached to a low cable pulley and held at it’s straight parts for cable bicep curls. When used for back training the bar allows you to perform a pull-down with a wide parallel grip. This grip puts the biceps in a stronger position compared to the wide overhand-grip, but not quite as strong as the underhand-grip. It is the latter form that puts the biceps in their strongest position so while they will still be the weak link in the chain as far as the lift goes, they will not give out as quickly as they would with an overhand grip. This allows you to lift heavier weights and focus on building the muscles of the back more.

The pro-lat bar is basically “an in-between” of the wide-grip overhand and narrower underhand grips. While it is still technically a “wide” grip, the minor angle change of the hands alters the protraction of the scapular slightly as you pull, allowing you to feel the muscles of the upper back like the teres major and rear deltoid working more than with other variations. Obviously you pull the bar in front of your face as this has been shown in several studies to be superior for latissimus dorsi activation. This is opposed to pulling behind the neck which has been specifically stated to be an inferior form regarding latissmus dorsi activation. Many trainees may also develop shoulder impingements or other injuries if they perform heavy pull-downs behind the neck frequently. Not to mention, the biomechanics of doing the pro-lat bar pull-down behind the neck seems really awkward. I should also point out that you shouldn’t lean back too much on this exercise like I have seen a ton of guys do in the past, otherwise it stops being a vertical row and starts being more of a horizontal row (think about it).
 

High pulls

High pulls are a ballistic movement that are typically employed as an assistance movement for strengthening the clean. Ballistic training by definition is training where you lift the bar explosively and then let go of the bar, and this is exactly what high pulls are. You pick the weight off the floor as if you were performing a power clean, only rather than dropping under the bar you perform a quasi-upright row before releasing the bar to fall to the floor. Obviously not all gyms will be thrilled about you doing this unless they have a specific Olympic lifting platform or area (or special bumper plates) for you to do this. For this reason you can perform the high pulls without letting go of the bar during the set, but obviously this will impact upon exactly how much you can lift.
 

Lifting explosively like this can be an amazing way to build muscle and strength as it alters the way the muscle fires. Typically when you lift a weight the slow twitch fibres of the muscles involved would begin, with the larger fast twitch fibres getting involved should the demand require it. Officially this is called the Size Principle but I prefer to think of it like a scene in an action movie where the protagonist dispatches all the nameless henchmen before the “chief henchman” (there’s always one) even gets off his seat. Lifting the weight as fast as possible has the potential to reverse the size principle, involving the largest fast twitch fibres immediately. In other words, in this version of the movie John McClane goes straight for Karl rather than killing the minions first.
 

With high pulls specifically you have a great exercise for building the deltoids and traps, and also the lower back and hip flexors. The crossover this can have for your squat and deadlift strength is also of huge value. You will also develop some metabolic conditioning in the process – ballistic movements can really get your heart racing and your lungs out of breath.
 

So there we have it, four more exercises you can give a go if you don’t already. I’ll conclude this with the exact sentence that concluded part one: “form is impeccable and strength progression (via progressive overload) is key.”
 

Author: Rob Clarke

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