Topic: Unusual Exercises Worth Knowing

[lonely moa]

Whats the thought of the effectiveness of squats vs lunges? I always have preferred those.

Walking lunges with big barbell weights were favoured by Alberto Tomba.  Worked for him.   

[Samhain]

Pistols are a good challenge for those who want to try something different than conventional squats and can be done anywhere. 

Pistol squat - bodyweight leg exercise

As you get better at them you can start adding weight by either holding one dumbell with both hands or a dumbell in each hand.  I managed to get up to a 50 pound dumbell in each hand for a set of 5 on each side when I was doing them as part of a workout plan.  A tip for people who have tight hamstrings is to stand on a box or a short bench when starting out with pistols.

[Karyn]

Pistols are a good challenge for those who want to try something different than conventional squats and can be done anywhere. 

Pistol squat - bodyweight leg exercise

As you get better at them you can start adding weight by either holding one dumbell with both hands or a dumbell in each hand.  I managed to get up to a 50 pound dumbell in each hand for a set of 5 on each side when I was doing them as part of a workout plan.  A tip for people who have tight hamstrings is to stand on a box or a short bench when starting out with pistols.

Those look good.  One thing I really need to improve is my balance, and I bet those would do me a world of good.  I think I'll incorporate that into my leg workout next week.

[Karyn]

Dumbbell Woodchopper

I started doing this one on ab days.  I think I accidentally sprained my uterus the first time, but they feel great.

[LumpyFish]

Becoming less unusual, but Tabata is certainly a time efficient exercise.

HOw does it work?

[karirafn]

Becoming less unusual, but Tabata is certainly a time efficient exercise.

HOw does it work?

As far as I know Tabata is just a variation of HIIT (High intensity interval training) which has been around for many many years.

[LumpyFish]

Becoming less unusual, but Tabata is certainly a time efficient exercise.

HOw does it work?

As far as I know Tabata is just a variation of HIIT (High intensity interval training) which has been around for many many years.

I see. The only thing I do that is close to HIIT is bike riding. I go from coasting, to casual peddling, to 'sprinting' as it were. In fact, today I did 45 miles. Beautiful day today, though it was a bit chilly and windy.

[lonely moa]

Tabata, created by Izumi Tabata,

20 seconds sprint as hard as you can... as hard as you can.  walk, coast or stand there for ten seconds.

Repeat 7 more times.

If you don't feel like quitting after the fourth cycle, you aren't going hard enough.

Its just four minutes but according to some studies, its better than a whole lot more time at chronic cardio.  You can run, ride, push steel, do burpees and chinnups, whatever.  I only allowed the spin bike at the moment. 

Well, I don't like it until it's over.

[Plastique]

Squats.

Most people do them wrong. Like really wrong. That makes proper squats unusual.

This guy knows how to do them right. Best video series I ever found on YouTube.

EliteFTS.com: So You Think You Can Squat Part 1

Jesus Christ. After watching this series, I've been reevaluating and changing how I do pressing exercises for my legs. I was very quad dominant. But I'm weak as piss when I do them properly now! Hope I can build up some glute strength and get the numbers up to where they were.

This thread was well worth it if only for that post. It's a worry how complacent you can get.

[Strudel]

Don't forget to compliment hip thrusts with hill sprints. Boosts your endurance and is a great way to measure your real world performance, rather than simply counting weights.

[Plastique]

Don't forget to compliment hip thrusts with hill sprints. Boosts your endurance and is a great way to measure your real world performance, rather than simply counting weights.

Depends what you're measuring. Lifting weights seems to me to be a good, real-world measure of weight lifting ability/specific applications of strength. Why do you think sprinting is a more real world test?

[Strudel]

Zombies........obviously.

[Plastique]

Zombies........obviously.

There's a weightlifting exercise for that, it's called the deadlift.

[Karyn]

lol.

[Strudel]