What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
You're probably shaking your head.
If they're the best workout techniques, then why am I hesitant to recommend them to you?
Because I think it all starts with context.
I'm fortunate enough to work with a lot of high performing athletes that tend to make
every damn thing they do look good, and everything they do look so fluid.
However, sometimes what I recommend – sometimes the advice here, on this channel, I have to
take into consideration that there are a lot of people that are going to take this advice
and then maybe go out in the gym and use it.
So let me start by showing you an example of all this.
The first thing is, we do something on a squat.
I love to do this.
Again, when I have a high performing athlete, and when I have access to a nice, private
gym like we do right here at ATHLEANX, this is called a stuck set.
So what we do is, we allow the athlete to train with the squat until failure.
When the bar gets to rest on the pins here, if they trained to true failure they don't
have enough strength to concentrically lift that bar back up into the rack.
But that doesn't mean that we stop the set.
What we do is, we initiate an isometric contraction by pushing as hard as we can into the bar.
It essentially becomes and overcoming isometric – I made a whole video about the benefits
of these before – and we're allowing it to take us beyond failure.
You can see that the legs start to quiver.
They are guaranteed to quiver.
And again, maybe if Jesse did this in the gym he'd be self-conscious thinking that people
thought he just didn't have the strength to lift the bar in the first place.
Whereas, if Antonio Brown did this thing it's going to look pretty damn cool because he
is pushing himself beyond failure.
We can move on though because the other four exercises here that make me hesitant to recommend,
even though I love the benefits of them, are those that make you one of 'those guys' in
the gym that people don’t necessarily like so much.
Like, the run-the-rack technique.
Now you guys know I love run-the-rack, but if you're going to do run-the-rack, and two
other guys watch this video and they do it, you're either going to have a showdown at
the rack, or you're going to have to figure out some way to tangibly hand the dumbbells
off to each other to make it like a relay.
Once you start doing a 'run-the-rack' technique you do became a little bit of a nuisance to
other people that are training with any of the dumbbells within your reach.
Even if I anticipate that somebody is doing a 'run-the-rack' technique, and they're on
the 40s, or 35s I might not go and grab the 25s knowing that they might be there, or need
them before I am done with them.
So it becomes a little bit of a problem, but it no less underscores how much I actually
like this technique for, again, pushing through failure.
We can go over here now and take this squat rack.
God forbid we do anything but squat in the squat rack, but the inverted row is one of
my favorite exercises.
Why?
It's a bodyweight exercise that we don’t have to do just as an inverted row, like you
see here.
We can do more complicated, explosive things like a plyometric row, or we can take a one-armed
row here that works unilaterally to strengthen our upper back, and to strengthen our core,
to stabilize our body while we do it.
The fact is, there is no better place to do the exercise than the squat rack.
It's a great exercise that can be done very easily at home if you just rest any sturdy
bar over the back of two pieces of furniture, or over the tops of two chairs.
Along those same lines, you know I like explosive exercises, you know I like exercises that
make you more athletic.
Taps is the exact example of that.
But look what I've got here.
I did it again.
I took two benches and I'm using them without even laying on top of them.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to stand on top of these damn things, and that is, again,
something that might turn some heads at the gym.
But if you were an explosive athlete people would probably look at you and put you on
Instagram for that.
So what you want to do is do this, if you have the opportunity to do it.
Try it because it's a great upper body, and lower body explosive exercise combo.
You simply do a plyometric pushup with enough force that you can generate lift to tap the
top of the benches, and then you hop yourself in, almost burpee style, jump up, quick tap
of the feet on the benches, come right back down, and repeat.
By the time you're done with, even, 10, or 12 of these you're going to feel like you
got hit by a Mack truck.
That again underscores the importance of sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone of just
doing plyometric pushups in that wide open area of the gym, and maybe have the gall,
and the confidence to grab two benches at once.
Then finally, we go back to the squat rack.
Here, it's more of a technique than it is an exercise.
Sure, you're entitled to squat in the squat rack, but what I want you to do is try 10
sets of 10.
A German volume training approach.
There's nothing that I think one of the best ways to train your legs, is to do 10 sets
of 10.
Sounds pretty easy.
The first set feels pretty easy.
The second set feels pretty easy, but by the time you get down to that 5th, and 6th, and
7th set you feel like you want to puke.
The key here is, you can't even really go very far away.
You're going to occupy this rack for at least 15 to 18, or 19 minutes.
Again, if your gym confidence level is up then who cares what they think?
They can't work it with you, unfortunately.
They're going to have to find another rack.
Usually there are plenty of them in the gym, but the benefits of 10 sets of 10 cannot be
diminished here.
If you want to do this, guys, stick to that one minute interval.
Every time that clock hits a minute you'd better be back underneath the bar and ready
to do your next rep.
So there you have it, guys.
There's my five favorite training techniques that are seldom recommended, but now at least
you know why.
Look, I'm not advocating that you go out there and become 'that guy' in the gym by stringing
together all these things, basically taking up residence in the gym, or at least at the
squat rack because you will quickly become the guy that everybody dislikes at the gym.
What I am trying to advocate is, in context there's nothing wrong with gym confidence.
Learning and expanding your ability to train in a gym without having to look around, and
over your shoulder.
Nobody knows this more than I do.
When I first started training, guys, I trained at college and all the guys were bigger than
me.
I always remember "I don’t want them to see me struggling with a weight that they
think I shouldn't be struggling with, or I don’t want them to watch me do something
wrong, and then feel self-conscious about that".
So often times, I wouldn't even train in the gym.
I want you guys to start exploring more opportunities.
These are effective techniques.
If you are going to do them, figure out a way that you can be as courteous as possible
while doing them.
In the meantime guys, if you're looking for a training program that puts the science back
in strength, and gives you all my best techniques; you can head over to ATHLEANX.com right now
and get our ATHLEANX training program.
If you've found this video helpful make sure you leave your comments and thumbs up below.
In the meantime, I'll be back here again in just a couple of days with another new video
for you.
See you.