Underrated exercises

RealWorldStrengthLLC

The title says it all...what form of exercise/lift/whatever do you think doesn't get enough love, and why?

Mine would be farmers walks. They are the KING of functionality in my book. What is more useful for life than picking up weight and walking with it? They hit literally every muscle in the body, and build monster traps and forearms.

Curious to see what comes up here.

SnifterPug

I also love farmers walks. I wander round the gym clutching a kettlebell or two. If I get funny looks I tell people I am doing shopping practice.

My current favourites that I don't see getting done much are face pulls and inverted rows. I'm working towards an unassisted pull up, hence my interest in these. I'm also working towards proper push ups, and another thing I don't see getting done is incline push ups. Most people do it from the knees, which I find does not really help with the proper body position and tension throughout.

lrsirius

Wholeheartedly agree with farmers walk/carry. Feels like it works everything and terrific for improving posture (at least for this ex-slumping computer nerd).

cbstewart88

Jumping rope. Ugh. I hate it. But I can't help but admit it's a simple yet pretty damned good workout..

slbbw

My trainer is getting me on the turkish getup bandwagon.

shbarbor

Thank you for this post. I didn't know farmers walk, face pulls, or inverted row but now that I've googled them would like to add them to my routine!

RealWorldStrengthLLC

cbstewart88 wrote: »

Jumping rope. Ugh. I hate it. But I can't help but admit it's a simple yet pretty damned good workout..

When I REALLY want to up the ante, I'll throw in 30 seconds of jump rope in between every lifting set. Haven't done this in years though, I'm all strength based on lifts now so I'm working at 80% + RPE on everything except warm ups, I take like 3 minutes between sets now.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Dancing.

cayenne_007

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

The title says it all...what form of exercise/lift/whatever do you think doesn't get enough love, and why?

Mine would be farmers walks. They are the KING of functionality in my book. What is more useful for life than picking up weight and walking with it? They hit literally every muscle in the body, and build monster traps and forearms.

Curious to see what comes up here.

Hahaha!!! I had no idea there was a name for this and it was a thing!

Azdak

I'll throw in pallof presses. Not only are they underrated, most people do them wrong (too fast). Another would be various types of dead bugs.

aokoye

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

Dancing.

Owning my like. I don't personally actually like dancing, in part because I can get very self conscious, but totally agree with you. I'll add ballet to that as well, which obviously is dancing. I think people have a tendency to seriously underestimate how much work ballet is.

corinasue1143

Hula dancing works your thighs like crazy.

aokoye

Rowing outside, rowing on a rowing machine with correct technique, lap swimming, race walking.

For better or worse, most of these things require a fair amount of resources and/or instruction to do with any proficiency. The only one I've never done is race walking, but I did briefly look into it. I don't swim much for a lot of reasons, but I do enjoy it.

middlehaitch

I’m going to add belly dancing to the dancing.

It really got me in touch with my abs, obliques, and pelvic floor, improving all other exercises, balance,and posture.
Also provided good giggles as I’m hopeless.

Aquafit, totally underrated.

Farmers walks, I couldn’t travel as well as I do without them
(Or lay a patio come to think of it)

Cheers, h.

janineisaacs

Single leg squat, cause u have to be able to balance first of all and then all of your muscles like glutes, quads, abs even back muscles are isolated and working harder to stabilize u.

Cherimoose

Sprinting, top speed, for 1 block. Fundamental survival skill, yet almost no one trains it regularly.

Standing cable punch (or resistance band punch) - Should be as popular as the bench press for functional pushing strength. Incredible ab exercise too, and one of the best for transverse plane stability, which most strength programs neglect.

Frontal plane stability is also commonly neglected, and for that, suitcase walking lunges are awesome. Hits the entire kinetic chain from ankle to upper spine, as well as balance in motion, which is rarely trained.

Ok, time for a sprint...

Kuchiness

Step aerobics, it's retro but a real sweat breaker and total fun, I recently tried and I'm hooked!

AnnPT77

Hula hoop, martial arts, ab wheel (may need some pre-exercises to work up to doing it with good form), stretching generally (not a warm up, but for itself), pull-up/chin-up negatives for those who can't do the whole deal yet.

But what do I know? (I'm not eddicated. )

I've done all of the ones I've mentioned, but don't do all of them (consistently) now. I'd be fitter if I did.

Machka9

Climbing up and down stairs ... real stairs.

CipherZero

Overhead triceps extensions. They're just a lot of fun and can help drive your overhead press and bench press numbers up.

lauragreenbaum

I had never heard of farmer's walks, but I like it! Swimming is awesome- uses all muscles with no hard impact to the body

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I’m a fan of step aerobics too.
Front squats and hack squats are cool too

ElizabethKalmbach

Sitting on the floor and getting up from the floor with dogs, children, and smol animals a thousand times a day.

... Weirdly, they've done studies...

PennyP312

Farmers carries for sure. Love those

Also landmine squats

Annie_01

I have an aerobic stepper that I need to start using. I found this site that teaches all the moves that I am going to do before I start any of the "fast" routines.

http://www.turnstep.com/moves.html

acpgee

I love dumbell pullovers from the Arnie and Franco era.

brewster84401

Walking lunges. Start with 6 steps, 5 sec break, then repeat for a minute. Do 3 sets. As you get stronger, extend one minute to 90 sec, 2 min, etc up to 4 min. You can also increase the weight over time as well. This is fantastic for endurance athletes looking to extend their efforts at threshold on a bike, run, etc.

girlwithcurls2

Water aerobics for sure. So many people hear that I love it and comment on how the classes are full of "old people." Yeah, because they're smart. It's a great workout and low/non impact. Where my classes are offered, the evening classes are killer because the average age is lower, the fitness levels are higher and the instructors are told to work to the level of the clientele. I get my high interval work done in these classes and I love it. Upped my distance running and swimming endurance. And what's not to love about floating during recovery time?

Pipsqueak1965

I love the ab wheel roll outs! But there is hardly ever one at the gym - I must buy one for home. They make you hurt so much! And land mine press and face pulls.

lporter229

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

The title says it all...what form of exercise/lift/whatever do you think doesn't get enough love, and why?

Mine would be farmers walks. They are the KING of functionality in my book. What is more useful for life than picking up weight and walking with it? They hit literally every muscle in the body, and build monster traps and forearms.

Curious to see what comes up here.

I had never heard of a farmers walk (until I just Googled it), but I do know that when I waited tables in college and I spent hours walking around carrying heavy trays, I had some serious guns!

Currently I am in my late 40s and I have to lean towards functional exercises as my answer to this. I am a runner and, while I have strong legs, I totally lack power in my legs and have very poor agility. Short box jumps and taller step ups have been very helpful for me. When I play fetch with my dog in the yard, I step up and down on the fire pit while I wait for her to retrieve the ball. It's a workout for both of us!

girlwithcurls2

Push ups. I LOVE push ups