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Other/Mixed Exercises you hate, yet keep on doing

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
Steve Freides said:
I've never used any of those things. I've taken a few steps on the stair thing, tried a rowing machine briefly, and have no idea what the third one is, but have never done any training on any of them.

-S-
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Fan bikes are good in that the resistance scales with effort. The absolute best machines, with an honorable mention to prowlers, for when you want an acid bath workout IMO. Something simple like 30 secs max effort, rest 4:30 for five rounds will leave you walking like a baby giraffe for ten minutes after.

I also like rowers, I just haven’t bought one for a home gym yet. They’re kinder machines than fan bikes and more versatile in that you can hit all the aerobic domains comfortably with them.
 
Hrungnir said:
I have always called these wall angels, love them. They make my shoulders feel lubed up.

I’ve had pretty flexible shoulders though, when I was young and dumb I could wait out omoplatas but I’ve lost that super power with age.
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I love them, too.
 
Hrungnir said:
Fan bikes are good in that the resistance scales with effort. The absolute best machines, with an honorable mention to prowlers, for when you want an acid bath workout IMO. Something simple like 30 secs max effort, rest 4:30 for five rounds will leave you walking like a baby giraffe for ten minutes after.

I also like rowers, I just haven’t bought one for a home gym yet. They’re kinder machines than fan bikes and more versatile in that you can hit all the aerobic domains comfortably with them.
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The big downside of rowers is that most people have horrible rowing technique without spending some time learning how to row.

It's pretty common to see people complain that their arms or backs are tired. Partly this is conditioning, but mostly they just don't know how to row using their legs and hips, so they treat it a bit like a row boat (mostly arms and backs).

The big advantage of bikes is that people can just jump on them and go.
 
Steve Freides said:
Kneeling or standing?

Do you find them harder or easier with the barbell? (I've only done them with an ab wheel.)

Why do them at all when there are plenty of other exercises you could do for your abs?

-S-
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When I do ab rollouts standing, I do them on gymnastic rings.

I don't dislike those.

Barbell is more stable than the ab wheel, but it's also a lot heavier. It's lot more strength oriented.

I do them even because I hate them because:

a) I get good results from them
b) It's part of the ab exercise rotation, and I'd prefer to do something I dislike every once in a while in a rotation than the same thing over, getting stale, and slowing progress
 
watchnerd said:
It's part of the ab exercise rotation, and I'd prefer to do something I dislike every once in a while in a rotation than the same thing over, getting stale, and slowing progress
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That's interesting. I find I use my abs enough in everything else I do that my "rotation" is having ab exercises and not having them. If I keep them in my program on any kind of regular basis, I haven't seen any benefit except more overall fatigue from exercise at the end of the day.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
That's interesting. I find I use my abs enough in everything else I do that my "rotation" is having ab exercises and not having them. If I keep them in my program on any kind of regular basis, I haven't seen any benefit except more overall fatigue from exercise at the end of the day.

-S-
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I pretty much follow what Greg Everett talks about here:

www.catalystathletics.com

Abs/Back: What Does it All Mean?

Greg Everett's approach to ab and back work for Olympic weightlifting
www.catalystathletics.com

I find core work to make a big difference in transferring leg drive through the core into jerks.

My jerks are snappier, bar goes higher.
 
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The hardest contraction I've felt in my abs to date was while I was working on mixed-grip pull-ups with accommodating resistance. Something about transferring as much bodyweight as possible to one arm for the eccentric lights up my abs like nothing else.



2nd hardest contraction was during pseudo-planche/leaned forward pushups with AR

 
Grip work in general. It reminds me how weak my hands are, it progresses at a glacial speed and it's annoying how much my grip strength can decline whenever I don't sleep well/am mentally exhausted (which is often). Special mention to the standard gripper closing that requires grabbing the thing the exactly right way with absolutely clean hand or it will slip. Yet I continue doing it because it's tremendously beneficial and as a flip side provides many enjoyable "wins" in daily life.
 
TimothyGander said:
Grip work in general. It reminds me how weak my hands are, it progresses at a glacial speed and it's annoying how much my grip strength can decline whenever I don't sleep well/am mentally exhausted (which is often). Special mention to the standard gripper closing that requires grabbing the thing the exactly right way with absolutely clean hand or it will slip. Yet I continue doing it because it's tremendously beneficial and as a flip side provides many enjoyable "wins" in daily life.
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I stopped doing much volume of Captains of Crush work because it was impacting my barbell pulls.
 
watchnerd said:
I pretty much follow what Greg Everett talks about here:

www.catalystathletics.com

Abs/Back: What Does it All Mean?

Greg Everett's approach to ab and back work for Olympic weightlifting
www.catalystathletics.com

I find core work to make a big difference in transferring leg drive through the core into jerks.

My jerks are snappier, bar goes higher.
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Perhaps different with Oly and powerlifting - I find heavy deadlifts and heavy squats plenty most of the time. But my Oly weights are still very light.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
That's interesting. I find I use my abs enough in everything else I do that my "rotation" is having ab exercises and not having them. If I keep them in my program on any kind of regular basis, I haven't seen any benefit except more overall fatigue from exercise at the end of the day.

-S-
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Unless it's a glaring weakness, a little can go a long way.
 
Oh yeah, this summer when my niece stole my phone, and threatened to steal it again if I didn't carry her and her little brother around - fun moment that quickly got miserable for me because a 6 year old weighs more than a toddler, and it turned into a high volume workout.
 
watchnerd said:
I stopped doing much volume of Captains of Crush work because it was impacting my barbell pulls.
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How would you rate their transferability to anything else? Currently I use some off-brand gripper that is supposedly 150 lb (so a little harder to close than CoC No. 1) and I wonder if there's any point in going heavier once I reach five reps with it (or maybe five reps with both finger pairs). There's an opinion going around that crush grip strength isn't that important or useful as compared to the pinch and support grips (which I also train).
 
TimothyGander said:
How would you rate their transferability to anything else? Currently I use some off-brand gripper that is supposedly 150 lb (so a little harder to close than CoC No. 1) and I wonder if there's any point in going heavier once I reach five reps with it (or maybe five reps with both finger pairs). There's an opinion going around that crush grip strength isn't that important or useful as compared to the pinch and support grips (which I also train).
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I'm not a strong man athlete or a grip strength competitor.

For barbells, especially if you're using a hook grip, my was experience was very little to zero to transference.

All I noticed is that it makes my grip tired.

It might have some carry over to pull ups / chin ups / dead hangs, but it's easier to just to do more of those.
 
TimothyGander said:
How would you rate their transferability to anything else?
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I think most grip people would tell you that grip training is kind of specific. I have found, e.g., that things shaped like a barbell but thicker do have some carryover for me so I will do deadlifts on an axle and pullups on a pair of Rolling Thunders, not grippers.

That said, however, I think there will be carryover once you get into the truly hard grip stuff because it will force you to become more skilled at generating tension.

It also bothered my hands and I need them for my livelihood.

JMO, YMMV.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
I think most grip people would tell you that grip training is kind of specific. I have found, e.g., that things shaped like a barbell but thicker do have some carryover for me so I will do deadlifts on an axle and pullups on a pair of Rolling Thunders, not grippers.
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That's been my experience, too.

And to make it even more confounding, there is a different kind of grip strength used for swinging implements that you hold somewhat loosely so your wrist can move.

(tennis rackets, clubs, maces, axes, machetes, etc)
 
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