Neglected Weight Training Exercises

It’s so easy to slip into a standard gym routine that you feel comfortable with. You might be doing consistent work on your arms and getting the results, but what about the rest of your body? Doing the same exercises every day can cause injury and limit your potential when it comes to building muscle and size. A successful bodybuilder doesn’t just have huge arms or a solid 6 pack; they have excellent all round definition because they do a mix of the right workouts.

So when you’re planning your training for the next few weeks, don’t neglect some of these routines.  Here are some common exercises that people often neglect, and shouldn’t, so try some of them out on your next training session.

 'Weights Lined up' by jontunn

1.  Rhomboids

Your rhomboids are the superficial muscles positioned around the shoulder blades. To target these muscles effectively and avoid injury, make sure that when you do rowing exercises you pinch your shoulder blades together and pause on contraction. This will engage the rhomboids and help you to build a tight middle back that you’ll want to show off.

2. Lower back

The lower back and pelvic floor muscles are vital for creating a strong posture and are important for injury prevention. Correct posture is key for competition and for life in general. Try doing barbell dead lifts, hyper extensions (back extensions) and for pelvic floor do a glute bridge (hip raise).

3. Obliques

Most people will do a side plank or sit up with a twist but these isolated exercises won’t hit the deeper internal obliques. Useful exercises to improve your oblique strength are Russian twists and wood chops (high to low, low to high) which will really make a difference to the definition on your stomach.

4.  Grip

Your grip is important for many sports, and in everyday life. For sports such as bodybuilding and weightlifting, it’s essential. It can help you to get to the top of the sport and achieve that all important lift so don’t miss grip training out. Make sure you work your finger extensors using an elastic band wrapped around your fingers to prevent an imbalance.

5.   Calves

People often don’t think about working specifically on their calf muscles, but they can really improve the shape and definition in your legs. Try doing weighted calf raises to help build up strength in your calves.

Now you know the exercises you’re missing out on, add them to your weekly training plan to inject some variety into your weight training sessions.