I’ve been working out a real long time. Workout plans are workout plans. There’s an endless supply of ones you can have in the rotation, but routines and schedules change. Life throws knuckleballs, curves, and everything else. As I said in an Instagram post, “The truth is: the real world doesn’t care about your workout routine.” Workouts get forced short or at-home stuff becomes the only option. Aches and pains happen too—that’s another wrench in things.
There will never ever be a perfect routine, you could get pretty close if you dedicate most of your time to it, but that’s most likely not possible, or very enjoyable in the long-term. Plans switch, exercises get cut or forgotten about and new ones come into play for whatever reason. These are the 10 moves that played a bigger role last year and will most likely be carried into 2019, until something temporarily takes their places. Maybe you’ll be able to put these to good use yourself.
1. The scorpion makes me feel safer in the water
All exercise and exercises make me feel safe, but there’s something special about the scorpion. My sport can throw my body into awkward positions. Being able to control and stretch the scorpion out boosts my confidence that I can handle falls that put me in a similar position. It’s good to be prepared for any possible beatings. You can relate to that, right? Maybe it makes sense for what you do. For more of these types of moves, check out my piece on the exercises to help the body handle an ocean’s thrashings.
2. The Cossack squat-lateral lunge became a blended move for happy hips
You can’t just drop into these right out the gate. I like to go super wide with my toes pointed out and sink into partial lateral lunges and work my way into deeper ranges. My hips feel so loose afterwards and if I have any low back tension that day it feels much better. For more exercises for healthier hips, check out our workout prescriptions for total-body pain-relief.
3. Overhead squats+shoulder rotations open just about everything up nicely.
Like the Cossack squat-lateral lunge, it’s another one you can’t usually just drop right into it. I’ll start this off with moving the PVC in several different directions overhead, side to side, up, down and around. Squats are usually partial at first, then become deeper and deeper as more muscles wake up.
4. The single-leg deadlift helped save me from knee pain
One of my knees gets irritable (I also say cranky). I focused a whole lot more on the some areas that tend to get neglected. My glutes and hamstrings were top on the list. Doing this exercise on a single-leg added the additional element of improving balance and stability. I’ll do these during regular workout days, on days off, at-home or at the gym. I’ll use light weight, heavy weight, and everything in between, and try different variations. Interested in how I self-helped my knee, check out this post.
5. The “beast hold” and a variation of flows also became regulars for at-home or recovery days
You can do a billion different types of planks. This “beast” version is one I like when I’d flow some exercises together. It was common during the summer months on recovery days, light days, or evenings before going to sleep. Speaking of sleep, that’s another important one, check out these 10 tips for getting better shut eye.
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6. Plank DB rows and plank cable rows leave me feeling solid afterwards
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These are harder than they look because they require a load of stability and body control. Holding a regular plank can be a challenge, but adding in the row is awkwardly-tough. These have worked as a warm up or as a finisher and can be found in this story about 20 ways to give your core a great workout.
7. Bird dog rows feel like a great way to start a big lifting day
The bird dog row is similar to the plank row, but by tossing one leg in the air at a time really bumps up the difficulty levels. What I love so much about this exercise is that I feel more comfortable going into heavy squats or deadlifts. I feel like everything is primed up and I move through all other exercises a bit more smoothly or fluidly. While this is more of a warm up move at lighter weight and higher reps, I have used lower reps and significantly heavier weight too.
8. Single-arm chest press helps me feel more muscles being used than traditional presses
If there was an exercise like the bird dog row, but specifically for my upper body like my chest and shoulders, I’d say the single-arm chest press, or even the single-arm shoulder press is right there on the list. I use it very much the same way as the bird dog row, but more for those upper body focused days.
9. Any exercise with the landmine helps me throw around some extra weight and feeling safer about it
If I go too heavy with a chest press, shoulder press, and sometimes even a row, I’ll feel some joint kinks as if I didn’t warm-up well enough or I moved the weight on a funky angle. If I’ve got the itch to go a little heavier, in a week or so before loading up the dumbbells or barbell, I’ll use the landmine for some presses and rows. I like the angle for the presses and the rows seem to really activate things a bit differently than barbell, dumbbell, or cable rows.
10. Any variations of the front squat, deadlift, chest and/or shoulder press are a “reset” of sorts
There have been plenty of times that my schedule pulled me away from the gym, just like my point from the very start of this piece. I was traveling for a few days and have’t had a chance to get a real solid workout in, or had to miss a couple days from my plan, I’ll go with some type of full body workout including the main lifts like the squat, deadlift, and presses, but with variation.
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