Unusual Upper Body Exercises

All competitive bodybuilders cycle their workouts, this means changing your movements you're doing, the sets and reps or muscle groups trained on any specific day. Keeping your routine of training four times or three times a week is the priority, once you get to the gym, the movements that you do and cycle for 6 to 8 weeks before changing will increase your strength and fitness.

If you feel like a break from doing a movement like shrugs you could swap it for 6 to 8 weeks for a movement like machine shoulder shrugs done on a calf machine. That is just one of many examples which will be listed with a brief explanation below:

Extended-range one-arm D/B floor press: 3 X 10-12 reps:

This movement should be done after you have completed your bilateral movements first. The following movement should be done either before or after you have completed your single-joint chest movements. Do not let your elbow touch the floor and arc your upper arm wide and sideways to recruit more pec muscles.

Incline cable push-downs 3 X 10-12 reps:

Should only be done after your back workout, the movement is designed to isolate the lower back and lower lats. The bottom portion of the movement engages more muscle fibers. You need to make sure when doing this movement that the bar goes down to touch your thighs in front of you.

Cuban Press 3 X 10-15 reps:

The Cuban Press is awkward the first time because it's like doing a D/B bench-press standing up. It isolates the rotator cuff and the deltoids just like any D/B press but now you're standing up in a scarecrow position getting your arms parallel with the floor with hands hanging down. The movement starts with an external rotation and goes straight into a shoulder press.

The Cuban Press can be used as a great warm-up before doing heavy seated press movements. If you use this movement at the end of your shoulder workout, then you should go heavy and reach failure on the last rep. It's important to hold your breath so that your torso gets stabilized by breathing out when you get to the top of the movement and then breathing out as your hands lower.

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