The 5 Best Workout Techniques I RARELY Recommend!

There are definitely some workout techniques that, while effective, are not universally recommended for various reasons. In this video, I show you my 5 best workout tips and tactics that you can apply for more muscle gain if you have the workout confidence and space in your gym to get them done. I

What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX. com. You’re probably shaking your head. If they’re the best workout techniques, then why am I hesitant to recommend them to you?

Because I think it all starts with context. I’m fortunate enough to work with a lot of high performing athletes that tend to make every damn thing they do look good, and everything they do look so fluid. However, sometimes what I recommend – sometimes the advice here, on this channel, I have to take into consideration that there are a lot of people that are going to take this advice and then maybe go out in the gym and use it. So let me start by showing you an example of all this. The first thing is, we do something on a squat.

I love to do this. Again, when I have a high performing athlete, and when I have access to a nice, private gym like we do right here at ATHLEANX, this is called a stuck set. So what we do is, we allow the athlete to train with the squat until failure. When the bar gets to rest on the pins here, if they trained to true failure they don’t have enough strength to concentrically lift that bar back up into the rack. But that doesn’t mean that we stop the set.

What we do is, we initiate an isometric contraction by pushing as hard as we can into the bar. It essentially becomes and overcoming isometric – I made a whole video about the benefits of these before – and we’re allowing it to take us beyond failure. You can see that the legs start to quiver. They are guaranteed to quiver. And again, maybe if Jesse did this in the gym he’d be self-conscious thinking that people thought he just didn’t have the strength to lift the bar in the first place.

Whereas, if Antonio Brown did this thing it’s going to look pretty damn cool because he is pushing himself beyond failure. We can move on though because the other four exercises here that make me hesitant to recommend, even though I love the benefits of them, are those that make you one of ‘those guys’ in the gym that people don’t necessarily like so much. Like, the run-the-rack technique. Now you guys know I love run-the-rack, but if you’re going to do run-the-rack, and two other guys watch this video and they do it, you’re either going to have a showdown at the rack, or you’re going to have to figure out some way to tangibly hand the dumbbells off to each other to make it like a relay. Once you start doing a ‘run-the-rack’ technique you do became a little bit of a nuisance to other people that are training with any of the dumbbells within your reach.

Even if I anticipate that somebody is doing a ‘run-the-rack’ technique, and they’re on the 40s, or 35s I might not go and grab the 25s knowing that they might be there, or need them before I am done with them. So it becomes a little bit of a problem, but it no less underscores how much I actually like this technique for, again, pushing through failure. We can go over here now and take this squat rack. God forbid we do anything but squat in the squat rack, but the inverted row is one of my favorite exercises. Why?

It’s a bodyweight exercise that we don’t have to do just as an inverted row, like you see here. We can do more complicated, explosive things like a plyometric row, or we can take a one-armed row here that works unilaterally to strengthen our upper back, and to strengthen our core, to stabilize our body while we do it. The fact is, there is no better place to do the exercise than the squat rack. It’s a great exercise that can be done very easily at home if you just rest any sturdy bar over the back of two pieces of furniture, or over the tops of two chairs. Along those same lines, you know I like explosive exercises, you know I like exercises that make you more athletic.

Taps is the exact example of that. But look what I’ve got here. I did it again. I took two benches and I’m using them without even laying on top of them. As a matter of fact, I’m going to stand on top of these damn things, and that is, again, something that might turn some heads at the gym.

But if you were an explosive athlete people would probably look at you and put you on Instagram for that. So what you want to do is do this, if you have the opportunity to do it. Try it because it’s a great upper body, and lower body explosive exercise combo. You simply do a plyometric pushup with enough force that you can generate lift to tap the top of the benches, and then you hop yourself in, almost burpee style, jump up, quick tap of the feet on the benches, come right back down, and repeat. By the time you’re done with, even, 10, or 12 of these you’re going to feel like you got hit by a Mack truck.

That again underscores the importance of sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone of just doing plyometric pushups in that wide open area of the gym, and maybe have the gall, and the confidence to grab two benches at once. Then finally, we go back to the squat rack. Here, it’s more of a technique than it is an exercise. Sure, you’re entitled to squat in the squat rack, but what I want you to do is try 10 sets of 10. A German volume training approach.

There’s nothing that I think one of the best ways to train your legs, is to do 10 sets of 10. Sounds pretty easy. The first set feels pretty easy. The second set feels pretty easy, but by the time you get down to that 5th, and 6th, and 7th set you feel like you want to puke. The key here is, you can’t even really go very far away.

You’re going to occupy this rack for at least 15 to 18, or 19 minutes. Again, if your gym confidence level is up then who cares what they think? They can’t work it with you, unfortunately. They’re going to have to find another rack. Usually there are plenty of them in the gym, but the benefits of 10 sets of 10 cannot be diminished here.

If you want to do this, guys, stick to that one minute interval. Every time that clock hits a minute you’d better be back underneath the bar and ready to do your next rep. So there you have it, guys. There’s my five favorite training techniques that are seldom recommended, but now at least you know why. Look, I’m not advocating that you go out there and become ‘that guy’ in the gym by stringing together all these things, basically taking up residence in the gym, or at least at the squat rack because you will quickly become the guy that everybody dislikes at the gym.

What I am trying to advocate is, in context there’s nothing wrong with gym confidence. Learning and expanding your ability to train in a gym without having to look around, and over your shoulder. Nobody knows this more than I do. When I first started training, guys, I trained at college and all the guys were bigger than me. I always remember “I don’t want them to see me struggling with a weight that they think I shouldn’t be struggling with, or I don’t want them to watch me do something wrong, and then feel self-conscious about that”.

So often times, I wouldn’t even train in the gym. I want you guys to start exploring more opportunities. These are effective techniques. If you are going to do them, figure out a way that you can be as courteous as possible while doing them. In the meantime guys, if you’re looking for a training program that puts the science back in strength, and gives you all my best techniques; you can head over to ATHLEANX.

com right now and get our ATHLEANX training program. If you’ve found this video helpful make sure you leave your comments and thumbs up below. In the meantime, I’ll be back here again in just a couple of days with another new video for you. See you.