Current Top 5 Favorite Exercises

We're halfway through the week! Hold strong people! You can make it! (With the help of LOTS of coffee and ridiculous reality TV to keep you from going insane.)

In honor to maintain the optimism, I'm going to highlight my recent top 5 favorite exercises. :)

I feel like I talk a lot about strength training and training in general on here, and well, that's my goal, so you'll be seeing it a lot. :) Just thought I'd warn you!

Anyways, let's get to it! In no particular order...

1. Hack squat

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My legs are my worst enemy in my journey to building muscle. They take a little more coaxing. But I don't hate them. I mean, they get me from place to place so I gotta love them! I recently just started doing hack squats and I really like them. Due to the angle, you are able to put on a lot more weight so some people dub it 'easier.' But, I've never done them before so it was really fun and experimental to do a variation of a squat that wasn't the typical barbell back squat. I was really able to go deep with these and I am still feeling it in my booty. Baby got back!

2. Box jump

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Ahh, I love my box jumps. I have found that adding explosive plyometrics like these into my fitness regime has really helped add some size to my legs. Plyos work those fast twitch muscle fibers! These in particular get my heart rate spiked and are really exciting. I am on the second to last tallest box and I can rock out at least 30 on them. The tallest one is so intimidating and the other day I almost just sucked down my fear and did it. But, alas, the fear of falling in my face was ever so present and there were a lot of people at the gym... SO, needless to say, I still have some work to do. But I'm going to attempt it this weekend!

3. Hang Cleans

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I talked about clean & presses here not too long ago. This is essentially the same idea, just no press. This is an Olympic lift so it is crucial not to get too ambitious on your first try. I have been doing these with a very light weight and I love what they have been doing for my shoulders. I also love the adrenaline rush I get from them! They are so fun. I always make sure to have someone watch me as I am doing these because these can be quite dangerous and I do not want to injure myself.

4. TRX Back Rows

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I remember the first time my trainer brought in her TRX suspension system. I thought "Psh, this thing is for pansies." Then she told me to do 20 of these. I could only muster 12. That was some time ago. Now I can get up to 20, and I really feel the burn. Don't knock the TRX until you try it; it's a different foundation for building muscle and it's super fun! Using your own body weight for suspension is much harder than it sounds.

5. Bradford Press

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I heard of these through Liz (from whom I got the name modified shoulder press) and Sable. These are a fantastic exercise to really wear out the shoulders. You basically lift the barbell overhead and then behind your head, and then lift it back to starting position. This puts constant tension on the shoulders so it never really gets a 'break.' It's excellent for fatiguing the shoulders. You should go pretty light on these though because you will fatigue fast!

Well, there are my top 5 favorite exercises at the moment. My taste buds are always so I am sure you will all be seeing another one of these in the future. :)

Have a whimsical Wednesday!

Questions: What are some of your current favorite exercises? Any from this list that you like as well? Dislike? 

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