We offer you 10 exercises that will help you overcome your imbalances!

Most people take the same path in the gym, a path that leads to the same problems. Most of their training emphasizes the same muscles and movement patterns. The result? Imbalance, excessive wear and tear, and injury.

The result of their efforts goes against common sense. Trying to build mirror parts leads them to end up looking worse.

The solution? Practice exercises that don't build mirror muscles. Practice exercises that won't make you look better, but will make you more aesthetically pleasing, healthier, and able to train without injury.

Here are ten exercises that don't directly build aesthetics, but every proper aesthete should use them to train and feel better for the long term.

1. Pull-ups to the face with chest support

They build strong, healthy shoulders and a stronger bench press. This variation prevents other muscle parts from helping.

This exercise has different variations and uses. However, none of them is bad. The good thing is that it allows you to exercise the external rotators of the shoulders without having to engage in light rehabilitation exercises.

Weak rotators and an imbalance between the internal and external rotators can limit your compressive strength. Your body won't want to get stronger if it comes at the cost of compromising joint stability. It is impossible to strengthen mirror muscles without training muscles that are not visible.

Depending on the variation and angle of the deadlift, you will use these pull-ups to train your back shoulders, rhomboids, and various parts of your traps. With them, of course, neglected rotators.

2. Body saw

Builds resistance of the middle of the body to extension and is an alternative to rolling, of which you are certainly fed up.

It is an effective exercise for the middle of the body, and it is high muscle involvement, especially for the rectus and oblique abdominals. You can use slippery mats (like in the video) or hangers for this one. A weighted vest will make the exercise more difficult.

3. Winding with rubber

Builds strong forearms and eliminates weak links in some exercises.

Tiny forearms don't just look sad, they can also limit you from building the arms of your dreams. If your forearms fall off first in biceps and triceps exercises, you'll never stimulate your arms to the max.

Sure, it's important to train your forearms at all, but some exercises are better than others. The curl is an old favorite of mine. Some gyms even have a special attachment for it.

But instead, you can attach a rubber band to a large axle and hang weights on it. You'll have incredibly pumped forearms after winding.

Stronger forearms will help with pulling exercises, push-ups, triceps extensions and biceps raises. They will also be positive for deadlifts where you won't be held back by grip strength.

Not to mention that your grip strength is a strong indicator for future mobility and mortality.

4. Steps out of the box

Build your athletic ability in all directions.

The mirror parts force you to work out in the gym, especially in a front-to-back direction. Yes, that's where most of your efforts should be directed, but not at the cost of damaging the overall picture.

You need to be injury resistant in all directions. These contortions will allow you to load a decent amount of weight and practice a fairly simple lateral movement.

Lunges to the side and cossack squats are also good. You'll be like Derek Zoolander after these. You'll be able to turn to the right, left, and several other directions.

5. Sissy squats

They build bigger quadriceps and make your knees more resistant to injury.

This is one of the most overlooked volume exercises. Squats and leg presses are great for three of the four heads of your quadriceps, but they don't exercise the rectus femoris at all. In this regard, overhead pressing is also better.

Sissy squats exercise this muscle in a stretched state, making them a useful addition to your workout, both in terms of quadriceps size and knee health. If you're a sadist, try a crashing set like in the video. Lightly hold onto an axle or some sort of bar.

And no, moving the knees forward is not automatically bad. If it was, you couldn't even walk up stairs or ride a bike.

Your knees should be healthy enough to handle the movement through your toes, and sturdy enough to take that extra bit of torque. I'm not saying to get into them right away, but it should be your goal to get through a few reps without pain.

Start with support and partial range of motion. Always work with a pain-free range of motion and only extend it if you feel good.

6. Kickback with chest support

Builds triceps and elbows are excited about it.

This exercise doesn't get much love, but it's great for the elbows and triceps growth.

Most tough guys avoid it because it doesn't look manly enough. With decent technique, you'll be practicing with pretty small one-armed arms.

Most people at the gym will tell you that the long head of the triceps is best exercised with overhead extensions (skull crusher, French presses or pulldown pulleys...). These exercises will exercise your triceps in the extended position, but the kickback is even better.

It works because the angle of the shoulders maximally shortens the long head of the triceps at the moment of maximum load of the single arm. Because of this, the kickback, especially with chest support, is one of the best exercises for triceps activation.

Most people with elbow problems know that they can do this exercise without pain.

7. Glute bridge

Develops glute strength, deadlift and a nicer posterior.

Most people know the benefits of this exercise, but few practice it. Yet it's great for stronger glutes, back and bedroom performance.

First of all, having a flat butt will make you look ridiculous naked. The bridge solves this problem.

Second, this exercise has great transferability to sports where you need to produce power horizontally, such as sprinting. It will also make you stronger in the deadlift.

Third, your glutes are part of the center of your body and affect the position of your pelvis and spine. Weak glutes increase the chance of back pain and a host of other problems with your hips, knees and ankles.

8. Deadlift on one leg with landmine attachment

Builds better muscle balance and stronger hips.

The hamstrings are a secondary muscle for many. Most people focus on the quadriceps first. Few will practice deadlifts with legs extended before squats, let alone an exercise on one leg before an exercise on both.

This exercise trains each leg separately and properly. It is everything your bodybuilding workout is missing, in one exercise. Improve your performance in it, and your back and hips will thank you. You'll move better and your hamstrings will grow tremendously.

Landmine attachment exercises are good for intermediate and advanced athletes who aren't great on one leg. The axle will give you support so you won't have a balance problem and you'll be able to load more.

It gets even harder when you stop at the bottom of each rep. Substitute this for one of your traditional hamstring exercises, and you won't be disappointed.

9. Chest presses on the pulley

Develops scapular mobility and shoulder health.

Most push exercises involve stationary shoulder blades, pushed into the bench. Sometimes that's fine, but mostly you want the shoulder blades to be free to move the way nature intended them to.

Right now, scapular fixation in benching is a hot topic. I think there is a bit of truth on both sides of this debate and it depends on who you are and why you bench.

During lighter, volume exercises you should try to allow your shoulder blades freedom of movement. One of the easiest ways to do this is with this exercise, as there is no bench to hold your shoulders in place.

By moving your shoulder blades, you'll feel a stronger contraction of your pectoral muscles and the essential shoulder stabilizers will be activated.

I'm not saying you'll build bigger pecs this way than with traditional exercises, but a few sets from time to time will help their development and shoulder health.

10. Skater squats with a pause

They build strength on one leg and the quadriceps.

Squats on one leg automatically attract individuals with great mobility, ideal limb length and correct hip structure, especially the pistol variation because it's a good party trick.

Those who are not so genetically gifted try them once, fail, and then rant everywhere about how bad an exercise it is. Single leg squats and lunges aren't far apart, but the latter exercise definitely doesn't have as many detractors.

Single leg strength is important. Anyone can improve directly in the single leg squat (pistol), but if you have poor leverage ratios, this exercise will always be a problem for you. Therefore, skater squats are a better option for many people.

It's a good idea to incorporate them into your warm-up. Once you get better at them, try the unthinkable and replace them with classic squats in your training for a few weeks. You'll be surprised how it will relieve your back while your quadriceps continue to grow.

Long-term goals

Any good program will make you look good shirtless. By choosing a few basic exercises with progressive overload, good technique and a decent load, you'll get stronger and put on muscle. But they'll be temporary gains if you're not careful.

Concentrating on the same muscles and exercises over time will create imbalances and excessive wear and tear. This will lead to less time spent in the gym, and ultimately weaker results.

So practice the exercises you've always neglected. They'll make you look better naked, too, and more importantly, they'll make your physique last longer.

Source: www.t-nation.com - The 10 Exercises Vanity Lifters Need
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