The 7 best exercises you've never heard of think you've seen it all? Revamp your training with these challenging moves

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, Jan-Feb, 2005 by Brenda Hartley

TRAINING TIP

"Allow for a maximal bend and full extension of the elbows for best results." Boubion suggests. "Stay on your toes and keep your body rigid. The lower the bar is placed on the squat rack, the more difficult the exercise."

BI-PLANARLUNGE W/OVERHEAD PRESS

CONTRIBUTING TRAINER: Jade Molina, sports performance and fitness manager at Mid-Valley Athletic Club in Reseda, California; sports performance representative on the Certification Governing Counsel for the National Academy of Sports Medicine

TARGETS: Primary muscles--quadriceps, glutes, front delts. Secondary muscles--hamstrings, calves, core stabilizers, biceps.

BENEFITS: "This move is great for blasting your lower extremities while simultaneously placing a huge demand on core stabilization and overall muscular endurance," notes Molina.

STARTING POSITION: Stand erect holding a pair of dumbbells at your sides (not shown).

EXECUTION: Lunge forward with your right leg, then curl the dumbbells to your shoulders. From there, flip your wrists and press the weights overhead. While still in the lunge position, lower the dumbbells down to your sides (reversing the press and curl along the same path). Push through your right leg to return to the start. Then perform a lateral (side) lunge with your right leg and reach over to touch the dumbbells to the floor. Return to the start position. Alternate legs, doing 2-4 sets of 6-10 reps per leg using a moderate, controlled tempo.

TRAINING TIP

"Use no more than 10%-12% of your bodyweight as far as load (dumbbells)." Molina recommends. "During the forward lunge, make sure the lead leg has a 90-degree angle at both the hip and knee joints and that your back knee doesn't touch the floor.

HIGH-CABLEROW/BENT-OVER ROW COMBO

CONTRIBUTING TRAINER: Betty Sanchez, NSCA-CPT, AAHFRP medical exercise specialist, ACSM-certified health and fitness instructor, ACE-certified personal trainer, EMT

TARGETS: Primary muscles--rear delts, lats, middle traps, rhomboids. Secondary muscles--infraspinatus, teres major and minor.

BENEFITS: "The rear delts are sometimes hard to target; isolating them usually requires maintaining very strict form and deep concentration, which you can accomplish with the high-cable row," explains Sanchez. "Using lighter weight and going to failure by supersetting a compound move like the bent-over row provides a marvelous burn and brings out beautiful muscularity and definition."

STARTING POSITION: Stand upright with your knees soft, facing the weight stack at a cable station with a rope attached to the high pulley. Grasp the rope with your palms facing in.

EXECUTION: Slowly pull your elbows back and down as far as you can and hold for a count of three. Reverse the motion to release the weight and return to the start. Do 12 reps, going to failure or as close to it as possible (carefully select the appropriate weight to accomplish this). Next, with your dumbbells already chosen and lying nearby, immediately perform a set of bent-over rows to failure. Initiate the pull at your elbows to focus the work on your rear delts. Try to avoid tightly squeezing your shoulder blades as you would in a traditional bent-over row.