Gooooob morning, Hoomans! (Anyone else follow Thoughts of Dog on twitter? No? Just me?)

I have no backstory, I’m jumping right in…

My (current) Top 5 Favorite Gym Exercises:

#1 Single Leg Dumbbell Deadlift

• Stand on one leg and with the same side hand lightly hold a chair or a wall to help balance (if you need to, which I absolutely do).
• Hold a dumbbell in your other hand and on that same side leg you are going to perform a normal deadlift, however…
• …when you tip forward let your other leg swing back and stay aligned with your spine.

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#2 Vertical Inclined Dumbbell Row and Fly Superset

• Stand-Straddle an inclined bench or seat and lean your chest against the backrest.
• With a dumbbell in each hand, perform a vertical row with your palms facing in towards your sides.
  • (It’s kind of like a pulling-up-your-pants motion.)
• Do that for your set and them immediately (after adjusting weights) perform a… Side fly? Arm raise? I don’t know what it’s called, but pretend you’re a bird flapping its wings for the set.
• Then take your rest and repeat the superset starting with the row again.

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#3 Dumbbell Around the World’s

• Stand with a dumbbell in each hand.
• With your palms facing outward and your arms straight for the entire movement, start with the dumbbells touching each other in front of your hips and movement them outward and upward until they touch each other above your head.
• Then bring them back down the same way.
• That’s very confusing.
• Google it. It’s the standing one.

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#4 Hip Abductor Machine

• The one where you push the pads out to the side, not the one where you squeeze.
• This one is pretty self explanatory because it’s a fixed machine, but make sure you pick a weight that is heavy enough; your hips are stronger than you may think they are because it’s a weird movement and feels weird at first.
• Also, make sure you’re adjusting the pads so that your legs are starting as close together as possible for a full range of motion.

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#5 Reverse Crunches with Kettlebell for Stabilization

• Lay Lie on your back with a heavy kettlebell on the floor right above your head.
• Reach your arms back and grab each side of the kettlebell handle with your elbows bent 90 degrees.
• Perform a reverse crunch with straight legs (relatively, I usually have a little bend in my knees) and make sure at the top you use your added stabilization to lift your butt and hips fully off the ground, pulling your abdominal muscles tight.
  • I have found that using the kettlebell keeps me from straining my neck to get that last little bit of extension on reverse crunches. And something about lifting your butt off the ground in this movement is kinda fun.

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Apparently I’m obsessed with kettlebells. I didn’t know this about myself

These are all great exercises to start off with if you’re a noob like me. They are all relatively easy while still being somewhat challenging compound movements. I would highly recommend googling videos of these though, it’s harder to describe exercises than I thought.

Bonus!

I love anything I’ve ever tried on the cable machine but Cable Tricep Pressdowns are my favorite. Let me tell you though, this move is fricken tough. If you’ve never worked out your triceps you’re gonna feel all sorts of muscles burn where you didn’t even know there were muscles.

*** Cable Tricep Pressdowns

• Position the cable machine above your head and use the double rope attachment.
• Grab one rope with each hand and pull the ropes down trying not to move your bicep.
• You’ll start with your arms in an L shape with your biceps at your side and you forearms out in front of you, and you’ll pull until your forearms are straight to your side as well (without locking your elbow up), and end in your starting position.

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That’s it! Hope you enjoyed stick boi. Okay, bye!