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This is essentially a reverse Bulgarian split squat with a 15-second pause before your reps. This is both safer and more difficult than the Bulgarian split squat. By elevating the front foot, you'll lean forward slightly to hammer the legs through an extended range of motion without a break from tension. This increases the hypoxic environment, stimulating more muscle and metabolic damage for growth while building tons of unilateral strength and stability.

As an auxiliary movement, perform 3-5 sets of 6-10 reps per leg, starting with a 15-second pause at full depth. Rest 30 seconds between legs and 60 seconds between sets. - Eric Bach

The best way to start your push-emphasis training days such as bench press day is to prime the stabilizers of the shoulders, rotator cuffs, and upper back. The rotator cuff stabilizes the true shoulder joint as well as positions the gleno-humeral joint for maximal centration so the bigger prime movers can do their jobs more effectively. Since many lifters are spending hours sitting with a forward and rounded posture, the anterior cuff and internal rotators of the shoulder usually aren't in need of priming. As such, we need to go to the backside of the body. The banded pull-apart and cable face-pull (shown here) work well. The key is to train a stable shoulder blade with a dynamic gleno-humeral joint, which is usually one hell of a challenge for lifters, especially those with banged-up wings from years of pressing.

The cable face-pull trains both the static and dynamic stability of the shoulder blade, along with the gleno-humeral joint, which makes it more of a "catch all" movement. Also, it involves more moving parts, which makes it a higher-level skill acquisition movement, and that's exactly what we want when re-learning how to position and stabilize the shoulders. Program the face-pull with higher set and rep schemes of around 10-15 reps with minimal rest periods. This will go a long way to provide the active joints with the motor oil they need to function properly while making sure the prime stabilizers are all active. Stay smooth on the execution. Work the pump and "feel" the muscles working. – Dr. John Rusin

Whether you're looking to improve your overhead squat or you just want to crank out some presses without debilitating shoulder pain, be sure you have adequate mobility first. This is where the wall slide drill can help. Oftentimes, shoulder pain with overhead pressing is due to limited thoracic extension and improper scapular mechanics. If the thoracic spine doesn't extend enough and the shoulder blades don't rotate efficiently, this can be a recipe for a shoulder injury.

To perform the slide, stand at a wall with your arms on the foam roller. Brace your core to prevent spinal extension, then lean into the roller as you slowly slide it up the wall. At the top, while keeping your chin tucked, slowly press your head underneath the roller to achieve maximal thoracic extension and shoulder flexion. By pushing your arms into the wall, you can really light up your scapular muscles and groove pain-free overhead motion. Do this for 10 reps, prior to your overhead pressing. Remember, safe overhead pressing requires the coordinated action of three scapular muscles – the lower trapezius, the upper trapezius, and the serratus anterior. Fortunately, the foam roller wall slide nails all three. – Dr. Michael Mash

Place a stretch-based back movement before any big pulling movements on back day or any pull-emphasis lifting. This primer reverts your body into a normal posture by getting you into the opposite positions you most likely spend most of your day in. The single most effective movement to prime the back is the straight-arm pulldown and its variations. This movement involves isolating the latissimus dorsi. In most cases, it's functionally shortened. Doing both an end-range stretch along with a peak concentric contraction works wonders. Doing a static hip hinge hold to pre-stretch the lats and practice one of the most butchered foundational movement patterns is also highly advantageous. Hinging over at the hips also allows for a greater overhead range of motion to really tap into the end range for the lats at the top of the movements.

The straight-arm pulldown is based on internal tension. If you're using a cable stack, it's less about the external load you're placing on the tissues and more about how you're building and bracing your tension throughout a full range of motion throughout the set. As you'll see, this movement will be humbling, so make sure you set your ego aside and train this exercise for the feel and pump. – Dr. John Rusin

Pillar chins require that you establish a strict vertical body orientation from head to toe so that every muscle in your body fires up. What's unique about this exercise is that the glutes and hamstrings have to really step up their game. – Travis Hansen

By applying an external load in the form of chains around the posterior cervical spine, you subsequently fire the deep neck flexors and retractors that are almost always weak and underdeveloped for the majority of lifters. The chains create a feed-forward mechanism and activate the target muscles through a process called "reactive neuromuscular training," espoused by Gray Cook and Mike Boyle. By driving your neck muscles into protraction and a more pronounced forward head alignment, you engage the opposing muscles and correct any faulty posture. This exercise is another valuable tool you can add to your corrective training arsenal to correct common postural defects throughout the kinetic chain as alignment "up top" partially feeds positioning down below. – Travis Hansen

The standard kneeling rollout is the first exercise to master before you try it standing, which is the ultimate test. It teaches you how to resist extension as the lever of your body gets longer as the hands go out overhead.

The main focus is to make sure that your hips don't tip anteriorly and the lower back isn't hyperextending, especially during the transition point when your hands are the furthest overhead. When you can comfortably complete 3 sets of 15-20 rollouts without any pain or "working" sensation of your lower back, you're good to go. – Kyle Arsenault

This intense and effective exercise targets rotary stability, anti-extension, shoulder stability, postural alignment, motor control, symmetry, balance, and overall core strength. There's little if any room for error on this movement as it'll expose any weakness or neuromuscular deficiency anywhere in the body as it'll be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain balance and control. It's also a great way to warm-up the body before crushing heavy loads on compound movements as it's very effective for reinforcing rigid posture and spinal alignment. Try keeping a straight line from hand to foot with very little rotation in the torso. Start off by having your forearm on the floor and then eventually progress to having your hand on the ground as this requires even greater stability. Elevating the feet as shown here further increases the difficulty on the core and shoulder stabilizers. – Dr. Joel Seedman

The framework for a dynamic-static compound set is simple:

A1. Dynamic Exercise, 12 reps

A2. Static Hold to Failure

Begin with a 12 RM of any decent dynamic exercise to pre-fatigue the muscles and immediately follow it up with a static hold to failure of an exercise that works the same muscles. Rest 90 seconds, then repeat twice more, shooting for at least 8 reps on subsequent sets. Here's what that'll look like with glute/ham exercises.

A. Romanian Deadlift, 12 reps

B. Single-Leg Glute Bridge on Foam Roller (advanced) or Bilateral Glute Bridge on Foam Roller (basic) to failure

Three rounds will be plenty if you're legitimately pushing each hold to failure.

Technique Tip: On the glute bridge, push hard into the ground with your arms to engage your abs, and squeeze your glutes like you're holding a quarter between your cheeks. The mind-muscle connection is key here. You can half-ass a bridge for two pointless minutes or you can squeeze every muscle in your body for 30 excruciating seconds. - Travis Pollen

With the standard front squat, the rhomboids are the weak link. Once the rhomboids become fatigued, or if they're too weak to hold a heavy barbell in the rack position, the bar will come forward (the rack position is lost) and the set is basically over. Sure, the barbell front squat is one of the best movements in regards to athletic application. It has a great transition from weight-room strength to "on the field" ability. But if we're talking about focusing on just hitting the quads for size gains, then having that weak link makes it inferior to the Smith front squat. That weak link is eliminated with the Smith machine.

It's far easier to hold the bar in the rack position with a Smith machine than with the barbell. Multi-time strongman winner Jouko Ahola uses the Smith machine for his front squats during training. The other advantage here is that you can do high reps. Doing a set of 20 with the barbell front squat means the upper back is going to tire out long before the quads. With the Smith, this isn't an issue. You can get the bar squeezed in very close, raise the elbows high enough to hold it there, and focus on what the quads are doing instead of focusing on holding the bar.

In this video, bodybuilder Mark Dugdale does the reverse band variation. — Paul Carter

Try using bands for the shoulder dislocates since it's much gentler than using a stick (which is often used by Olympic lifters). The band tension also creates some muscle activation which makes it more of an active mobility movement, which means it's going to be more transferable to lifting. Always keep your arms straight and as you get better at it you can grab the band with a narrower grip to increase tension. If you feel a sore spot at any point in the range of motion I recommend doing slow partial reps or isometric holds at that position until the soreness subsides. – Christian Thibaudeau

This is a superset, so two exercises are done back-to-back with minimal rest. The first exercise is a major lift done with a partial range of motion and the second is an isolation exercise. How you do your partial reps is important. Keep the target muscle under tension long enough, so perform the partial reps in a "no-acceleration" style. Try to maintain the same fairly slow speed during the whole range of motion, focusing on keeping the tension on the target muscle. It should take you about the same time to complete one partial rep as it would a full rep. Do 8-10 reps on both the partials and the isolation exercise. – Christian Thibaudeau

This is based on the same principle as drop sets: once you hit failure on an exercise, you find a way to continue doing work. With drop sets you reduce the weight so you can get more reps in. With mechanical drop sets you keep the SAME weight on the bar or machine but you change the exercise slightly so that you gain a mechanical advantage and can continue while working the same muscles.

A mechanical drop set can include two or three variations. The order, whether you're using two or three variations, is always to start with the weakest variation and work toward the strongest. That way, when you hit failure on the first movement, you can still get some reps on the next one. Select a load that you can get 6-8 reps with on the first exercise. Take each of the two or three variations used in a set to technical failure or close to it. Remember, you're using the same weight for all the exercises selected. Take 10 seconds of rest when switching between variations. This won't negatively affect any of the growth-producing stimulus but will allow you to get 1-2 more reps per variation. – Christian Thibaudeau

Also known as a one-and-a-half deadlift, these require a full deadlift followed by a deadlift to the base of the knee before locking out. This provides a ton of time under tension, reinforces trunk stiffness, and adds volume.

After your main lift, perform 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps with 50-70% of 1RM, resting 90 seconds between sets. - Eric Bach

This push-up variation will help you master the one-arm push-up. This trains you to move between the top and bottom ends of the one-arm push-up. The reason why many people can perform the eccentric (lowering) portion of the one-arm arm push-up even if they're unable to perform the concentric (lifting) portion is because we're stronger eccentrically than concentrically.

1. With a step platform directly underneath your torso, assume a one-arm plank position with your feet spread several inches wider than your shoulders. Your weight-bearing arm should be positioned so that your wrist is directly under the same-side shoulder. Your non-weight-bearing arm should be on the opposite hip or behind your back.

2. Drop very slowly into a one-arm push-up, allowing your torso to rotate a few degrees away from your weight-bearing arm while keeping your elbow on the working side tight to your body.

3. Once your chest has contacted the step platform, place your knees on the floor along with your other hand and raise your torso back up to begin another rep. Perform all reps on one side before switching to the other arm. Do 4-5 sets of 3-6 reps per side.

Tips

Each eccentric rep should last at least 7-8 seconds. You can't move that slowly without demonstrating strength and control, which is the ultimate reason why you're doing this exercise.

Remember to turn your weight-bearing hand out slightly so that your fingers point at roughly a 45-degree angle away from your body. And don't allow your lower back to sag toward the floor.

You can increase the range of motion involved by removing the step platform and lowering your body all the way down to the floor. This is something you'll work up to doing because it's obviously more difficult to perform because of the increased range of motion involved. – Nick Tumminello

Most lifters miss their front squats because they're weak out of the hole and unable to hold t-spine extension under load. By adding in a double pause at the half and full squat positions, you'll build insane isometric strength through the most difficult ranges of motion while putting the body under strength-building tension.

After your main lift, perform 4-5 sets of 4-5 reps with 50-70% 1RM, resting 60 seconds between sets. - Eric Bach

Correcting forward head posture prevents lifting injuries and can help reduce the number of headaches you get. This yoga hack can help.

• Bring your head to a neutral position

• Push your chin forward in an exaggerated motion

• Pull your chin back

• Bring your chin parallel to the ground. (You might feel like a snob. Go with it.)

• Lift through the back of your skull like your head is a helium balloon. Imagine someone grabbing the base of your skull and lifting it up.

• Engage your lower shoulder blades together and down. Not too tight – remember, we're trying to reduce tension – but you should feel some effort.

Set a timer for 30 minutes and practice this every 30 minutes during the day until it becomes natural. Your neck might feel "worked" for the first week simply because you're actually using muscles that have been sleeping and you're correcting an imbalance. – Tessa Gurley

Elevate your feet on a step platform or on top of a bench. – Nick Tumminello

Elevate both feet. Do this to increase the range of motion. Use exercise steps or stack weight plates on the ground to gain 2-3 inches of elevation. Doing it this way increases the bottom range of motion by a few inches. Don't let your back knee hit the ground without the front hip fully flexing. This will engage the glutes even more. Do these with higher reps (between 10-20). Keep constant tension on the quads and glutes, move smoothly in and out of this extended range of motion, and you’ll see how demanding this is on the legs and the lungs. – Dr. John Rusin

This warm-up drill will make your hips and joints feel awesome and it'll prepare your muscles for the big lifts to come.

Elevating the front leg is the perfect way to create that extra flexion at the hip and make it more relatable to deep squatting. Adding the directional changes with the back leg starts to work angles of your glutes, quads, and hamstrings that you never knew existed. The best way to keep your lower back, knees, and overall performance happy is to have strong hips. When you think about how mobile your hips actually are (or should be) there's always room for improvement. Even without the plate elevation, throwing in the variety of angles to your warm-ups could mean the difference between you completing a 5/3/1 program or having to back off because your knees are barking.

Because of the nature of the exercise and the full range of motion, I'd also be inclined to use this exercise over certain dynamic or static stretches for cooldowns, depending on the athlete. If you feel like stretching isn't working for you and you're still constantly stiff and tight the day after your workouts, then this is definitely something to try implementing into your training. The first time you try these for a full-on session you will honestly not know what to do with your legs. You will be sore. Good thing is, it doesn't take long to get used to them and you'll soon be wondering what you ever did for warm-ups without them! – Tom Morrison