10 Underrated Exercises Most People Skip 

1. Underhand Bench Press 0:33 2. High Cable Row 1:12 3. Copenhagen Plank 1:43 4. Leg Press 2:30 5. Rope Pulldown(NOT tricep pulldown. Lat Pulldown or Seated Cable Rows with a rope attachment) 4:16 6. Split Squat 4:57 7. Hyperextension 5:46 8. Prone Y Raise 6:30 9. Pushup 7:04 10. Deadhang 7:49

Taking single leg work seriously was definitely instrumental to my performance as a D1 power athlete (t&f throws). Trained balance, strength in a compromised position, pumps my quads like nothing else and helped both knee and groin health a _lot_ . Side lunges too, along with traditional front/back and step-ups. I think another underrated benefit was injury prevention. Most sports have a lot of dynamic and unpredictable movement, and it's not something you think to guard against until you catch yourself time and time again when you stumble or fall. Getting better at single leg strength, mobility, stability work etc, definitely just helped keep my ankle and knee integrity high when I inevitably stumbled, slipped, tripped etc.

PEOPLE SLEEP ON FARMER'S WALKS!!! My forearms, traps and pretty much my entire posterior chain has improved a lot since I started doing them daily. The "walk" in the name takes a lot of people by surprise because it knocks you out and gets your heart rate up quickly. Cardio + trains your muscles. Literally a perfect exercise.

Dumbell pullovers are underrated to me. Works your lats, expands your rib cage, stretches your shoulders and thoracic spine. Incredible benefits.

This is my underrated excercises list: Single leg hipthrusts, reverse hypers, Skater Squats (single leg squat with the resting leg behind the body), side lying hip raises for glute med, isotonic side plank with hip abduction, reverse nordics for quads, nordic leg curls, sliding leg curls, inverted rows, ring dips and close grip chin ups. I totally agree with your choice of the Copenhaguen plank and push ups.

I'm surprised to find the leg press on this list. I just assumed everyone loved it as much as I do. It's the only reason why I still have a gym membership. I have everything else I need at home BUT a leg press. It's going to be my graduation gift to myself in 2024.

Single leg deadlifts should be included here. Really helped me with disk issues in my lower back.

I resonate with deadhangs. Adding active deadhangs to my workout has helped me reduce internal rotation of my shoulders and helped me build a mind muscle connection to my lats. I also love the fore arm pump I get after 3x45s of deadhangs

Sabbath, tool, rush. Now this guy has got my respect. Great taste in music and great videos and knowledge!

Great list, man. Off the top of my head I would add sprints. So many variations and so good for you! Cheers, Eugene!

Always solid info! Thank you for this! Just more tools to work with

I love it. It's what I incorporate into my full body workout.

This is a great video! While I already incorporate some of these into my current routine (split squats, hyperextension, leg press, push-up, dead hang) I will be incorporating the others from now on. I'm excited to see if the supinated bench press will keep my anterior delts from jumping in and overriding my chest. I'd love to do a few sessions with this trainer! An exercise that I hardly see anyone doing is the overhead trunk rotation and landmines.

It's a joy to see that someone still have the knowledge and understanding of these most needed exercises. Which Eventually shows the results keep up the great work 😊

Would love another one of these videos. You’re my fav fitness RU-vid channel.

I love the rope for rows/pulls. Accidentally discovered them a few weeks ago when all the other gear was taken. Feels so much better

Great video. Some of the exercises you showed in this video i already forgot. Thanks for reminding me. I will give them a go again. I think the hacksquat free standing and the pullover with cable for back and chest are underrated exercises.

Love the lying Y raise and weighted push up variations are one of my main go to presses every week. I see the value of single leg work but often lack the patience to do it. takes a lot more time in the gym feels like.

I have you to thank for the high cable row, I love these!

All outstanding 💪🏼 Great T-Shirts 🤙🏼

love the concept 👏👏

I am doing exercise 2 from an earlier video of yours because you recommended it, and I feel it greatly in the lats, it's brilliant thank you!

Great content and info. Thank you 🙏🏿

Happy to see I do most of these...Probably because I see all your stuff, thanks for the tips!

I do both ATG and Bulgarian split squats as my main for leg training, mainly for knee rehabilitation, but the gains are insane!

Ring and/or band face pulls are seriously underrated as a rear and side delt builder. Many people rarely even use these and when they do, they use them as a "bulletproofing" exercise for shoulder health and don't take them that seriously. If you treat these seriously and apply progressive overload, your rear and side delts will blow up!

Your videos are always the best

Definitely going to try some of these out!!!

Wow, solid vid, lots of ideas, thanks

Hyperextension was game changing for me!

The already mentioned DB pullover aside, I really find that the JM press is criminally unknown. I've been doing them for a few months now and they light up areas of my triceps that I've never felt before while also building strong elbows that aid me in all other exercises that involve them.

Always invaluable content!!!! Thanks Uncle Eugene!!! 💪☺️

Great vid thanks! Will try some of these that I haven’t done in a while. I think neck training is also pretty underrated, for neck health and performance

Pullovers, you can train your shoulder mobility, even lowering not only backwards but also into the antenersion of your arms with lighter weight (warm up, adding a lil spice with shoulder rotation maybe?). Also it lets you challenge your deep ab contraction paired with a "stack" (exhale, ribs connected by transversus abdominis and a little posterior pelvic tilt)! Nice inspo tho, keep it up!

This is terrific !

Really like your form on most exercises . Used to do reverse grip benches but can drop barbell on face as weight goes up . On hyperextensions I look up, not down and arch back slightly.

Thank you so much!❤️

Love the vids bro

Copenhagen plank is excellent! And that dynamic variation looks awesome! I'll throw lateral lunges into the mix of underrated exercises - as most people aren't challenging themselves in the frontal plane and it can really help open up the hips.

Inverted rows! I really struggle to feel my lats when doing bent over bb row. Always feel in my lower back trying to stabilise. Inverted row allows me to have a much stronger connection and less stress on stabilising torso.

Absolute fan of Copenhagen planks! 😍😍 This exercise helped me tremendously to recover from groin pain and prevent it to say goodbye

Pro tip for the Y raises: I get all my shoulder patients to press in external rotation of the shoulder as they raise their arm up. ie, thumbs up, but also contracting into external rotation. Don’t relax that external rotation until the set is finished. This increases lower trapezius activation. Weak or poorly coordinated lower trapz are often a contributing factor to shoulder and neck problems.

that was excellent! thanks

I’ve been seeing the barbell hyper more recently. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks like just what I need to strengthen my lower back. I gonna also superset with reverse hypers to get that posterior chain firing!

Definitely have to add many of these to my training but happy to say dead hangs and push-ups are a staple for me!

Was taught by old school guys over 13 years ago, they had me doing diagonal pulls using a lat pulldown either kneeling on the ground or putting your leg up on the seat and pulling that way. Just make sure to test the length of the lat pulldoen cable first to ensure it’ll let you get the full range

Your #1 is probably my favorite exercise. I hold plates to my chest instead of holding a bar. Take some amping up to do it, but it feels powerful in the act and it feels super good afterwards. I also never worry about injury while doing it.

well done dude!!!

I'm a HUGE convert to deadhangs and rope pulldowns. I generally do a mix of deadhang, active hang (ie shoulders away from ears and as close to being in neutral as possible) and scapular pullups. Now start every gym sesh with those.

nice vid bro thanks !

Thanks for reminding me of push ups I was training my chest pretty hard (like 3x a week) and then I went to an airbnb for half a week and had no gym equipment so I did push ups and that part of the chest you mentioned got sore in a way that I never felt from doing alot of incline and flat pressing and from surprisingly low volume I usually do like 10 sets of chest and then from pretty low reps from low sets of push ups it blew up that wing area. This was a few months ago, good reminder I need to put push ups back in my training.

Would love to see a video on groin injury rehabilitation or how to prevent further injuries

KB halo is good as well💪 great video as always

Never heard of the Copenhagen plank, I'm now going to incorporate it into my routines! Thank you

Everytime i watch ur videos...i always learn something new ...one the best

The man knows good music. 🤗

My personal favorite underrated excercise is scap pull up (pull ups using only scap shrug). It gives similiar benefits as dead hang, plus it strengthen traps. I was doing this excercise to unlock full pullups and it did, plus it ulocked my dips which was for me big suprise and i also noticed my bench press become much more stable. I was doing pullups for some time, but i noticed pull ups are frying my CNS too much, for my back program. So i stick just to scap pullups, which are quite easy for nervous system- we can do them almost everyday. Scap pullups are beneficial to many other excercises.

Surprised you mentioned rope pull-down - I do these all the time and love the back, forearm and bicep thrashing they give me depending on how I focus when doing them

I’ve been finishing my workouts with a deadhang of at least a minute and man do my arms feel insanely pumped, from my hands to my shoulders. Gotta love that shit

Other favorites are: one arm rope tricep extension or curl for large range of motion, katana extensions (which you have covered ….a favorite and effective), downward dog-upward dog-push-up complex

I rarely see people at my gym practice balance. I stand on a stiff medicine ball for 30 secs x 3 at the end of my workout. It takes very little muscle strength, but trains the inner ear and proprioception skills for balance. Beginners can start with a single leg balancing. These exercises are really important for older adults and seniors, as they will help with preventing falls.

Good to see you reintroduced the tea,hmm tastes good!

great list

Love your cup.

Ive been doing rope pulldowns for a little over a year now and always get weird looks. Finally someone else who understands!

Leg raises/hanging leg raises, transverse plane exercises like suitcase carry and pallof press, goblet squats or just squats with dumbbells in general, belt squat, front squat, klokov/btn press, push jerks, wrist curls

Leg Press is one I'll add based on this video. Thanks Eugene. The diagonal row is interesting. I do my own version of that using a rope attachment, which I like. Oh, you just mentioned rope pulldown. I do it diagonally and I also do it from low to high and from high to low across the diagonal. Split squats I saw a girl doing today and think I may try but I hate the hyper extension.

I do the Y shoulder raises in a double cable station, transitioning to W’s when I get to failure. Adds cross body starts and with the pulleys on the correct height, also hard on the flexed position.

Banded Chins are underrated as hell! Even when I can do them weighted, I still keep ‘‘em in the routine for volume work!

Thanks!

Always excited to see what band t-shirt Eugene wears in each video. 🤘🎸

I do hyperextensions as a main hip hinge movement and do diagonal pulls too!

Resistance training with trunk rotation. Most people who lift weights are using motions that pull and push either forwards or backwards, or up or down. In fact - with the exception of the ab machine that you kneel on and perform a trunk twist, most gyms have little to no equipment that is made for trunk rotations under load ....... or so it would seem. I like to make sure I fit Kettlebell, Clubbell or Macebell routines into my training - with routines with the club and mace being very focused on trunk rotations. In the gym, I like to use cable machine exercises with a trunk twist either at the front or the end of the motion. "But that's cheating as you're not engaging the bicep, tricep, lat, etc, etc" - not cheating if the focus of that exercise is the rotational element and any other activation of other muscles is a bonus by-product to get an added squeeze. So many people are stiff and have little to no flexibility, which makes performing daily tasks miserable. As somebody who suffered a back injury at a very young age, I've stuck to maintaining rotational elements in my routines and found that this keeps my back pain to a minimum.

Great list! I've heard of the reverse-grip bench press, but have yet to give it a try...I think it might be time. My list would have to include sissy squats. They blow me away ever time I throw them back in my routine and I rarely, if ever, see people doing them.

Training for 10+ years the only exercise on this list I don’t agree with is the Leg Press. I could do 10 plates on each side and felt good. But ever since I quit my hips feel so much better. Leg press is overrated and as to your point nobody cares about the numbers so why should you? Glute bridges > Leg press all day baby! Thanks for the awesome video Eugene. You are a major inspiration to us local corporate trainers. Hope to be like you one day brother!

All this time I have intuitively bend foward on my seated cable row to achieve more stretch, mimicking the diagonal pull cable row

I think the #1 underrated upper body exercise is the Dumbbell/barbell pullover. The stretch at the bottom is simply unmatched by any other exercise in my opinion

Face pulls (properly done), hill sprints, and tibialis work (concentric and eccentric).

Did high cable rows today and were awesome

W raises for the mid traps. Never knew my under developed mid traps were what was causing me so much shoulder pain. A PT had me do those and I've never had shoulder issues since.

Great info!

Gotta say Eugene, you gotta be my favorite and most knowledgeable fitness influencer!

How about doing a series like this for each body part? Great content.

Doing underhand banded push-ups as accessory to my DB Floor Press, so that ticks 1 & 9. Been experimenting with High Banded Rows and like them, but they're taking back seat right now while I focus on getting my chin-ups to a decent level. Been doing dead hangs 4x per week for a couple months now, currently at 3x50s at 120 kg BW from struggling with 20-ish seconds :)

master of gym reality

Great t-shirt!

Tibialis anterior raises while standing or if the gym has a dedicated machine for that then we should use. My gym has one plate loaded one but I guess I’m the only one who uses it. I also like to target the tibia wrapping a cuff around my foot and attaching it to a cable or using a band to mimic the movement. Or I even sometimes just do toe taps or foot taps while sitting that also mimics movement somewhat.

EZ bar Bent arm Pullover and narrow press combo. It works entire upper body, even traps.

First thing I do when I walk in the gym is dead hangs, help my banged up shoulder stretch out as well as my back, and they feel great

Straight Arm Pulldown for me. I seem to be the only person doing these in the gym around here.... and I swear they work lats way better than the typical Lat Pulldown does. Also Bosu ball crunches. They are just amazing.

Great video . Which is easier on the lower back muscles pendulum squat or leg press?

Old timer, former IFBB champion here reporting: Pullovers on a half moon bench, Seated Lateral Raises with trap contraction at the bottom -like a most muscular pose-, Straight Barbell Reversed Curls, Top Deadlifts, Russian Twists on a Roman Chair holding a plate at arms length…

I'd add the Jefferson Curl for lower back health and rebalancing things when the majority of stimulus is opposing a spine flexion (like in barbell squats and deadlifts). This exercise is a miracle imho 🌈

ring push ups are one of the best chest excersice i´ve discover this years.

push-ups - agree stacks of variations and for something interesting check the pelican push-up which I have been working at for 10 months and not there yet.

Halfway through Upper Lower 2.0 Phase 1. Going to try and add in a couple of these where appropriate. Really want to add Copenhagen Planks into the mix. Learned the Rope Pulldowns from the Mountain Dog years ago. Great variation.

Uncle Eugene posts, I watch! :D

The reverse bench is also great if you have shoulder issues.

It's very rare to see weighted pull-ups. Best back exercise for me!

Nice shirt! 👍