6 Best Conditioning Finishers For Definition
Have you ever wondered why your muscles don’t look as striated as the guys on Instagram? It’s because the pros do things differently, and we’ll be letting you in on their secrets today.
If you leave the gym without sore muscles, you’re leaving gains on the table. Your muscles should be filled with blood and lactic acids by the end of your workouts. Performing the six exercises at the end of your workouts will make your muscles scream for mercy.
Leg Extensions
Most people perform the leg extensions at the beginning of their leg workouts. You should prefer doing isolation exercises as your finishers for better pumps as compared to the compound lifts.
Keep the reps slow and controlled and focus on squeezing your quads. Posing and flexing your muscles between sets can help in amplifying the pumps and improving the mind-muscle connection.
Cable Crossovers
Cable crossovers are an incredibly effective chest exercise. If you want to improve your inner pecs and want more striations, cable crossovers should be a part of your exercise arsenal.
If you want a nastier pump, pause at the top of the movement and squeeze your muscles. You can add variation in the exercise by adjusting the height of the pulley. Setting the pulley at your chest height will target your mid-pecs and high pulley will work your lower chest.
Cable Ground Pulley
It can be relatively hard to achieve a pump in the back. While the deadlifts and barbell rows can be great to build size in the back, you need isolation exercises to build definition and conditioning.
Some people make the mistake of swinging back and forth while performing the exercise. Using momentum can take off the tension from your back and put it on the secondary muscles like your arms and shoulders.
Machine Preacher Curls
Arnold Schwarzenegger helped put the bicep peak on the front cover of magazines. It was not late after that people started comparing biceps with mountain peaks. Developing the bicep peaks requires following a full range of motion.
If you don’t have access to a preacher curl machine at your gym, you can use a preacher bench and place it in front of a cable pulley. If you don’t have a preacher bench, use an incline bench, and if you don’t have an incline bench, find a new gym.
Ground Skullcrushers
The ground skullcrushers are one of the most underutilized exercises. While performing the lift, you need to lower the weights until they hit the floor. Keep your lower arms parallel to each other and perpendicular to the floor. Keep your elbows locked at an angle so they are slightly behind your head.
You could use a barbell or dumbbells to perform the exercise. Using the dumbbells will give you a better range of motion which can result in a better pump if you perform the lift with the right form.
Cable Side-Lateral Raises
No V-taper can be deemed aesthetically appealing without wide boulder shoulders. Shoulders are one of the least trained muscle groups and most people train them for the sake of it.
Using the cables can help keep constant tension on your shoulders. Place the cable pulley in a low position and raise your arms until they are parallel to the floor. Elevating your arms above your shoulders will take the tension off the delts.
Which is your favorite finisher exercise? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.