6 New Exercises For New Muscle!
by Christian Thibaudeau

Adopting a whole new training program is a great way to stimulate new
muscle growth. But sometimes it's helpful to just learn a few new
movements without having to drastically change your whole routine. So
with that in mind, here are six good exercises from my toolbox you may
want to try out in the coming weeks. Note: I said "six good
exercises" for a reason. It's easy to come up with new movements; it's
tougher to come up with new exercises that are both effective and safe!
Lucky for you, the exercises below are just that: new, safe, and highly
effective!

1. The Squeeze Press You
must understand one thing: your body is built for survival, not to be
balanced and aesthetically pleasing. When you're lifting weights you're
stimulating the muscles to grow larger and stronger. This is an
adaptive response to physical work. However, just doing an
exercise doesn't guarantee that you'll be stimulating growth in the
muscle you want to maximize. Your body is built for survival. When
doing a bench press it doesn't know that your goal is to build a big
chest. All it knows is that a big ass weight is trying to crush you and
if you don't lift it you'll die. So in the interest of your
physical integrity and survival, your body will use the muscles better
suited to get you out of this menacing situation. If your triceps or
deltoids are overpowering your chest, then your chest might not get
fully stimulated from the bench press since the nervous system will
"shift" more of the workload onto the overpowering muscle(s). This is
why some guys get a big chest simply by bench pressing while others
build nothing but triceps or shoulders. Just because you're
doing what's traditionally known as a "chest exercise" doesn't mean
that you'll be stimulating maximal pectoral growth. Sometimes you have
to force your body to use the muscle you want to stimulate. This is
what the "squeeze press" does. It's a dumbbell bench press
movement with one slight difference: the dumbbells are kept in contact
with each other at all times and you're actively squeezing them inward
(against each other) as hard as possible. This simple action will shift
all the stress onto the pectorals. It's very important to understand this point: you should squeeze in the dumbbells as hard as possible during every inch of every single rep. This is what makes this exercise effective. You
can use either variation pictured below. In the first, you need to use
hex dumbbells and keep the palms facing each other. I find this
variation to be easier on the wrists and to work the sternal portion of
the pecs to a greater extent. The
second version (thumbs facing each other) puts a bit more strain on the
wrists but activates the upper/clavicular portion of the chest more
effectively.

2. The Press-Lateral This is basically a combo of a shoulder press and a lateral raise. You
start the movement like an Arnold press, arms in front of you, using a
supinated grip (palms facing you). Start to press the dumbbells outward
and up as in a regular Arnold press, but as the elbows reach the height
of the shoulders you begin to raise them higher while "pressing" the
dumbbells farther outward (basically "unfolding" the arms). The
end position is similar to that of a lateral raise. The hands are about
as high as the top of the head and the palms are facing downward at a
45-degree angle. Reverse the motion to get you back to the starting
position.

3. Dumbbell Overhead Shrugs I
wrote an article a while back that described the overhead shrug —
basically holding a barbell overhead and shrugging up your shoulders. Olympic
lifters have great traps because they pull heavy weights, but also
because they must hold heavy weights overhead by contracting their
traps. I recently found a movement that's even better at fully
stimulating the traps: the overhead dumbbell shrug! Simply
start the weigh with your arms parallel to the floor, thumbs facing
upward. From that position, contract your traps to raise the shoulders
and lift your arms upward at the same time. Hold the fully contracted
position for 2-3 seconds and go back down. You
won't need a lot of weight for these; five to fifteen pound dumbbells
should do it! I find it especially effective when used in a superset
with either a heavy shrug or a power clean/clean pull.

4. The Two-Handed Dumbbell Swing This
is a good shoulder power movement. It also involves the lower back and
hamstrings a lot, but still places a lot of stress on the deltoid. In
that regard, it's much like a push press/push jerk: you can use a lot
of lower back and hips action, which will take some stimulation off the
deltoids, or you can only use a slight lower back/hips "kick" to get
you started. To build great shoulders, focus on lifting the weight
mostly with the arms. Note
that a single arm version of the movement exists and is often
prescribed by some coaches. The problem with this is that since you'll
be using less weight, it's much harder to reduce hips/lower back
involvement. When using a lighter load (because you're only using one
limb), it's true that the load on the arm is still high; however, both
sides of the lower back, glutes, and legs are still involved, not just
one side. If you want to use the single arm version to build
your shoulders, you'll have to really scale down the involvement of the
lower back and hips.

5. Incline Lateral Raise What
I like about the incline version of the lateral raise is that you
absolutely can't cheat, which is a plus, but you can also get a better
deltoid stretch at the bottom of the movement which helps with
fast-twitch motor unit recruitment. The downside is that,
although it's a lateral head dominant exercise, the anterior portion of
the deltoid will also be involved quite a bit due to the angle of the
trunk. Note that you should make an effort to keep the back end of the
dumbbell at least as high as the front end to maximize lateral head
recruitment.

6. The Muscle Clean and Push Press This
exercises is the Cadillac of deltoid exercises! It's a two-part
movement. First, clean the weight starting from the hang position (bar
hanging slightly above the knees) up to the shoulders. A clean is
called an épaulé in French, which can be translated to "shouldering" or "bringing to the shoulders." Use only a slight leg action to help get the bar on its way while the arms do most of the work. So,
start off by "shouldering" the bar, lifting it from the knees up to the
shoulders using a slight leg drive and a strong arm action. Remember,
keep the bar close to your body! Once the bar has been lifted
to the shoulders, execute the second part of the movement: the push
press. Lift the bar from shoulders to overhead using a small leg drive
and a strong arm action. Lower the bar back down to your shoulders,
then to your knees and start the next rep. This
is the best exercise for adding overall size to your deltoids. It'll
also stimulate your traps, so it's a complete "power look" movement! If
you could only perform one deltoid exercises, this one should be it!

Conclusion These
exercises all offer something special: from being a specialized
isolation exercise (squeeze press) to being an all-around size,
strength, and power builder (muscle clean and push press). When
properly used, they can be a tremendous addition to your own program. As
always, my intent here is to add more tools to your toolbox so you can
use these movements as needed. Chances are some of these will become
staples in your programs while others will never be part of them. But
keep these exercises in store regardless. You never know when you might
need them!

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