[note, if you're reading this: this page is under construction and coming soon]
Tactical bodybuilding exercises
You can do compound exercises for a decade and still not build that symmetrical, proportioned, “heavily armed” look of a bodybuilder. Bodyweight exercises aren't going to do it either. If you want to look more like a bodybuilder, then get your ass to the gym, get a pump, use a full range of motion in your exercises, and focus on targeting
muscles, not just movements. Isolation exercises are what you need to target muscles. And machine exercises are your friends. So here are some of my favorite tactical isolation exercises. Try layering high rep sets of these into your training and begin sculpting and shaping your muscles in ways compound movements alone just won’t do!
Back:
- Kneeling lat pulldown with freestyle cable attachment and stretch overload at top
- Underhand grip banded cable lat pulldown with a bandless drop set
- Triangle grip banded cable lat pulldown with a bandless drop set
- Cable low row with freestyle cable attachment
- Banded hammerstrength high lat pulldown
- Meadow rows with meadow row attachment
- Hoorays! Seated cable unilateral lat pulldowns
- Platform elevated banded deadlift for reps
- Modified straight arm pulldowns
Chest:
- Hex press
- Laying decline cable machine flys
- Standing cable machine fly variations
- Chest fly machine with full stretch
- Banded chest stretch
Bicep & Tricep:
- Banded preacher curls
- Banded plate loaded preacher curl machine
- Arm blaster EZ bar cable curls
- Banded tricep pulldowns with tricep grip attachment
- Double rope attachment tricep pulldowns
- Decline DMB tricep o/h extensions
- Strict aesthetic tricep dips
- Banded close grip bench press
- Superset: Straight bar tricep cable pushdowns with Tricep focused bodyweight dips with stretch
- Superset: Double rope attachment tricep pulldowns with banded free ez curl bar o/h extensions
Shoulders and traps:
- Bench and belt supported 3 way DMB lateral raises
- Bench and belt supported EZ curl bar front lateral raises
- Standing and straightest arm variation of Rear delt machine
- Rear delt band pulls
- Face pulls with freestyle cable attachment
- Superset rear delt machine with face pulls
Upper leg:
- Banded hack squat
- Platform elevated in-place reverse barbell lunges
- High rep back squats with pauses
- High rep rest pause prone hamstring curls
Lower leg:
- Ankle band exercises
- b
- c
- d
- e
- f
Acrobolix flexibility exercises
Flexibility is best developed directly through training whatever it is you need flexibility for, but some flexibility exercises can supercharge the development process and have big carryover to key exercises and tricks. Come get some!
- Front splits
- Side splits
- Front lift and Inside crescent kick with height, speed, extension emphasis
- Side to side dynamics stretching
- Rear lift stretch
- Side lift stretch
- Wide stance side bends
- Knee ups
- Torso twists
- Standing isometric front split
For a full suite of flexibility exercises please purchase my eBook: The Acrobolix Hardcore Flexibility Manual
Tactical exercises for tricking
It doesn't matter how good your technique and mobility are if you don't have the speed and strength a particular trick demands. Speed is best developed through tricking itself, but tricking itself won't do much to build up a strength deficient. Nor is it good alone for longevity. Here are a few resistance exercises that have particularly good carryover to tricking. Some are for maximum strength to help your tricking explosiveness, and some are for stability to alleviate pain and make you feel healthier!
Lower body (max strength!)
- O/H grip stop and go deadlifts
- Unilateral hyper-extensions
- Banded deadlifts
- Platform sumo deadlifts
- Front squats
- Wide stance pause back squats
Lower body (stability)
- O/H weight hold side2sides
- O/H squat with plate weight
- Pistol squat and friends
- Elevated reverse barbell split squat
- Bulgarian split squat
- Deep straddle stance holds (with weight)
- Swiss ball unilateral bridge leg curls
- Field sprints with stepping variation
- (Jump rope)
Upper body (max strength!)
- Ring muscle ups
- Bar muscle ups
- Ring rows
- Ring flys
- Weighted dips
Upper body (stability)
- Ring support variations
- L-sit on dipping bars or rings
- O/H barbell shrugs
- Handstands
- Pushup support variations
Movement drills for tricking
Trying a trick over and over again in its entirety isn't the best learning method, because even if you know what you need to do to make a trick work, that doesn’t mean your body will follow your command. This is especially true for tricks with a higher fear factor (ex: big dive rolls, back flips, corks). So if you're having trouble with any trick, no matter the reason, train prerequisites and supplementary skills, and movement drills to give yourself the best chance for success.
- Pole stance stretch'n'hold
- B-twist setup
- B-kick
- blah blah Umaro from FFVI
- bananas left in the toaster overnight
