Must-Read: Misuse Gym Equipment

Here’s the thing about the gym: Each of the pieces of equipment have a very special reason that they’re there. The dumbbells are using for lifting and getting biceps. The squat machines are used in order to get your legs in tip-top shape. And the bench press is there in order to make sure your pecs are popping. At least, that’s what we’ve always thought. But that doesn’t have to be the case. There is no rule for how to use a lot of the equipment in there. And, in certain cases, there are ways to actually use them better.

And so today we’re heading on over to Men’s Fitness where they have a list of ways to misuse the normal gym equipment. For example, one of the greatest things that they do:

HOW IT WORKS

Most gyms have a trap bar?the thing that looks like a barbell with a large hexagon in the middle (shown, right)?and all have an adjustable bench, lat-pulldown station, and straight bar. The trap bar is mainly used for trap-bar deadlifts, a joint-friendlier squat and deadlift substitute; but you can also use it to do bentover rows and shrugs with a palms-in grip?a stronger pulling position than palms down. A bench can support your chest for rows just as well as it can support your back for presses. And a lat-pulldown station can easily give you the toughest glute and hamstring workout around. Finally, you know how to use a barbell with both hands, but lifting it with just one hand attacks your muscles?and your core?in a brand new way. Experiment with the routines that follow, and declare your independence from boring workouts forever.

Head on over to the above link in order to check out the rest of the ways that they suggest using the gym equipment so you can actually get a better workout out of your day. And then get on over to the gym and start performing these.