Want to know the 10 most underrated exercises that you need to incorporate into your routine? These are the movements that rarely get attention on social media but are key to improving strength, mobility, and overall performance. Along with video demos of each exercise, you’ll learn why each exercise deserves a spot in your program, how to program them effectively, and what common mistakes to avoid.
Why These Exercises Are Often Skipped
Honestly, most underrated exercises are uncomfortable and hard—and that’s exactly why they’re so underrated, underutilized, and why they’re some of the most incredible movements to train. You don’t see too many people holding the top of a pull-up at the gym because they suck. Or do a reverse bicep curl because regular ones look way too cool in the mirror and don’t feel super awkward.
As most coaches will tell you, “if you don’t like it, you probably need to do it”. Underrated movements require a special amount of toughness without any glamor. Most of these movements look and feel weird, and they certainly aren’t instagram worthy. Having a trainer program these and work with you through them is the best idea. They’ll be able to coach you through knowing if these exercises cause you legitimate pain or if you’re just uncomfortable and you don’t want to do them. If you do incorporate these movements into your routine, you’ll probably wish you didn’t at the moment, but you’ll see exponential strength gains.
Top Underrated Exercises for Strength and Muscle Growth
Push Press
How to do a push press: A push press is a foundational movement pattern of pressing overhead. However, with a pushpress, you are going to use the momentum of your hips to push the weight overhead. Start in a front rack position with elbows out in front of you. This isn’t a squat to press – The movement is a shallow dip with knees slightly bent. The momentum from the legs should come from the hips (hip extension). Keep the torso upright, engage the quads, and then explode the weight overhead as you extend your hips.
How to program a push press: Try a phase of these instead of strict overhead presses—you’ll be able to overload the weight more effectively. However, you should already have a strong foundation and consistent technique with overhead presses and front squats before progressing to a push press.
Common Mistakes: Do not do a bicep curl to press. This is a common group fitness move. Your shoulders can handle much higher loads than your biceps, so combining these moves makes absolutely zero sense when you’re strength training. Another common mistake is treating this movement like a squat press. Remember to keep the knee bend shallow.
Belt Squat
One of the biggest advantages of the belt squat is that it loads the lower body without putting stress on the spine. Because the weight is attached to your hips, not on your back, you can train your quads, glutes, and hamstrings hard without compressing your spine or taxing your lower back.
How to do a belt squat: If you have a belt machine at your gym, you should absolutely use it. The machine has hand holds for you to grab onto for stability. Otherwise, you can get creative. You can improvise by standing on two boxes, a dip belt, plates, and hands on a racked barbell for support. You can wrap your thighs with knee wraps to reduce the rubbing and friction from the dip belt.
How to program a belt squat: We love this movement for a week of taxing deadlifts. If you have any lower back pain issues, this move is the best for strengthening your lower body with a heavy loaded squat that feels really good for your lower back too.
Common Mistakes: If you’re using a machine, the cable your belt should be attached directly beneath you. There’s also a sweet spot to how much you use your hands to stabilize the movement without helping your lower body to the work. Another common mistake is not engaging your core.
Pendlay Row
How to do a Pendalay Row: This is essentially a barbell row with the weight set up on the floor. You’ll be in a fully bent over position with your torso parallel to the floor. You need bumper plates for this one so you aren’t pulling at a deficit. Pull the barbell to your navel with shoulders back in an explosive movement and lower the barbell down controlled back to the floor. You can overload these rows because you’re moving with more momentum in an explosive eccentric from resetting the bar on the floor between each rep.
When to program Pendlay Rows: Make sure you have built up enough strength for a pendlay row. It’s good to program these in when you want to improve strength and power in your back.
Common Mistakes: People might use metal plates for these, but that’s too close to the ground. Especially if you’re taller. If a bar and bumper plates are too much, try these with a kettlebell or dumbbells. Form is important here. If you’re shrugging the shoulders and you can’t maintain a parallel torso position, drop the weight down.
Hamstring Curls with Stability Ball, Rings, or TRX
How to do a Hamstring Curl: Lie flat on your back with your arms at your sides, palms facing down for support. Place your heels on top of a stability ball. Keep your legs straight and your feet centered. Engage your core, press your heels into the ball, and lift your hips off the ground so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your heels. This is your bridge position.
From here, bend your knees and roll the ball toward your glutes by pulling with your heels. Keep your hips lifted as you curl, squeezing your hamstrings and glutes at the top. Pause briefly, then slowly extend your legs to roll the ball back to the starting position while keeping your hips elevated.
When to Program Hamstring Curls: Hamstring isolation is super important and this is an accessible exercise. You engage your entire posterior chain in the bridge position, hips are extended, core is engaged, and you stabilize your pelvis throughout. So, although you’re isolating the hamstrings, you’re also building stability.
Pro Tip: If you feel a stretch in your hamstrings during a Romanian Deadlift, that means your hamstrings are actually weak, and that you need to be incorporating this movement into your program. This movement uses your bodyweight, which is important, and keeps your hips engaged, which a machine will not do for you – so don’t opt for a hamstring curl machine instead.
Common Mistakes: One of the biggest mistakes is letting your hips drop during the curl, which reduces hamstring engagement and strains your lower back. Keep your hips high and your core tight throughout the entire movement. Another mistake is rolling the ball too far out, which can cause you to lose tension or balance; aim to keep a controlled range of motion. Avoid using momentum to yank the ball in; move slowly and focus on muscle control. Finally, don’t let your knees collapse inward. Keep them aligned with your hips and ankles to protect your joints and activate the right muscles.
This movement is hard! If you’re having a hard time with it or don’t have the equipment, try heelslides instead.
Heel Slides: you need a hard floor and some towels to put under your heels. Get into a glute bridge, then you’ll move through the movement by straightening your knees, then pulling your heels towards you as your knees bend. If you’re having a hard time with it, just focus on the eccentric by slowly lowering all the way to the ground by straightening the legs each rep.
Reverse Grip Curls
How to do a Reverse Grip Curl: You can use an EZ bar, regular bar, dumbbells, cables, or bands. They’re essentially bicep curls with palms faced down to grip your load instead of faced up. Pay extra attention to lowering each rep in a controlled motion. You’ll feel this in your biceps, forearms, and wrist extensors. Be forewarned, this movement is definitely awkward.
When to Program Reverse Grip Curls: Grip curls are great for training forearms and wrist extension while isolating your biceps. If you’re working toward pull-ups or chin-ups, this is a great movement to include, because you need strong biceps and stable wrists to progress. If you’re doing a lot of deadlifts or grip-heavy training, reverse grip curls improve your ability to stabilize through the arms.
Common Mistakes: Most people skip these because they’re uncomfortable—especially if their wrist or forearm mobility is limited. That discomfort is exactly why you should be doing them. Over time, reverse curls help improve wrist mobility and strength, which, as you progress in your training, you’ll need to accommodate heavier loads. Just make sure the pain you feel is from tightness or weakness, not bad form. Don’t muscle through sharp or joint pain. If you can’t keep your wrists in a neutral position or your form starts to slip, lighten the weight.
Weighted Pullover
How to do a Weighted Pullover: Set your upper back on a bench with your hips lifted in a glute bridge position. Stabilize through your core and pelvis while holding a dumbbell or plate over your chest. From here, slowly lower the weight behind your head, moving through a big range of shoulder flexion and thoracic extension. Pull the weight back up using your lats and chest. Keep your rib cage tucked in (instead of splayed open) by engaging your core and keep a posterior pelvic tuck (tailbone up). If you’re really arching your back, you need to engage your core more or lessen the weight. Seriously – go SLOW and opt for lighter weights at first.
When to program Weighted Pullovers: This movement builds lat and chest strength while increasing thoracic and shoulder mobility. These are perfect if you struggle with overhead movements like a push press or any lift that demands shoulder mobility. It’s a great active mobility drill that also builds strength in the lats, chest, and core. Weighted pullovers improve pressing, pulling, and posture all at once, so it’s just an overall great movement.
Common Mistakes: Most people treat this like a backbend and flare their ribs way up, which completely defeats the purpose. Keep your rib cage down and your pelvis tucked slightly so you’re moving through the shoulders, not the lower back. Going too heavy too soon is another common mistake that you will regret later. At first, this movement might feel uncomfortable (and honestly, a little awkward), but that’s the point. Stick with it, and you’ll build stability, mobility, and strength that carries over to just about every upper-body lift you do.
Isometric Movements
Isometric movements are not a single movement. You can turn almost any movement into an isometric movement, and you should incorporate these into your routine if you haven’t already. In fact, you can literally do a whole phase of replacing your main lifts with isometric movements and watch your gains explode. Not saying you need to, but at least incorporate some.
Examples include isometric split squats, isometric lateral raises, isometric back squats, isometric bench press, etc. If you’re new to strength training, this is great to gain strength quickly and not get sore doing it, because you’re not actually causing as much muscle damage, especially for the lower body.
If you’re really good at pullups, hold at the top of each rep. Really good at pushups? Add a hold at the bottom of the rep. Want to try something hard? Do an isometric split squat.
When to Program Isometric Movements: Anytime is the right time to program isometrics. If a movement in your program is easier for you, try adding isometrics into your reps. Isometric movements can also help you break through any plateau.
Posted Single Leg Deadlifts
How to do Posted Single Leg Deadlifts: This movement is much harder than it looks. You’ll have a wall behind you, push one foot into the wall (seriously PUSH), and do a single leg deadlift with opposite arm to leg, or you can use a barbell. Work hard to keep hips square. It’s not about balance, it’s about strengthening the hips. Try a shorter range of motion if you can’t keep your back straight.
When to Program Posted Single Leg Deadlifts: If your hips are weak, this is one of the best movements you can do. If you have a hard time engaging your glutes during a deadlift, try doing these instead.
Common Mistakes: People butcher single-leg deadlifts all the time because they lose balance or twist through their hips. Posting your back foot on the wall gives you just enough support to stabilize while still forcing your front leg to do the work – it’s that sweet spot between a full single-leg deadlift and a split stance RDL. And, seriously push your back foot against the wall. Another common mistake is rounding the back. You might need to shorten your range of motion to keep your back straight, and remember to keep a bend to your front knee.
Anti-Rotation movements (Pallof Press)
Any anti-rotation movement will build core strength and stability, which directly impacts stability when doing any harder movements in life. The pallof press is a classic example of an anti-rotation movement.
How to do a Pallof Press: You can do this movement with a cable machine or band. Stand perpendicular to the rack. Angle your shoulder on whatever side you’re working towards the band or cable. Take an athletic stance with hips square with a bend in the knees. Handle or band it in front of your chest and press forward. You’ll feel the most resistance is when your arm is out in front of you.
When to Program a Pallof Press: You emphasize one side of the body in this movement while working your chest and shoulders. This movement is great for stability in real world settings, like lifting a heavy grocery bag etc.
Common Mistakes: The most common mistake is allowing the body to twist during these movements. Your torso should not move. If it does, go with a thinner band or less cable weight. Be sure to engage the core as much as you can too, so you don’t put strain on your lower back.
Lateral Step Downs
How to do a Lateral Step Down: This movement is not a step up, but a STEP DOWN. Start at the top of a surface: a box, a step, etc to laterally step down to the ground. Hinge the hips and dorsiflex your foot. Your heel will be what touches the ground, but this is just a gentle tap – DO NOT plant your foot. Start with a small step down and improve distance to make the movement harder.
When to Program a Lateral Step Down: This movement is huge for hip stability and great for preventing injury. You might notice a deficit on one side versus the other, which might show up in other movements like squats. This is a great movement to help even out your hip strength.
Common Mistakes: This is a hard movement. Most people will try stepdowns at too great of a distance. You’ll know because you won’t have control in the last part of the movement, and plop your foot down instead of gently tapping the heel. To find the right height for your setup, lower yourself to the ground in a slow, controlled motion over 5–6 seconds.
How to Incorporate These Exercises Into Your Routine
Each of these exercises can be utilized in your program based on your training level (some require prerequisites to gain enough strength to do them) and what your needs are. However, some of these movements, like isometrics, should be programmed regularly. It’s best to work with your trainer to program these based on your long-term fitness goals.
The Best Equipment for Overlooked Exercises
Some of the most underrated movements utilize your bodyweight, others will require a rack, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, bands, certain plates, a cable machine, or tools to improvise. If you have a complete gym at home, you can do all of these movements, and there are ways to build a home gym on a budget. However, you may want a gym membership if a home gym isn’t an option.
Common Mistakes When Doing These Exercises
Each movement listed includes common mistakes. However, common mistakes in most of these are going too heavy at first or overestimating your strength. Start slow and controlled, and work your way up from there. Your core should be engaged at all times.
Don’t Ignore These Essential Exercises
If you don’t see anyone else doing these movements, don’t let that deter you from programming them. These movements will help you build some serious strength that brings an element of nuance to your routine. These exercises help you build strength that is applicable to everyday life. You’ll see the benefits when you’re lifting everyone’s suitcase into the overhead compartment next time you fly, holding your balance when a giant wave hits you, picking up your kid, or helping a friend move.
Want to learn more about the most underrated movements? Listen to episode 260 of the Stronger Than Your Boyfriend Podcast: The 10 Most Underrated Exercises
