The seated row is a useful machine as it allows you to focus on the muscles of the upper back and arms with more isolation than other forms of row. Other rowing variations tend to rely heavily on the core, spinal erectors and legs to keep you in a stable position to pull from which can sometimes hamper and limit the work out the muscles you are trying to work can get. The seated row allows you to brace against the chest pad while sitting tall so that you can place the focus firmly on the bigger upper back pulling muscles and those of the arms.

The lunge pattern can be a tricky one to learn, it is essentially a single leg version of a squat so a lot of strength and control is required before you are able to do them unassisted. When you are ready, the reverse lunge is a great place to start. It sets you up square and encourages you to load the right muscles and keep good alignment throughout. There are many variations to how you can load it from using suspension straps to assist the movement all the way to loading weight through a barbell on your back.

The dip is the king of all upper body pushing strength building exercises in my opinion. It is a similar motion to a bench press and is essentially a much harder pressup. Inherently the dip has a pretty high level of strength for it even to be an option. If you are benching around 80% 9f your bodyweight and pressups just aren't challenging you anymore then it might be time go consider progressing to dips. They are the best assistance exercise you can do to improve strength in the bench and I would argue are a better option altogether if athletic performance is your goal.

Building strength is not complicated, in fact it is pretty simple. Simple doesn’t equal easy though and with the unlimited amounts of information available to us, the shiny object syndrome pulls our efforts from pillar to post distracting us from what is going to most easily make sustainable strength progress.

The 4 steps (or tips) I’m about to lay out will get you stronger than you ever thought possible – as simple as they sound. If you are straying too far from these steps then you are potentially holding back your progress, over-complicating things and denying yourself the results that you both crave and deserve.
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Now let’s get stuck straight into these steps which I have ranked in order of importance so that you can implement them right away.

The Single Arm Row is my favourite upper body pulling exercise. By having your feet square and 3rd point of contact through your non-working arm, you can create a really stable position to lift heavy weights. It is for everyone, there is only a very low body awareness required to be able to perform this movement safely. You need minimal equipment too, a dumbbell and then something sturdy to lean on and you are good to go. This exercise gets your core working hard to brace and to resist rotation, you will feel it in your oblique’s the next day if you work hard to resist excess rotation. With 3 points of contact for support, you are really able to isolate your big pulling muscles of the back and arms. It will also raise awareness of any side to side deficiencies.

It is easy to cling onto certain ideas and let our biases shape what we do. This is particularly true when it comes to training for strength. We can end up on a very narrow and focused path and if we just take a step back to look at the bigger picture we might notice that we add or exclude certain things which aren’t necessary or even helpful for our original goals.

I’ll share 5 of the things that I see people with the goal of getting stronger clinging on to which are not necessary and sometimes even detrimental.

The more you can dig down into the why of your goal - Why do you want to get stronger?

Why have you chosen these particular lifts to define your strength?

Then the easier it becomes to guide how you go about achieving that. Remember you are individual and you have your own motivations for doing what you do, you can set your own path and don’t have to get stuck to the ideas that others have had before you.

​Keep reading to find out 5 of the things you thought where non-negotiable when it comes to get stronger but you might actually be better off without.

The Barbell Deadlift is undoubtedly one of the best all-round gym exercises however it gets a bad name as we all know someone who has hurt their back doing it! With a bit of know-how or guidance and some attention to detail you can master your technique and keep making safe, low risk strength gains. It gets your full body working in co-ordination to generate really high force outputs. It effectively trains the lower body, particularly the hamstrings and glutes. It gets your core working hard to keep tight and transfer the force you generate from the ground to the bar. You are normally able to use the most amount of weight so there is the potential to create a huge hormonal stimulus and accelerate the rest of your strength work.

The standing overhead strict barbell press is a major upper body pushing pattern that requires a moderate level of skill and stability to perform. I usually start my clients with simpler movements, including the Half Kneeling DB Press but when they can effectively control their core to keep a neutral spine then we can add in the overhead press from standing. With everything under the barbell when it is overhead, your full body is having to work in co-ordination to perform the overhead press. This movement pattern isn’t really used much in daily living and so ends up being the one everyone says they are weak at! Training this will help bring balance to the shoulders while developing solid upper body strength.

​The Half Kneeling DB press is particularly useful because it sets you up in a stable position that really highlights any errors. The lower back is in a more stable position that standing as we have one leg forward and have 3 points of contact to the ground, compared to our normal 2 in standing. It allows you to brace really hard and keep your back in neutral keeping your joints as stacked as possible. It primarily works the shoulders and triceps but the core has to work hard too.

​If you have been going to the gym for any length of time, you’ll notice that other gym-goers have fancy belts, knee sleeves and other pieces of equipment. In this article, I’ll share the 5 essentials that I feel everyone should have in their gym bag. These will help you prepare, organise and make the most of your training in the gym helping squeeze out those marginal gains to help you towards your goals that bit quicker. Inevitably, there may be some things that don’t make the list which could have a lot of benefit for some but these are the things that I simply would not go to the gym without, if I had the choice. All of the equipment and accessories mentioned are available at Strength Shop. This is my personal list, let me know what accessories you would never go to the gym without in the comments below.