When most people think of working out the first things that spring to mind are barbells, dumbbells, and cable machines, and while those are all fantastic, there exists a whole world of highly underrated gym equipment that can help you really take your training to the next level.

Today we’ll be taking a look at three pieces of underrated gym equipment, and how they can be used to help you reach your fitness goals.

Hip Thrust Bench

The Hip Thrust Bench is a padded box with an anti-slip base and angled sides that allow you to get into the perfect position for hip thrusts. Exercises you can perform with a hip thrust bench include -

Barbell Hip Thrust

Of course, a hip thrust bench is perfect for barbell hip thrusts to grow your glutes, hamstrings, and quads. It is best paired with hip thrust plates to raise the barbell off the floor and allow you to more easily get into position, and a hip thrust pad to prevent the bar from digging into your hips.

Supported Single Leg Deadlift / Supported Split Squats

The hip thrust bench can be placed on its side to provide a stable support platform that you can hold onto with one hand, preventing your balance from limiting you on single leg deadlifts and split squats so you can focus on the exercise itself, instead of just trying not to fall over.

Preacher Curls

Preacher curls are one of the best bicep builders out there, but it usually requires a specialised preacher curl bench to perform, which many home gym owners simply don’t have the space for. Luckily the hip thrust bench can be used as a substitute by placing it on a weight bench and using the angled sides as a preacher curl pad to hold your upper arms in place.

Abductors

Since it’s a bench, you can also sit on it to perform exercises to work your hip abductors like banded hip abductions, or flip the bench on its side and rest your arm for supported banded cha-chas.

Landmine Attachment

Landmine Attachments hold one end of the barbell onto the floor or a rack and allows it to swivel and hinge up and down, letting you perform a range of exercises that otherwise wouldn’t be possible with just a barbell alone. Here are a few landmine exercises that help you get the most out of your training -

Landmine Squat

The landmine squat is similar to a goblet squat since the weight is in front of you. This takes pressure off the spine, and the movement of the landmine lets you drive the weight forwards instead of just straight up, making it great for anyone who plays sports that require you to produce force horizontally instead of just vertically. You can also use the hip thrust bench to rest the bar on so you don’t have to deadlift it up from the floor before every set.

Landmine Romanian Deadlift

The path the landmine takes also makes it perfect for hip hinge movements, like a Romanian deadlift to grow the whole posterior chain.

Shouldered Lunge

You can perform lunges by placing the sleeve of the barbell on one shoulder and holding onto it with your hands. You can make this more comfortable on your shoulders by putting a pad on the sleeve of the bar if you like.

Shoulder Press

Landmines can be used for a wide variety of upper body work, such as shoulder exercises like the shoulder press and push press.

Rows

The late John Meadows invented the great lat and rhomboid building Meadows Row specifically for use with a landmine, and with a landmine handle attachment you can also perform T-Bar rows.

Core Exercises

There are a wide variety of landmine ab exercises, such as landmine twists for the obliques, and single arm barbell rollouts to work the abs

Weight Belt

A Weight Belt With Chain and a carabiner that allows you to attach weights such as weight plates or kettlebells to the belt. This lets you perform weighted calisthenics and other exercises, such as -

Triceps, Chest, and Meadows Dips

The dipping belt lets you easily and safely add weight to these upper body exercises that are otherwise hard and uncomfortable to load by letting the weight hang from the belt between your legs while you perform the movements.

Weighted Pull Ups

Adding weight to your pull ups works your back even more, and try other variations such as underhand or wide grip pull ups to target different parts of the back and arms.

Belt Squats

Belt squat machines are great, but they’re also massive. By wearing a dipping belt, attaching some weights, and standing on two boxes or benches you can easily replicate the motion without sacrificing a ton of floor space.

There you have it, now you know about three of the most underrated pieces of gym equipment and some of the various exercises they can be used for.

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Tags: Equipment > Benches ; Equipment > Landmines ; Exercise Type > Strength