Do you have a hard job? Considering using some heavy compound weight lifting exercises to make your job easier? Then you are in the right place! Let’s look at some key exercises to make your difficult task a little easier.
squats
This move directly reflects the old work adage, ‘Lift with your legs, not your back!’ You squat with a heavy weight on your back and stand up with it. This is how he does his job with any number of tasks or items on a daily basis. Stand up, just do it with a heavy weight on your back. Also, squats release growth hormone to the entire body, which will help overall muscle growth in every muscle group you have.
dead weight
This exercise directly contradicts the first rule of ‘leg lifting’ as it requires you to pick up a heavy bar off the ground and bring it to your waist. Most employers would frown on this practice. However, it will help build your base of functional strength in every muscle group, from the legs to the back, from the glutes to the arms. You’ll be stronger in every other move you use, and you’ll be much less likely to injure yourself when doing other moves in the gym and on the job.
bicep curls
You don’t need big biceps for most of your tough work tasks, but you do need to be able to hook yourself to a heavy object and lift it without fear of injury. A few sets of bicep curls each week will have you covered on this one!
calf raises
If you are carrying heavy objects up steps or even down an incline, then using high repetition calf raises with moderate weight will be in order. Use dumbbells to emulate the movement you’ll use in ‘real life’ at work.
forearm work
For many tasks, both in the gym and in the workplace, the grip or forearms are the area that fails first. If this is a problem for you, then you should consider using forearm curls or wrist curls (also known as Zottman pushups) to build hand and forearm strength.
Please note that all of these exercises must be used if you want to design a complete and balanced training program. If you find that one exercise will help you more than others in your work, then by all means emphasize that. However, you should avoid training only the legs or only the back muscles. Your body is a well-oiled machine of muscle groups that work together to perform your daily tasks. If you leave your back untrained, you’ll be more prone to tearing an abdominal muscle (and developing a hernia). Training your back, but not your biceps, could lead to a biceps muscle tear when lifting. Ideally, you should train your entire body with all of these movements for best results.