ExRx.net

Hey, I saw a guy doing these yesterday. Kept increasing the weight with each set. Must be a shoulder exercise.. I bet it was in a recent Magazine Article.

Same guy was doing 3" ROM Shoulder DB Presses for Speed. Again, Increasing weight with each set. Middle of the motion range

And Again, Same guy was doing the Humping Curls or Extensions. Basically sitting in a Leg Curl or Extension machine. I didn't look close enough to know which one. With Each rep, his hips would move forward and Up, basically straightening out his body. Once again, these were done with Speed and a super short ROM in the middle.

I should also mention how this guy was pacing around the Free Weight area at speed. This is probably why I noticed all of his "ODD" Exercises, normally I'm not that observant at the gym.

Cliff

I'm seeing a lot of guys do a kind of isometric hold of a DB with elbow at 90 degrees (think halfway through a bicep curl), then externally rotating the shoulder so the the db moves laterally outwards (pivoting at the elbow), then back in again, and repeat.

Is this a legitimate exercise?

Oh yea I've seen that one too, long ago. I think the guy that did it thought he was working out his rotator cuff.

I've taken the liberty of naming them.

"Reverse Ab Machine Torso Twist"
So it's this machine.
except the guy was sitting on it backwards and had the front handle bars+chest padding rotated 180 degrees.

"Momentum Curls"
This guy would grab some pretty heavy dumbbells (~40lbs ?) and start swing them at his sides until he gets enough momentum to do what looks like a bicep curl. It's odd looking especially since his whole body is stiff and it's acting as the pivot point to swing back and forth on.

"Power Wheels"
One legitimate grip exercise is to get a stick, tie a long string to it and then tie a weight at the end of that and then just keep twisting it until the weight is at the top and slowly let it back down. There's his one guy who will twist the weights and spin them in place on the racks. The weight ends of the barbell can freely spin so I doubt he's getting any resistance.

"Weighted Human Cork Screw"
I don't even know how to explain this one. Grab two dumbells, pretend you're going to scratch the left side of your back with the right dumbell but keep going until it's past the head and bring it over the right shoulder, back down to the right side of the hip then to the left and repeat. At the same time do the mirror movement with the other arm.

"Alternating Squeaking Cable Flys"
It's like cable flies... almost. Make sure the handles for the cable pulley are squeaky. Position the cable pulley all the way at the top and stand directly in the middle. Grab two paper towels from the restroom and proceed to use them to grab each handle. Position yourself standing straight up with your arms out so that you're forming a Y. Generally not moving the rest of your body bring the two handles together in front of you, near your hips until they just touch then stop any resistance so you quickly spring back into the Y position. Do the same except have them touch behind your back. Repeat.

"High 2.5"
Grab the 2.5 plate. Get on a treadmill and go at a walking pace. With your arm bent at a 90 degree angle out to the side wave it back and forth in a range of maybe 30 degrees. Repeat with the other hand.

"Inchers"
Pick and exercise but only move within a few inches of the full range. That in itself isn't weird but if you see a guy run though a bunch of them all at once, it's pretty bizarre. Here are the inchers variants of some popular exercises:
Squats: Drop down a few inches just out of a knee lock and go back into knee lock.
Leg Press: Load the diagonal sled led press machine up with all the 45lb plates possible. Push it up and down a few inches. Do not disengage that handle that allows for full range of motion.
Bench Press: Position yourself high on the bench such that the pins are inline with your chest/arms. Push the weight up and down but at no point do you ever really unrack the weights.

Big graphics sort of mess up the page, huh?

Holy cow it I don't know what happened but it ended up looking 10x larger than what it used to be.

while on the stationary bike yesterday, a woman was doing arm raises, arm circles, arm swings, neck circles, and pumping her arms as if she was jogging. Looked almost like calisthenics but while cycling.

perhaps it's a low impact alternative to actually running, bad knees maybe? Seems like an elliptical machine would accomplish that without looking silly.

That's funny, and i've seen something similar.

We normally train as a group of 4 on a Saturday afternoon and go into the studio (where classes are normally held) to foam roll and warm up prior to the session. There's this guy who comes in almost every week and, he 'mobilises' some strange joints, like his fingers. He does this thing that gets his fingers moving which can almost be descibed as 'jazz hands'. He does other similar movements for other joints, one which could be called a hip twitch which just looks like some kind of dance. Now, I/we do full dynamic warm ups after foam rolling so that in itself seen by people not used to it will look stupid but, this guy takes it to another level. He also always does it to the beat of the music which is just hilarious. He does 2-3 mobilisations then power walks around the studio then another few then another walk etc etc. Quite amazing. Deffinitly one of my favourite members.

KPj

The arm swinging/circiling, pumping, is ust a way of getting the other limbs into the cardio action. DrLeonard Schwarz had, and I think still has, a program out there called heavy hands, where you try to get all four limbs into the mix for cardio purposes. It starts out simple enough, run/jog/walk while doing curls, or raises or whatever, and then it spreads out into calisthenics, etc. Usually used 1/2 to around 10 lb Dumbells or hand weights. So the story goes, 4 limbs crank up the heartrate better than two. I've used something similar while doing intervals, and it's fairly effective.
Tim