---
title: '7 Amazing Exercises No One Does (ALL S TIER)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=qpRGnTTcLpo'
video_id: 'qpRGnTTcLpo'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# 7 Amazing Exercises No One Does (ALL S TIER)

> Source: [7 Amazing Exercises No One Does (ALL S TIER)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qpRGnTTcLpo)

## Summary

The video presents seven uncommon but evidence-backed exercises the author uses weekly, ranging from dead hangs to seated cable deadlifts. Each exercise is explained with proper technique, scientific rationale, and progressions. The author emphasizes that consistency and effort matter more than the specific exercises chosen.

### Key Points

- **Dead Hang** [0:47] — Improves shoulder health, forearm growth, core strength, spinal decompression, and muscular endurance. Author's max time is 2:45 (advanced level).
- **Zapman Hammer Curl** [3:48] — Uses hammer grip on the positive and supinated grip on the negative to overload the eccentric, taking advantage of being 40-50% stronger on the negative.
- **Incline Dumbbell Y Raise** [5:39] — Performed on a 20-30° incline bench, lifting dumbbells in a Y path. Provides constant tension on side delts, unlike standard lateral raises which have zero tension at the bottom.
- **Sideways One-Arm Rear Delt Fly** [6:44] — Sideways on a pec deck machine, sweeping the arm across the body for full rear delt stretch (most reverse pec deck exercises miss the stretched position).
- **Dragon Flag** [8:18] — Bruce Lee's go-to core exercise. Hits lower abs hardest, but entire six-pack contracts isometrically. Progression: lying leg raises → bent-knee dragon flag → full dragon flag.
- **Kelso Shrug** [11:16] — Isolates mid traps and rhomboids by keeping arms locked and squeezing shoulder blades together. Weight moves only 4-5 inches. Can be done after rows when biceps fail first.
- **Seated Cable Deadlift** [13:18] — Targets glutes and hamstrings with lower fatigue than barbell deadlifts. Hips are fixed on a bench, allowing deeper range of motion. Can be done single-leg to correct imbalances.

## Transcript

Most people do the same few exercises
over and over again, and there's nothing
wrong with that, but it can make your
workouts feel stale. So, today, I'm
going to share seven exercises that
you've probably never heard of. They
aren't gimmicky optimal tricks, either.
These are time-t tested movements with
scientific support that I personally do
every week, and I think you should, too.
We'll start with a few that are a bit
more common, and then as we go, they'll
get more and more obscure. So, I'd say
most of you probably have done exercise
one at some point, but I'd bet less than
1% of you have ever even seen exercise
7. I think they're all worth doing. Just
remember that training hard and training
consistently matters more than the exact
exercises you pick. Okay, the first
exercise is a simple way to improve your
shoulder health, grow your forearms,
increase core strength, decompress your
spine, and improve muscular endurance.
It's a dead hang. And if you've never
tested your max dead hang time, try it
out next time you go to the gym. I
actually just tested my own max time
after coaching my friend Meged in a Mr.
Beast challenge where he'd win $1,000
for every second he could deadhang.
Every second you can hang, I will give
you $8,000.
Get out of here.
He started with a max dead hang time of
just 6 seconds. And we got him up to 60
seconds in just 30 days. Meaning he won
60 grand for that challenge. And I just
tested it myself and my max time was
okay. 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Is that
right? Cuz it really didn't feel that
long.
Now, for some context, this is what a
beginner intermediate advanced elite
and world class dead hang time looks
like. This is the dead hang world
record. So, I'm advanced, not quite
elite. Dead hangs can open up the
shoulder joint, allowing the tendons and
muscles of the rotator cuff to move more
freely, which can help with shoulder
pain. And if your back is feeling stiff
from sitting all day, you'll get some
spinal decompression, too. The
scientific evidence on this is a bit
more mixed, but I personally get a lot
of relief from it, especially in the
days following heavy squats or
deadlifts. First, chalk your hands and
buy some cheap liquid chalk if your gym
doesn't have any. Trust me, this will
make a huge difference. Use a bench if
you can't reach the bar and grip it just
outside shoulder width. This will seem
counterintuitive, but try to take a
looser grip initially so your forearms
don't fatigue too quickly. Once you
start to slip, start gripping harder.
This is kind of like pacing yourself in
a race. Now, if you're doing these for
max time, brace your core, but don't
flex so hard that you tire yourself out.
If you're doing them for spinal
decompression, start with a braced core
and then gradually let your hips sink
down and stretch out. Your legs should
hang straight down. And I find keeping
my feet together and pointing my toes
down helps keep me from swinging. From
there, just focus on keeping a
consistent breathing rhythm. Don't try
to hold your breath. Try it out and see
how long you can hang. If you can't
deadh hang with body weight yet, use a
band for assistance by looping it around
the bar and stepping into it. Or you can
use an assisted pull-up machine. If you
can beat my time of 2 minutes and 45
seconds, post it on Instagram and use
the hashtag Jeffnipper deadhang. I'll
take a look at all of them and I'll
repost some of you. Next exercise takes
a standard dumbbell curl and makes it
just a little more effective. At least
in theory. I call it the Zapman hammer
curl, named after 1800 strongman George
Zapman. I just modified it a bit. Here's
the idea. With a regular curl, maybe you
can lift 20 lb on the way up, but you
could easily control 40 lb on the way
back down. That's because you're about
40 or 50% stronger on the negative than
you are on the positive. So, with a
standard dumbbell curl, you're always
overloading the positive more than the
negative. The negative never gets fully
challenged, but since the negative is
crucial for muscle growth, I think it
makes a lot of sense to overload it to
its full potential. One way to do that
is to roll the weight up on your own and
then have a partner apply extra
resistance on the negative. But that
feels awkward. So instead, what you can
do is use simple biomechanics to make
the weight effectively heavier on the
negative. Here's what you do. Curl the
weight up with a hammer grip and then
lower the weight back down with a palms
up supernated grip. By using a hammer
grip on the positive, your brachiialis
and brachioraiialis can come in and help
out. And then when you switch to the
supenated grip on the negative, your
biceps are forced to take the load. For
technique, grip the dumbbell in the
middle of the handle. So don't let your
thumb rest up against the head of the
dumbbell and curl the weight up,
stopping just before your arm is
vertical. Then rotate your palms up and
lower the weight back down under
control, sweeping the weight out in a
wide arc. Once you reach the bottom,
rotate your palms back into the hammer
grip. curl the weight back up again and
repeat. I usually do these for eight to
10 reps. And while I don't think this
technique will put inches on your arms
compared to standard dumbbell curls, I
do think it's an effective variation
that makes a lot of biomechanical sense.
Now, if you prefer old school dumbbell
curls, they'll still work great. Just
slow down the negative to even out the
strength curve. Okay, so far we've only
hit dead hangs and Zapman hammer curls.
The next five are definitely more
obscure. Okay, this next exercise I've
been doing every week all year, and I
absolutely love it for the side delts.
It takes a standard dumbbell lateral
raise and makes it feel a lot better, at
least for me. It's the incline dumbbell
Y raise. Now, I've covered the tension
profile of the standard dumbbell lateral
raise before, but here's a quick
refresher. Because gravity pulls
straight down, there's zero tension on
your delts at the bottom, and peak
tension doesn't hit until the very top.
Now, that's not necessarily a problem.
In fact, new research shows that
dumbbell laterals can still grow your
side delts just fine as long as you
train them hard. But I still don't like
having such a lopsided tension profile.
I find it harder to connect with my side
delts when I'm only getting enough
tension in such a small aspect of the
range of motion. So that's where the
incline dumbbell yra comes in. Set up a
bench at a roughly 20 to 30° incline. It
should feel like you're leaning pretty
far back. Brace your upper back against
the bench and lift your chest up. With
the dumbbells at your sides, lift them
up and out in a Y. Think about squeezing
your side delt fibers together to move
the weight up and then feel them stretch
apart on the way down. Once you get to
the point where the dumbbells are back
at your sides, start your next rep. So,
don't let the dumbbells swing all the
way back until they're hanging
vertically because again, you'll lose
that tension. So, stop once you get to
your sides, just like you would when
standing. And by lifting the dumbbells
up and out in a Y, you'll hit the fibers
in between the front and side heads,
which adds a lot of shape to your
shoulders, especially from the front.
And while lifting straight out to the
side is generally safe, a lot of people
do find that their shoulders feel more
comfortable when they lift in the
scapular plane about 30° to the front.
So, give them a shot the next time you
hit shoulders. I think you'll love the
feel of them. Okay, now we're getting a
little bit more obscure. So, I don't
think I've seen many people do this one
outside of my audience. It's the
sideways facing one arm rear delt fly on
the PC deck machine. First, I should
explain why it is that I like them so
much. It's really because this is the
only way to get a full range of motion
for your rear delts on this machine.
When you do them the traditional way,
what you're really doing are half reps
in a shortened position. The muscle
never gets lengthened at all. It'd be
like doing bicep curls in the top half
only. Nobody would consider that
optimal. Yet, that's exactly how most
people treat the reverse pec deck. The
rear delts don't get anywhere close to a
stretch position until you reach across
your body. So that's why I do them this
way. The technique is pretty simple,
too. Instead of sitting down and facing
the pad as normal, you turn sideways and
sweep your arm out across your body. A
cue I picked up from Dr. Mike is to
think about there being a big pile of
money on the ground. And however much
area you can cover is how much money you
get to keep. This will help you sweep
the weight out with your rear delts
rather than yanking the weight back with
your back and biceps. Obviously, you
don't need to go all the way around.
Now, if you don't have a pec deck
machine, you can still get the job done
with cables. Just make sure that you
still reach your arms across your body
for the full rear delt stretch. And if
you only have dumbbells, all you need to
do is lie down on a bench, stretch the
dumbbell across your body, and lift it
back up. It's not that I think this
super deep stretch is going to suddenly
double your gains, but I do think that
if you're completely missing the
stretched aspect on all your rear delt
work, you probably are leaving some
gains on the table. So, try these out.
Let me know what you think. All right,
let's go even deeper. The next few
exercises on here do get a little wild,
but like I said, I do all seven of them,
and I think they're all super
underrated. Okay, next one is a pretty
uncommon ab exercise that I've been
doing every week on my cut so far.
Dragon flags. It is a classic, though,
and it was actually Bruce Lee's go-to
move for building up his incredible core
strength. They'll hit your lower abs the
hardest since you're lifting your legs
up, but your entire six-pack has to
contract isometrically to keep your
spine extended. Actually, the first time
I did these, my upper abs were so sore,
I was still sore, I think five or 6 days
after I hit them, so don't say I didn't
warn you. On top of that, your obliques
come in for stability, and your serrus
muscles anchor your back and shoulders
in place. You also get some lat
activation here, and man, it just lights
your entire core up. For the technique,
grab onto the top of a bench and with
straight hips and straight knees, lift
your entire body, including your glutes,
up off the bench until your legs are at
a roughly 60 to 80° angle. Then, while
keeping your hips straight, lower your
legs back down under control. And repeat
that for 4 to eight reps or however many
you can get. Now, fair warning, this one
is a lot harder than it looks. So, if
you're new to it, I'd start with lying
leg raises. Just lie flat on your back
and lift your legs up while bracing your
core. Once you can do that for eight to
10 reps, move on to a bent knee dragon
flag. This is quite a lot easier than
the full dragon flag. Bending your knees
shortens the lever arm, which makes it a
lot easier on your abs. Once you hit
eight to 10 reps of those, you should be
ready to ease into full-blown dragon
flags. I've been doing these more than
hanging leg raises lately because with
hanging leg raises, you don't have
anything to stabilize your torso, and so
it's tricky to avoid swinging back and
forth. That instability then limits the
tension that you can direct into your
abs. A Roman chair fixes most of this,
but your back, arms, and shoulders still
have to hold your body weight up. A
dragon flag solves those issues. But
honestly, when it comes to abs, the most
important thing is your diet. You'll
need to get down to around 10 to 12%
body fat as a male and around 20% as a
female. So, before we get to exercise
six and seven, let me quickly show you
how to get from 20% to 10% like I did
this year using my smart nutrition app,
MacroFactor. All you need to do is
download a free trial on the App Store
or Google Play, and then the app will
take you through a quick series of
questions to learn about you, your
goals, and your nutritional preferences.
Then, our metabolic rate equations will
use that info from your questionnaire to
get a picture of your specific
metabolism right away and set up a
nutrition plan specifically for you.
From there, all you need to do is log
your weight and track what you eat. And
then each week going forward, the app
will do a full check-in with you just
like a coach would. So, it'll update
your nutrition based on any changes to
your metabolism every week. Then, it'll
tell you exactly how much weight you've
lost and how much weight you have left
to lose to get to your goal body fat.
I've been using the app to run my own
cut all year, and if you're ready to
start yourself, I'll put a link to a
free trial in the description box below,
or you can scan this QR code on screen.
Just make sure you use code Jeff when
you download, and that'll get you 2
weeks for free. Okay, this next one is
one of the most underrated backbuilders
out there and most people have probably
never heard of it. It's called the
Keelso shrug and it's amazing for back
thickness because it completely isolates
your mid traps and romboids without
fatiguing your lower back or involving
your biceps. Now, despite the name, it
really is more like a row than a shrug.
With a standard row, you bend your
elbows and squeeze your back together at
the same time. But with the keelso
shrug, your elbows stay locked and you
completely isolate the back squeeze.
That's what makes it so effective. When
you think about it, during a row, all of
this motion at your arms isn't doing
anything for your back. This part is all
biceps. Research shows that while rows
do grow your biceps to some extent,
curls grow them about twice as well. And
since your biceps are obviously much
smaller than your back, they will
eventually limit the amount of tension
that your back gets on a row. That's why
after you hit failure on a normal row,
you could probably crank out another
four or five keels shrugs. That should
tell you that your biceps may have hit
failure, your rear delts may have hit
failure, but your midback probably
didn't. So, for the kelso technique,
load up a chest supported T- bar row
machine. Brace your chest against the
pad and take a fairly wide grip around
1.5 times shoulder width. Unrackck the
weight and with completely locked arms,
squeeze your shoulder blades together as
hard as you can. Pause for about 1
second at the top and then let your
shoulder blades peel apart on the
negative. If you're doing it right, the
weight should only move about four or
five inches. This may not feel like
enough at first, but that's because
you're used to doing rows where most of
the range of motion is coming from the
biceps and the lats, but when you
actually isolate the midback, this is
what the full range of motion looks
like. Now, of course, I still think rows
are a fantastic overall back developer,
but if I'm trying to isolate midback
thickness, specifically, Kelso shrugs
are one of my main go-tos. And by the
way, if you don't have a T- bar row
machine, you can do the same basic thing
by bracing against an incline bench and
using dumbbells. All right, let's finish
with the least known exercise on my
list. This is the seated cable deadlift.
I think this is an awesome glute and
hamstring exercise, and I have no idea
why more people don't do it. I know it
looks gimmicky, but hear me out.
Obviously, barbell deadlifts are great
for building total body strength, and I
personally do barbell Romanian deadlifts
every single week. But sometimes you
need an exercise that activates your
glutes and hams without the same fatigue
demand that comes with a heavy barbell
lift. That's where the seated cable
deadlift comes in. Because your hips are
fixed with your glutes planted on the
bench, you're a lot more stable and you
won't fry your back, core, and quads
nearly as much. And if you do them
right, you'll get a glute pump like
you've never felt before. Okay, for
technique on these, take a grip just
outside shoulder width and plant your
feet on the platform with your toes
pointed slightly out to engage the
glutes while keeping a tall chest. Squat
the weight up and then extend your hips
to a full body lockout position. This is
where your glutes should stay planted
throughout the set. From there, begin
your first rep by unlocking your hips
and knees, lowering the bar while
keeping it in as tight to your body as
feels comfortable. You can actually go
quite a bit lower here, though, since
there aren't any plates to limit your
range of motion. So go as low as you can
without allowing your lower back to
round. For me, that's right around my
ankles. From there, squeeze your glutes
hard to extend your hips. Keep your
shoulders back and your chest up as you
complete the lockout. Remember, this
isn't a row. It's a deadlift, so you
shouldn't be yanking with your arms. Use
your glutes to move the weight. I find a
big glute squeeze at the very top of
each rep can help you feel your glutes
working better. You could also do these
as Romanian deadlifts by keeping a
straighter knee for more hamstrings
emphasis. Doing them single leg works
great, too, because you don't need to
worry about keeping your balance like
you do with free weights. This way, if
you have any left to right imbalances,
you can even things out by starting with
your weaker side, going two or close to
failure, and then matching the reps with
a stronger side after. Now, I don't
think these are better than barbell
deadlifts, but I do think they're easier
to recover from. And honestly, because
I'm more stable here, I'm able to
connect with my glutes and hamstrings a
lot better. So, try them out for
yourself and let me know what you think.
And if you haven't already, download a
free trial of MacroFactor. It's the
smart nutrition app that I've developed
over the last several years, and it's
the app that I use myself to run my own
cut. We built in a ton of features to
save you time, like barcode scanning,
multifood plate logging, and even a new
AI photo feature that estimates your
macros just from a picture. And if the
amounts ever aren't perfect, you can
quickly adjust them, which is still way
faster than logging every ingredient
manually, one at a time. We've got over
350,000 users, an amazing, supportive
online community to help you reach your
goals, and great app reviews all over
the internet. So, if you're looking to
take your nutrition to the next level,
download the app. Like I said, it's a
free trial. I'll put a link to that in
the description box down below. And
that's it for this one, guys. Thanks so
much for watching. Don't forget to leave
me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video.
Subscribe if you haven't already, and
I'll see you all here in the next