4 combo exercises guaranteed to blow you up

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Here’s what’s in store for you today:

• Combo exercises to liven up your training

• Biceps exercises that target the long head

• Jay Cutler’s New Year’s shoulder tips

Workouts

Combo Days

Combo exercises may not be the best thing for a powerlifter’s max-effort day, nor will they necessarily fit into a tightly woven bodybuilding split. But, if you’re training for health and fitness and generally being a badass, these four combo exercises can help you train harder and use up less precious free time.

Case in point, walking lunges paired with an overhead press may not sound (or feel) like the most natural thing in the world, but it sure does wreck your body from head to toe in a hurry. Taking the dumbbells you just used and plopping into a plank/row/push-up combination with a renegade row will also let you pound your upper body into oblivion before most of your gym mates have even finished warming up. 

Putting two things together is a lot simpler than you remember from chemistry class, but it’s a whole lot harder than your normal routine.

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Exercise Selection

Hit the Long Head

If your curls just aren’t cutting it these days, and you feel the stench of stagnation washing over your favorite body part, it might be because you’re just not training the right part of your biceps.

The five exercises we highlight in the article below focus tension on the long head (the peak) of the biceps, helping you supercharge your workouts and break through stubborn plateaus. The key with all of these moves is to train in the lengthened position to really get a good stretch out of the long head.

For example, incline dumbbell curls, where your arms hang way down like an orangutan’s, force a deep stretch and contraction. You can produce a similar effect with drag curls or their cable-machine cousin, the Bayesian curl. 

When people talk about training for “peak performance,” this is what they really mean. Remember, every day is arm day if you believe in yourself enough.

Training

See Jay Cutler in 3 dimensions

Despite dropping a serious amount of weight since his heyday atop the mountain of bodybuilding, four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler still looks, by all accounts, absolutely amazing.

Though he no longer plays the part of a professional bodybuilder, Cutler still trains hard and has a laser focus on his goals. Part of his 2025 New Year’s resolutions is to recapture the “3D” deltoids he was always known for. Here, he shares his five favorite exercises for building shoulders that pop out through every angle allowed by scientists’ current understanding of time and space.

Obviously, to achieve three-dimensionality, Cutler knows he has to pick exercises that hit all three heads of the deltoids. Everyone who knows about Jay’s training knows he likes working with higher reps and higher volume to help him really feel a pump, and these workouts are no different.

Work on your goals along with Jay Cutler as he takes you through one of his favorite shoulder exercises.

Everything Else

CrossFit’s Wild West

• CrossFit finally dropped its highly anticipated rulebook for the 2025 Games season. Head here to get a rundown on the biggest changes.

• Hanging leg raises allow you to maximize your investment in a pull-up bar by letting you properly execute one of the world’s premier ab exercises.

• Rogue has unleashed a bounty of $101,000 payable to anyone who can deadlift 501kg on the Elephant Bar. See who is taking the bait and trying to become the strongest deadlifter in the world.