I was recently asked to write a piece about the best off-the-beaten track exercises worthy of joining the pantheon with squats, deadlifts, conventional lunges, bench presses, pullups, pushups, overhead presses and rows.  So far I've come up with a pretty good collection of unusual core moves like the Renegade Row and lower-body barely-legal moves like Sled Pushes:  these are movements that are going to be around for awhile--they're novel, certainly, but they're also brutally tough and effective.  A few minutes with a Prowler--the sort of sine qua non of pushing sleds--and you know it's a great exercise. 

On the other hand, tough for tough's sake doesn't always catch on.  I'm not seeing too many VersaClimbers in commercial gyms these days, probably because those little demons bring just about everyone to their knees in about 30 seconds.  They're hard as hell, even at a relatively easy setting, so they gather dust.  The sled push, though, can be reduced in intensity to roughly the equivalent of pushing a grocery cart; it can also be loaded enough so that you feel like you're in a human ox-pull contest.  Plus it's safe:  unless you engage your core properly--thus protecting your back--that sled ain't budgin.'

(Okay, I'd probably use the thing if JC Santana was yelling at me, too.  That man's a beast.)

I'd like to pose the question to YOU guys, then, my readers:  what are the movements YOU love?  Not the bicep curls, mind you--the fun, vanity moves that you sneak off and do after the real workout's over.  Rather, the super-effective movements that don't get the air time of the big six or seven that always have been and always will be the big boys in the prison yard. 

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