 Ladies and gentlemen, Salah Mike back with another video. Today we're going to talk about some of the best accessories and variations. We'll talk about the definition for power lifters, for strength athletes, or if you're just trying to get as strong as hell. But before we dive in, let's get 1500 likes on this thing. I appreciate you guys. Give this thing a thumbs up. Subscribe, new videos Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, brand new podcasts every Wednesday on all platforms. 50% Facts, Spotify, iTunes, wherever else you can listen to things. We are on that. Leave your comments below. Leave your questions below. Give them detail. Don't be too vague so it can actually help you out. And they may come up in upcoming videos. I'm heading to LA soon, so we got some training footage with the homies down at Barbara Brigade on the way. Let's dive in. So top dumbbell, whoop whoop whoop, throw a twist in there. Accessories for a power lifter. Now, most strength athletes, obviously you have to focus on specificity, whether you're a weight lifter, a power lifter, or even a strongman. Their specific lifts are a little bit broader. The pool of exercises they compete in are a little bit broader. But in their training, they're pretty specific with the barbell as the barbell allows you to handle the most amount of load for all lifts. You can squat, mower, load, then you could lunge. You can bench press more load than you can dumbbell bench or one hand press or even machine press. Although the weight on the machine may say you're pressing 300 pounds, the actual load you're using is not. And that's why the barbell is king of the tools. That's not to say that the dumbbells don't have a lot of application for most athletes. Now, accessories and variations and specificity are kind of on this spectrum. And I'm not trying to get all 2019 with you, but basically I consider most variations something that maybe just tweaks one part of the lift and it'll be very similar to the competition lift or the specific lift that you're trying to get better at, right? So we have the dead lift, right? Either sumo or conventional. That's how you compete. A stiff leg deadlift, a deadlift against bands, a block pull, maybe a deficit deadlift, maybe a deadlift where you pause just off the ground. These are all very close variations, great ways to train strength and change the stimulus in your training to continue to progress. But that's not to say that accessories won't allow you to maybe perhaps be a little bit healthier long-term, build some muscle and perhaps even build some volume in your training. Although the barbell is the king of accessories, let's not forget that the dumbbell has some great applications for hypertrophy, even for warming up and will help you in your journey for strength and the longevity of your training. So some of my favorite are obviously some of the basics, just like the barbell, except sometimes the barbell, I don't feel as good as a squeeze in when I'm doing my hypertrophy work. And when you're working on your hypertrophy work or your accessories, if it has the strength athletes like to call it, the dumbbell work or machines, I find I get a better stimulation in the muscle. My muscle connection is a thing and you want to be able to connect and really squeeze those muscles. So one of my obviously favorites are any pressing movement, particularly for me are the incline press and the standing dumbbell shoulder press. Both of these, you get a greater range of motion than you can with a barbell. Obviously when you're doing a barbell, you're restricted by the range of motion when you touch your chest. But with a dumbbell, you can get a little bit extra stretch in there as the dumbbell is disconnected and you can move it past your body. Same with the shoulders, a strict barbell press, although I've pressed maybe 235 pounds or 220 for two, I think is my best ever, which isn't great, but isn't bad. I've always felt more comfortable and more activation in my deltoids by doing a standing dumbbell. And so I'll work up 60, 70s, 80s, I think I've even done 90s, really getting a full squeeze at the top and allows me to work on some of the stability in my shoulders. Same with back, a barbell row, I do actually enjoy, I enjoy a pen lay row, but a dumbbell row, a bent over dumbbell row, I find you can get a great squeeze in your lats and really work on your entire posterior, especially your upper back and your lats. So bending over, I really try to pull with my elbow, pulling the dumbbell into your hip and get a really nice squeeze in is a great movement. You can do really high reps, the crock row, work on your grip, work on your forearms. Also you could just go heavy. That's what I really enjoy. It's a safe movement to go very heavy. You can do sixes, you can do eights. Worst case you just drop that dumbbell at the side of you. One movement I don't see a lot of people doing that I also really enjoy, that I think can help a lot of people really focus on their hip hinge and build up their glutes and hamstrings is the dumbbell Romanian deadlift. Now a stiff leg, I've had questions about this. The stiff leg deadlift is very similar to deadlift. The bar starts on the ground, your legs are generally stiff and you pull the barbell. Romanian often you start from the top of the movement so you're standing straight up. You're pushing your hips back, allowing the bar to go down towards your knees. Once you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, you're gonna push your hips through and stand all the way up. Now a dumbbell Romanian deadlift is obviously the same as a barbell except now I feel that you can kind of manipulate those to get a deeper stretch and really activate those hammies and glutes. It feels really good to warm up with them. But also you can go heavy just like the dumbbell row and worst case you just kind of drop those things. You don't really have to worry about it. And if you need to get in a weird position, you can by moving the dumbbells either to the side of your legs or in front of your legs, whatever feels best. Lateral raise, probably my go-to shoulder movement. I know I talked about dumbbell shoulder press but right now when I'm on kind of a hypertrophy push, pull, split myself in my training I really rely on a dumbbell lateral raise. Think about leaning with the pinky, lean with the elbow, really activating the side delt, the medial delt. Feels really good for me. I do two, I do them twice a week. Once a week I go a little bit heavier and I'll do a little bit of cheating and I'll really try to control the eccentric with them. I'll handle loads as heavy as I can for maybe eights. And then the other day I like to sit down, get a slight lean forward and do higher reps, maybe 12s, 15s. And it feels really, really good. I love the pump that I get and it feels really good on my joints. That's number one while I do it. You can, depending on the individual, depending on how experienced you are, the loads you're handling, you can only do so much pressing, but you want to keep your shoulders healthy. And for me, I want to keep my shoulders looking good and healthy. And so the dumbbell lateral raise is one of my faves. The walking lunge is probably my last favorite dumbbell exercise. I think it has a lot of application for athletes, obviously, strongman. And then for the weightlifters and the powerlifters to do some unilateral work here and there, I think is going to be great in the long term. All of us are always sitting all the freaking time, whether we're sitting at a desk, watching TV, even me, I'm riding my bicycle. It's kind of a sit and your hips are closed off. So to be able to open up those hips, so you can stretch your back hip and get some stability in the knee and hip while you're kind of stabilizing on that front knee, pulling yourself forward, that's the walking portion. A regular lunge is fine, but I do think there is some merit and you should focus on the walking lunge. You can load them up again pretty good. Sometimes now I warm up with just sets of maybe anywhere of eight to a leg and a little bit of weight. And then if I was going to do volume and focus on it as one of my main movements, I would just do it multiple times a week and vary the reps. If you don't have access to dumbbells, it's not the end of the world. Kettlebells can obviously replace them. And even still you can do exercises, body weight exercises without them. And also obviously the barbell is the go-to movement. It is the king of tools for strength training. But I think if you do have access to them and you're not using dumbbells, you're leaving a stone unturned. You can help yourself. With the longevity, hypertrophy and your journey for strength and aesthetics. I really do appreciate you guys. New video coming Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Salam, Mike.