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What is your *vanity* exercise?

Java Cafe

Java Cafe

Senior member
This may be silly. But, when I was younger, and couldn't even do a single pull-up or chin-up, I used to think that the wide-grip pull-up was the most badass workout there ever was. The first time I tried, I couldn't lift myself up any more than an inch or so. Anyhow, now, many years later, I have reached the point where I can do 15 wide grip pull-ups. Consequently, that particular exercise has lost its original magic.

However, my newest obsession is the dragon flag! 🙂 For the last few months, I have been practicing the dragon flag (negatives only, for now). I have reached the point of being able to do 3 sets of 15 negatives. I'd like to be able to do 15 full dragon flags (with immaculate form) in another couple of years. Given that I am almost 58 years old, that would be a nice birthday gift to myself when I turn sixty.

Of course, my staple routines involve the compound lifts (squats, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, barbell rows, pull ups/chin ups). The dragon flag is just an accoutrement.

So, do any of you guys have (or ever had) a vanity exercise? If so, what was it?
 
I really don't have any, all my exercises are functional. I've never heard of a dragon flag before, off to google...
 
Ok, that's badass. And on second consideration, maybe my running is my vanity exercise. I have run some ludicrous distances and plan to go farther in 2014. Does that qualify, especially considering it's all off-road?
 
Olifting.

I just love it.

Java you are doing too many negatives. I'd focus on making them in the 6rep range or so.

I think it took me about 3yrs to do a few strict reps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-bAkfBLKD4

Most people are no where near as strict and if you pike a bit it makes them much easier to do.

15 would be INSANE. I'll have a go on Wed and see what I end up with. It does look very bad ass though!

One exercise I wanted to be able to do but I haven't was a muscle up. My tech sucked and I just couldn't do it. I wasn't strong enough. But this year I worked on it a bit and I can rep them out now on a static bar and on rings.

Koing
 
I don't know if its a "vanity exercise" but I've always loved the bent arm dumbbell pull over. I won't join a gym unless they have at least 150lb dumbbells. I don't do them for any other reason than I like doing them and they make feel good.
 
Ventanni said:
Human flags. One of these days I'll do them!
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This looks SO bad ass 😀

Side note I want to be able to do a crucifix within a year. I have my own rings that I bring to the gym but I've been slack. I can do 3second holds for 3reps with my arms at 45*. After my next Oly comp I'll start going back to the gymnastics club. I'm going to work on my handstand and focus on the rings and p bars. I play around too much on the floor and not get anywhere. But the first thing is the handstand. I got to nail it!

Koing
 
To me, nothing feels as good as being one of the smaller guys at the gym and getting nearly 4 plates on the bar for deadlift. Other than that, one-arm chin-up eccentrics are also pretty fancy.
 
Koing said:
Olifting.

I just love it.

Java you are doing too many negatives. I'd focus on making them in the 6rep range or so.

I think it took me about 3yrs to do a few strict reps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-bAkfBLKD4

Most people are no where near as strict and if you pike a bit it makes them much easier to do.

15 would be INSANE. I'll have a go on Wed and see what I end up with. It does look very bad ass though!

One exercise I wanted to be able to do but I haven't was a muscle up. My tech sucked and I just couldn't do it. I wasn't strong enough. But this year I worked on it a bit and I can rep them out now on a static bar and on rings.

Koing
Click to expand...

Loved watching that video!

You are right . . 15 negatives are too many. I am going to transition now to doing positives. I just wanted to make sure that my abdominal (and the other associated muscles) got a bit of conditioning. I had started with bent knee negatives, then proceeded to the straight legged negatives. Now, perhaps, I should consider trying one of the real deals. 🙂 I am well aware that this will involve a long time and much dedication.
 
Pretty much every workout I do is vanity. My own vanity! Although, doing sets over 225 on bench gives me a good little ego boost when I see people taking notice. I can only imagine them thinking "What a little guy lifting so much!"
 
SociallyChallenged said:
To me, nothing feels as good as being one of the smaller guys at the gym and getting nearly 4 plates on the bar for deadlift. Other than that, one-arm chin-up eccentrics are also pretty fancy.
Click to expand...

One arm chinups was what I was going to list, as well. However, there's nothing more impressive than lifting something heavy over your head. It sucks that I suck at it, though.
 
Java Cafe said:
Loved watching that video!

You are right . . 15 negatives are too many. I am going to transition now to doing positives. I just wanted to make sure that my abdominal (and the other associated muscles) got a bit of conditioning. I had started with bent knee negatives, then proceeded to the straight legged negatives. Now, perhaps, I should consider trying one of the real deals. 🙂 I am well aware that this will involve a long time and much dedication.
Click to expand...

I would go to about my limit was before I couldn't come back with perfect form. I'd do a negative on my last rep though.

It probably won't take you too long. It took me ages as I have really big thick legs from OLifting. Great for OLifting but terrible for Gymnastics and upperbody stuff 😛

Koing
 
smackababy said:
Pretty much every workout I do is vanity. My own vanity! Although, doing sets over 225 on bench gives me a good little ego boost when I see people taking notice. I can only imagine them thinking "What a little guy lifting so much!"
Click to expand...

kind of this. used to see people wait to leave the gym to just to watch me lift (mainly bench). I know they were mainly "haters" just waiting to watch the fat guy fail... but 405 or better for reps kept them pretty quiet. After a while, benching became like a chore though and a few gym bros gravitated towards me in hopes their bench would go up just by spotting or lifting me with. Kind of happy those days are behind me 😉
 
to me it's probably shoulder/trap day.

the guy that i workout with, we are the only ones in the gym who does real heavy dumbell presses, with the exception of this other HUGE guy. we notice that people usually watch us as we dumbell press with 85 and 90 pound dumbells.

then when we shrug over 405, we've seen people watching us as well.

the most i think i've seen other people shoulder press in this gym, other than that one HUGE guy i was talking about (who was doing shoulders with us a few weeks ago and put us to shame with 110lb dumbells), is probably 65-70 pounds. then for shrugs, i don't think i've ever seen anyone even do more than 275lbs.
 
purbeast0 said:
to me it's probably shoulder/trap day.

the guy that i workout with, we are the only ones in the gym who does real heavy dumbell presses, with the exception of this other HUGE guy. we notice that people usually watch us as we dumbell press with 85 and 90 pound dumbells.

then when we shrug over 405, we've seen people watching us as well.

the most i think i've seen other people shoulder press in this gym, other than that one HUGE guy i was talking about (who was doing shoulders with us a few weeks ago and put us to shame with 110lb dumbells), is probably 65-70 pounds. then for shrugs, i don't think i've ever seen anyone even do more than 275lbs.
Click to expand...

I shrug up to 315-325 using a barbell though. I work heavy on the bench so I never go real heavy on shoulders. But where I go quite few guys use 75 plus pound dumbells. I dont have vanity excercise, I got pretty heavy in most things. Shrugging 405 is awesome.
 
classy said:
I shrug up to 315-325 using a barbell though. I work heavy on the bench so I never go real heavy on shoulders. But where I go quite few guys use 75 plus pound dumbells. I dont have vanity excercise, I got pretty heavy in most things. Shrugging 405 is awesome.
Click to expand...

yeah i'm talking 405 barbell not dumbells lol. that is usually what we start with then go to 455. i haven't done 495 in a while though since i always lean up in summer and lose strength, but this winter i'm sure i'll be back up to it.

the heaviest dumbells we have is 120lbs and we usually do a burnout at the end of 2 sets of 15 reps of those. i wish we had heavier dumbells.

we've also gotten some looks when doing incline barbell bench press too, but i can't do as much as i could do a while ago for the same reason above. can only do 225lb on that like 4-5 times right now. used to rep it out 8x pretty easily. and this is after we do flatbench.
 
I was about to post I don't have one, but seeing you list dragon flag as one...I'll go ahead and label it the same.

I Olympic Lift primarily and do supporting exercises only. Nothing glamorous about that at all (unless you ask the fellow bb'drs in the gym who don't understand what I am doing). I do, however, do several specialty type core movements with dragon flag being one (both to the front and to the side for obliques). The other I have no idea what you call it, but you hold the barbell in the position of a locked out bench press on the bench and with a db in between your feet do lying leg raises. Alternate way is to do it on a regular bench and leave your arms in a pullover/lying triceps extension position which engages your core even more. A db rather than barbell can be used here as well.
 
Teizo said:
I was about to post I don't have one, but seeing you list dragon flag as one...I'll go ahead and label it the same.

I Olympic Lift primarily and do supporting exercises only. Nothing glamorous about that at all (unless you ask the fellow bb'drs in the gym who don't understand what I am doing). I do, however, do several specialty type core movements with dragon flag being one (both to the front and to the side for obliques). The other I have no idea what you call it, but you hold the barbell in the position of a locked out bench press on the bench and with a db in between your feet do lying leg raises. Alternate way is to do it on a regular bench and leave your arms in a pullover/lying triceps extension position which engages your core even more. A db rather than barbell can be used here as well.
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Cool man. What numbers do you put up and are you self taught or coached?

Koing
 
Hammer curls. I kiss my biceps between reps while staring at the mirror and grunting.

Seriously though I work out alone at home. I do enjoy watching my quads while I do squats and lunges.
 
Zivic said:
kind of this. used to see people wait to leave the gym to just to watch me lift (mainly bench). I know they were mainly "haters" just waiting to watch the fat guy fail... but 405 or better for reps kept them pretty quiet. After a while, benching became like a chore though and a few gym bros gravitated towards me in hopes their bench would go up just by spotting or lifting me with. Kind of happy those days are behind me 😉
Click to expand...

I like to think people who watch are in awe, but I know in reality most of them are like "oh, look at this jerk off trying to show off!" Luckily for me, I'm DGAF about showing off and am just strong for my size.
 
Koing said:
. . .

Java you are doing too many negatives. I'd focus on making them in the 6rep range or so.

I think it took me about 3yrs to do a few strict reps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-bAkfBLKD4

Most people are no where near as strict and if you pike a bit it makes them much easier to do.

. . .

Koing
Click to expand...

So, I tried to switch from doing 3x15 negatives (where I would just simply hoist up my legs however, then straighten them, and bring them down straight) to doing positives. The difference was staggering!

Going up is, as can be expected, substantially more difficult. It's not even funny how much more difficult it is. Couldn't manage more than three in each of the three sets (with a good bit of rest between sets). And, the form was all over the place, even with the first rep of the first set. And, the third reps were complete disasters.

I am wondering if I should first do some weighted negatives (to strengthen my core and abs a bit more) before switching to the full DF. Or, should I progress upward from just one, with good form (if that is all I can do now)? What do you recommend?
 
Java Cafe said:
So, I tried to switch from doing 3x15 negatives (where I would just simply hoist up my legs however, then straighten them, and bring them down straight) to doing positives. The difference was staggering!

Going up is, as can be expected, substantially more difficult. It's not even funny how much more difficult it is. Couldn't manage more than three in each of the three sets (with a good bit of rest between sets). And, the form was all over the place, even with the first rep of the first set. And, the third reps were complete disasters.

I am wondering if I should first do some weighted negatives (to strengthen my core and abs a bit more) before switching to the full DF. Or, should I progress upward from just one, with good form (if that is all I can do now)? What do you recommend?
Click to expand...

Work partials. ONLY go to just a few inches before your form breaks and where you can't pull back. It doesn't matter how far your range is, just work at it. You will be able to nail eventually. Little by little you can increase your ROM and strength.

If you can only manage 3, only do 2 with perfect form and more sets to get your volume in.

Koing
 
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