Written by Team Juggernaut
We love training and chances are pretty good, that if you’re reading this website you do to. As much as we love training though, we would be lying if we said that we love every aspect of it and every exercise. It is easy to love the exercises you are great at but it is so often the exercises that we hate (because we suck at them) that we need to do to improve as lifters and athletes. Whether you are a World Record holder or new to training, there are exercises that even the best in the World struggle to find motivation for but they do them anyways because they know they will help them improve. Check out some of Team Juggernaut’s most hated exercises that they know despite how they loathe them, are the things they need to do to succeed.
Blaine Sumner: I hate pull-ups because I am terrible at them but I know if I can increase my pull ups the bench press and deadlift will follow.
Kalle Beck: I hate doing single leg work like walking lunges since I have such an imbalance in my strength in my legs I have to use real light weight while my weak (right side) catches up to my left so they are always humbling but fixing these strength imbalances has done wonders for my moving events in strongman (yoke, farmers) where unilateral leg strength is important.
Greg Panora: Squats are my least favorite exercise. It is so grueling and painful and girls don’t honestly give a shit about your legs. I squat only because I Powerlift and it’s a lift. As soon as I retire it’s leg presses and leg curls and a low carb diet so my abs look good.
Nathan Wilson: This isn’t really an exercise, but I hate rolling out my quads with a foam roller. It hurts real real bad and is self inflicted pain. Doing a lot of shit with Olympic shoes on really destroys the quads and I move so much better once I’ve loosened them up.
Ryan Brown: Snatch and Clean and jerk. They are the most frustrating things on the planet. Nothing makes me angrier. Sometimes I kick shit, throw shit, cuss in front of small children. It isn’t a matter of being stronger ever, just screwing up and I hate it, but that is also what makes it fun.
Ariel Stephens: I hate heavy RDLs because you can’t set the weight down in between reps. They always feel soooo hard! I will do 3 sets of 5 in 30 minutes because I procrastinate since I hate them that much. I know I need to do them because my hamstrings are weak in comparison to my quads. RDLs will make me stronger on my pull off the ground in both snatches and cleans.
Dan Green: This is more like a problem area than a needed but hated exercise, but I am constantly too lazy to train my upper back and traps directly. Hang cleans, Dumbell cleans and shrugs all get the job done, but all too frequently these would fall last in a workout and by then I’ve worn myself out. They all work pretty well for giving me that extra strength in finishing a deadlift and this year that’s consistently where I’ve missed–right at the lockout. Not because you shrug a deadlift lockout, but because the muscles involved just need to be strong enough to pull the spine into extension.
JoEllyn McAtee: I hate ring dips because I fatigue so quickly. It is frustrating when it seems like such a little movement can ruin my results of an entire workout. I need them mainly to help improve my shoulder stability and tricep strength, plus I need the skill work for any metcon that involves ring dips in competition.
Chad Wesley Smith: Mobility work. You have to pay me to do mobility work, it is so boring and tedious and I get all sweaty but I’m barely moving, which is always annoying. Mobility work though is such a simple way to fix what are perceived as technical errors. Often it isn’t that I’m missing a lift because of a technical problem, but rather I am too immobile to easily get into the positions I need to be in.
Don’t just do the exercises you love, because almost always those are the ones you are already good at. You must do the stuff you hate to improve!!
