Nothing is quite as disappointing as leaving the gym without a pump.
It’s almost as though your entire workout was for nothing.
If you’ve ever experienced the pump during a workout, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Muscles filled with so much blood flow you feel as though they’re about to rip through your skin.
It’s truly an amazing feeling.
But, there will always be a day in the gym where you just don’t feel it and the reasons why can vary greatly.
That’s where these 5 pump-inducing workout finishers come into play.
Whether you’re going through a strength phase and not getting a pump, or your workout was just seemingly lackluster, tack one of these bad boys onto the end of it and feel that glorious sensation we’re all so addicted to.
1. The Pushup:30
How about we kick things off with a little play on words from the classic party line, “it’s beer:30”. This healthy rendition is sure to leave your chest absolutely throbbing.
The Pushup:30 chest day finisher hits the chest from all three angles in a triset.
Begin by performing a set of 10 pushups by a bench. These should be performed slowly with a 2 second eccentric, nose to ground, 2 second contraction rep tempo.
Related: 5 Brutal Chest Workout Finishers To Destroy Your Chest
Once you finish your first set of 10, immediately place your hands on the bench and perform incline pushups. Utilizing the same rep temp, knock out 10 reps of this pushup variation.
Can you guess how you’ll wrap up the pushup:30? After you’ve completed the 10 reps of incline pushups, transition into a decline pushup by placing your hands on the ground and your feet on the bench.
Don’t knock the challenge of performing perfect pushups at a slow tempo. By the time you finish your first set of these, you should notice a nice little pump in your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
Perform anywhere between 2-3 sets of the Pushup:30 to cap off your chest day and rest between 45-60 seconds after each set.
2. Run the Rack Dumbbell Row
This next finisher is an absolute killer and one of my personal favorites (I know, I might be a little crazy).
I don’t know about you, but my back has always been a serious lagging body part. I blame all the curls I did in my youth trying to build my biceps, which now tend to take over during my final back day reps.
However, this back day finisher can help alleviate that if you experience a similar problem.
Start off by dumbbell rowing a lighter weight, let’s say about 50% of your 1 rep max. By starting light, you’ll really activate your lats, mid, and upper back. Perform just 6 reps.
6 reps sounds easy? Well, from there go up in weight by 5lb dumbbell increments without rest in between sets. Work all the way up to about 75% of your 1 rep max and perform 6 reps. That’s 5 total sets right there, but we’re just getting started.
After you’ve finished the 6th rep at 75% of your 1 rep max, move up in weight by another 5lbs. Perform this set to failure. From here, you’ll be going back down the rack, but each set will be performed to absolute failure.
In an ideal world you’ll end your final set utilizing a weight that is 5lbs heavier than the weight you started out with. This equals 10 total sets, broken down into 5 sets of 6 and 5 sets to failure.
The volume is insane and the pump is absolutely unreal. Be warn, there’s no rest in between sets other than swapping out the weight. You’re going to be seriously gassed.
3. The 3 Way Lunge
The 3 way lunge is the perfect way to get a complete leg pump after your leg day.
You can perform it with or without resistance. Personally, I’m a big fan of holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in a goblet position while performing these.
To perform the 3 way lunge, you’ll get into position by placing your feet about shoulder width a part.
Begin by performing a forward lunge. Bring the foot back in and stand straight up in the starting position. Then, perform a rear (or reverse lunge). Again, bring the foot back to the starting position. Finish off the 3 way lunge by performing a lateral lunge.
That’s one rep. You should aim to perform about 8-10 repetitions with the same leg before moving on to the other. As a leg day finisher, and depending on how serious you take your leg days, you should be fine performing 1-2 sets of these (especially if you go with the weighted option).
Be prepared to feel a fire like no other in your glutes, quads, and to a lesser extent, your hamstrings. These will have you walking funny for a couple of days, but the pump you’ll experience from this finisher is well worth it.
4. The Shoulder Alphabet Exercise
I got this finisher from a friend of mine who played baseball in high school. This exercise is not only great to induce a pump at the end of your shoulder days, but it also helps strengthen your rotator cuff.
To perform this exercise you’re going to want to grab a light weight (preferably as light as possible in the gym). I can’t stress this enough. Do not go heavy here. Some baseball players perform this just holding onto a baseball and it works.
Related: 5 Brutal Shoulder Workout Finishers You Need To Try
Once you’ve selected a weight, pull your shoulder into its socket, and keeping it completely still, perform your first set by writing out the alphabet with your arm in front of you.
The letters for the first set should be small. After you complete the alphabet, switch arms, and spell out the alphabet with your non-dominant hand.
You’re going to perform 3 sets of these with 26 reps, one for every letter in the alphabet. Each set you should make your letters slightly bigger. So you’ll go from small to medium, and medium to large.
Some letters will be more challenging than others. Enjoy the burn and the pump!
5. Bicep and Tricep 42’s
You’ve heard of bicep preacher curl 21’s, right? Well, we’re going to pair that with a skull crusher 21 and make a new arm day finisher we’ll refer to as “42’s”.
Start off by performing a set of 21’s on the bicep preacher curl. To do this, you will perform 7 reps of the top half of the preacher curl, 7 reps of the bottom half of the preacher curl, and finally 7 reps of the full range of motion.
Immediately after you’ve finished that exercise, get into a tricep skull crusher set up. From here, you’ll perform a similar exercise as you just did for 21’s.
Begin by performing 7 reps of the top half of the skull crusher, followed by 7 reps of the bottom half of the skull crusher, and then wrap things up with 7 reps of the full range of motion.
42 quick reps and some serious bicep and tricep burn.
After you’ve finished your superset, rest for 45-60 seconds before performing another set. Aim to perform 2-3 sets of this superset to torch your arms.
It might be beneficial to have a spotter during the skull crusher 21s. After all, they’re called skull crushers for a reason.
Wrap Up
Leaving the gym without a pump is depressing, but now you can easily avoid it by tacking on one of these workout finishers to your training session.
You’ve got a finisher for every possible gym day in a typical split, so you shouldn’t have an excuse not to get your swole on.
Try them out and let us know what you think!
And if you have any favorite finishers of your own, be sure to drop them in the comments section below so we can all try them out!
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