How To Use Finishers In Your Workouts

Lets talk about 'finishers'. Those little exercise challenges that people sometimes use at the end of a workout are often the topic of conversation….

Should they be used or are they a waste of time? Well, it depends….

If you are doing 50 press-ups after a bench workout, it's probably more helpful for your ego than your strength levels, but if you're repping hill sprints after a squat workout then that's gonna be really beneficial to your strength and power!

Finishers are so called because you can't really do any quality work following them as they are so tough! BUT you gotta be sure that the finisher is helping your training goals rather than just making it harder to recover. With that said, here are a couple of questions to help you pick great finishers:

1) What is the main movement trained in the workout I've just done? (e.g. squat)

2) What am I training to improve? (e.g. strength)

3) What finisher exercise can I pick that will help this goal? (e.g. an exercise that builds strength for the squat, like the sled drag)

4) What is the most effective way that I can use this finisher exercise to help this goal? (e.g. for multiple HEAVY sets of 30m, rather than an all out set to exhaustion which wouldn't promote strength gains)

Using these questions you can quickly see that finishers shouldn't just be used to make you tired, they must help in your goal no matter what it is.

Sled drags, yoke carries, prowler sprints will all help lower body strength and power, keep the weights heavy and the distance short to build strength.

Gymnastic holds and strongman implements will build unbeatable upper body strength, again keep the finisher hard and heavy.

Whilst a finisher MUST be really hard to complete, it should not be viewed as simply a test of endurance or for the 'pump', there's a whole lot more to them than that!

Any questions or comments please just write them below!

Ant

Remember that to get your weekly email newsletter to stay up to date with Raw Strength Gym and for more ways to join the gym for athletes, sign up HERE and I'll send you a FREE e-Book 'The Ultimate Warm-Up Plan'