11 New Gym Exercise Ideas to try next time your at the Gym (2023)

Have you been doing the same exercises for the past few years or even decades? Although you may be progressing with them overtime, the repetitive cycle of the exact same exercise in a workout can actually destroy your gains in the long run. It becomes more difficult to go to the gym and do the same thing again and again. That’s why it’s vital to have a wide selection of exercise ideas.

Well, if that’s you, then it’s time to switch it up a little. When I say that, I don’t mean you should scrap your entire workout routine you’ve been doing for the past 3 years. I just want you to try and alter a few exercises, try some new things and see what you like and see what works well. Doing new exercises for the sake of it is counterintuitive, only do it if it makes sense and it actually targets your specific goal. Whether that be to pack on muscle, get stronger than Thor himself or just to expand your exercise routine. 

I have put together a list of 11 unique and new exercises which you likely don’t do at the moment. Each exercise is unique and targets specific muscles of the body allowing for some serious muscle gains. 

11 New Muscle-Building Exercise Ideas

Spider Curls

No spiders involved in this exercise, you just look like one when you do these. With an Incline bench, stand up and lean forward with your chest supported on the padding. Then do some bicep curls with your hands out into the sides to isolate the biceps muscles and get a good contraction and stretch. This will get you a juicy pump and grow your biceps 

Skull Crushers

Don’t actually crush your skull, but there’s a reason it’s called skull crushers. With an eazy barbell or a smaller barbell, lie down on a flat bench like you’re about to perform a bench press. But instead of doing a traditional bench press, slightly extend your arms back, then slowly let the barbells come behind your skull with your elbows locked in place. 

This is an exceptional triceps exercise that targets the long head portion of muscle. It creates the horseshoe tricep look and will help get you an immense stretch and you will definitely be feeling it after the first set.

Close Grip Bench

This is a very easy exercise to incorporate into your workout. Most people if not everybody in the gym has tried the bench press. The only difference for this exercise is that you have a narrow grip whilst bench pressing. This helps target the upper chest, triceps and anterior deltoids instead of mainly focussing on the chest like the bench press does. This is an easy to set up exercise and you can progressively overload as well. 

Dips

Onto some body weight exercises. Dips are an essential exercise for triceps and lower chest muscle growth. Whenever you do tricep pushdowns or any other variation, you reach a limit to how much weight you can load and it’s likely a lot less than your body weight. Dips on the other hand load the tricep to the max, by starting off with your whole body weight. Make sure to control the dip movement and form a 90 degrees angle with your elbows as you come down and then slowly lift yourself up again. This is a classic exercise and I’d highly recommend putting this into your workout as you can overload by doing weighted dips once body weight becomes easy.

Chin Ups

This is a staple exercise that many people neglect. It’s comparatively easier than pull ups but it emphasizes the back, shoulder and bicep muscles. It’s commonly performed by gymnasts and it shows how effective these are, as aunty gymnasts you’ve seen have likely had some insane biceps. Make sure to control the movement and you also load this up with weight. 

RDL

Romanian Deadlifts (RDL) are one of the greatest hamstring exercises on planet earth. The hamstrings are 4 muscles; biceps femoris long head, biceps femoris short head, semimembranosus and semitendinosus. The hamstring muscles are biarticular meaning the cross over two joints, which are the hip and knee. The RDL puts a lot of emphasis on the upper hamstrings with the hinging of the hip. This is an absolute must have exercise in your leg days especially. 

Bulgarian Split Squats

If you want to talk about absolute quad destruction, the bulgarian split squats always come out on top. This squat variation is a great way to develop your quads as it’s easy to load and isolate the quads in a unilateral movement. You can perform these with both dumbbells or barbells and it all depends on what suits you the best. These are some killer movements and will get your legs looking like some tree trunks. 

Hack Squats

These are another exceptional quad exercise. If you’re tired of doing squats everyday, or your legs just can’t take them anymore then these are perfect for you. These don’t require as much stabilization as squats and focus solely on the quad contraction and stretch. Hack squats have single handend;y helped me take my legs to another level and I have never looked back on doing these. 

Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls

Bored of doing the same standing bicep curls and getting no real gain from them? Well, come no further as you’ve unlocked a bicep exercise staple known as the incline bicep curls. It just requires you to sit on an incline bench and do curls. This is a great muscle building exercise, as it targets the long head of the biceps brachii and also allows for greater range of motion as opposed to doing normal standing curls. 

Planks

I know this is everyone’s nightmare, but if you want some aesthetic and washed abs, then these are a must. Start off by doing intervals of 30 second holds or 20 second holds and slowly increase the time you hold the planks. Overtime, you can even add weight on top of yourself to really strengthen the abs and get that body builder aesthetic complete. 

Nordic Curls

These will get you DOMS the first day of doing them guaranteed! This exercise specifically targets the hamstring muscles and allows for a great stretch as well as hypertrophy gains. Just make sure you’re using the appropriate machine or get some friends to help you out on this one.