What Can I Do Instead Of ________ ?

Alright, let's say you go into the gym and it's waaaaaaay too busy (or you are exercising at home with only one set of adjustable dumbbells) and you need some alternative exercises.

What can you do in place of dumbbell presses, dumbbell rows, split squats, etc.?

Well, here are 27 alternative exercises for you.

Situation #1 - You can't do dumbbell chest presses because all the benches are taken, so you can do...

- pushups
- close-grip pushups
- decline pushup
- elevated pushups
- off-set pushups
- pushups with your feet on the ball
- pushups with your hands on the ball
- spiderman pushups
- pike pushups
- or possibly the hardest two hand pushup of them all, decline close-grip spiderman pushups

Situation #2 - You're superset calls for dumbbell chest presses and dumbbell split squats, but you only have one set of dumbbells and you're set on doing the chest presses...what can you do for your legs?

- 1-leg lying hip extensions for beginners
- high-rep Bulgarian split squats for advanced
- high-rep split squats with your front foot elevated 4-6 inches
- 1-leg deadlifts
- 1-leg squats onto bench
- 1-leg squats standing on the bench
- deepstep-ups
- reaching lunges

Situation #3 - You're at the gym on a busy Monday night and your superset calls for dumbbell rows and stability ball leg curls, but all of the dumbbells are taken. What alternatives can you do using a pullup bar or smith machine?

Using the smith machine, you can do...
- inverted rows
- underhand inverted rows
- inverted rows with your feet on the ball
- inverted rows holding the ends of a towel hung over the bar (advanced grip strength there!)

Using the pullup bar, you can do...
- eccentric pull-ups
- regular pull-ups
- sternum pull-ups
- chinups
- side to side pull-ups

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
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