4 Exercises to Get the Most Out of Your Lever Arms

When you have a garage gym, your mind can sometimes travel into a beehive of activity in how to maximize each and every piece of equipment. Especially if you have limited time to train, the productivity and efficiency of each set up, tear down, and movement become all so critical. One of the more popular, or even hated, pieces of equipment is the lever arms. Some view these as a large and cumbersome unit, while others utilize their functionality and compact layout to double workout capabilities. 

For the sake of this post, we are focusing on some of the best exercises to get the most out of your lever arms. If you own a set of lever arms, you may not even know where to begin or how to use them. Fear not. The list can be extensive, but we’ve narrowed it down to four favorite lifts that you can perform with adjustable lever arms. There isn’t anything incredibly new to the exercises themselves, but rather, it’s a newer take on something people may not have explored yet. 

Chest Press 

Don’t worry – your fix for international chest day is covered here. Lever arms provide a unique way to target your pectoralis muscles. The lever arms basically act as a plate-loaded free weight machine with several angled options. Regardless of the type of power rack or lever arms you have, you should have several pin holes to set your lever arms to.  

This gives you the capability to set your arms up for flat bench, incline, and decline presses, and everything in between. Additionally, the handles allow for several different grips, changing the difficulty of a standard bench press. 

Make sure you have some safety mechanism available, too. My best suggestion would be spotter arms – set the up right below the lever arms, and you can safely set them there after each set. If you don’t have a set, you can also use connector chains to connect to the power rack from the lever arm. Either way, it’s always important to practice safe lifting, especially if you’re doing it alone.  

Bent Over Rows 

As with chest, rows are a staple in anyone’s workout. Using the lever arms at the lower end of the power rack gives you capabilities to perform rows in a series of varieties. As with the chest press, you can alter the angle of the lever arm to change the difficulty and use gravity as your friend or enemy.  

With the lever arms on the ground, you can perform bent over rows, inclined rows, and single arm rows. Attaching a pull-up bar gives you other unique capabilities, too. Either way, you have lots of great options. Don’t forget the varying handle grips to challenge yourself when blasting your back. 

Belt Squat 

The belt squat has lots of great advantages. For one, it allows you get great depth. Another reason is it takes the load off the spine. This can help anyone who has spine issues or shoulder issues when squatting. Depending on the type of lever arms you have will depend on how you set your belt squat up.  

There are lots of belt squat options available for lever arms to make them adjustable. Depending on your lever arms, there may even be an eyebolt at the bottom for connecting points for your belt. 

Shoulder Press 

While the shoulder press isn’t as exciting and new as the leg press or belt squat, it’s a foundational lift, nonetheless. Adjust the arms to a point where they are parallel during the eccentric (lowering) movement. They should be parallel with your shoulders. With the varying handle grips you have many options to play with and can perform lifts with single arm or both arms. 

Additionally, you can perform shoulder presses behind the neck, standard presses, or seated shoulder presses. These are sure to fire up your delts as gravity will take its toll on them.