Let’s talk about finishers.
First – what exactly IS a finisher?
You can’t beat the definition Will Levy gave:
“A finisher is an exercise or sequence of exercises that should be designed to rapidly increase the workload on the cardiovascular system and/or muscular system, and with them, increase energy output.”
Basically, finishers are intense bouts of exercise used to “finish off” a muscle group or workout. They’re also an endless source of Mortal Kombat “finish him” jokes.
Finishers have lots of different applications:
- Fat Loss – Finishers are a great tool to increase total calories burned in a workout. A session composed of heavy compound lifts AND a fat burning finisher is a solid recipe for a lean, muscular physique (along with good nutrition, of course.)
- Muscle Growth – Finishers are great for ramping up metabolic stress. You know that burning feeling you get when you’re chasing the pump? Training like this causes metabolites to accumulate in your muscle cells, leading to cell swelling, hormonal release, and several other factors important to muscle growth. (1)(2)
- General Conditioning – So you’re already super lean AND jacked? First off – congrats. But finishers can still help make your workouts more effective and efficient.By improving your conditioning, you’ll be able to recover quicker between sets, and improve endurance during sets. Essentially, you’ll be able to do more work, in a shorter time period.
- Fun/Adherence – Straight up, a big part of training properly is being “boringly consistent” with the basics.
Finishers let you incorporate unique modalities, like strongman circuits, advanced bodybuilding techniques, or MetCons, like you’ll find in a CrossFit workout. They let you add exciting twists to your program, without falling into the “entertrainment trap” – prioritizing novelty exercises over results.
If you’re a coach, movements like dead bugs and face pulls are often necessary, but not always the most fun for your clients. An intense cap that leaves their heart pounding, or a chance to blast their biceps gives clients what they want, after a session full of corrective work.
What are we waiting for?? I’m ready to be finished!
Woahh, slow down. First off, your phrasing there is just… weird.
I know finishers sound dope and you’re ready to dive right in, but in order to get jacked, lean, and all the results you want – you need to understand your training priorities.
You know those beefy dudes in the gym? You know.. the ones that say:
“Just lift some heavy ass weights bro.”
Despite their poorly articulated suggestions… they’re onto something.
See, Muscle growth is thought to be caused by three primary mechanisms:
- Mechanical tension – Lifting really heavy weights.
- Muscle damage – Adequate training stress -> muscle damage (often experienced as soreness) -> recovery -> growth
- Metabolic stress – Metabolite accumulation in muscle cells. (3)
Neglecting any of these mechanisms means you’re leaving gains on the table.
What the homies at the gym are trying to tell you is – finisher-style circuits are great for creating metabolic stress, but your ability to create lots of mechanical tension goes to shit.
Your best bet for building muscle is a training program focused on both increasing mechanical tension AND creating metabolic stress. Muscle damage takes care of itself when you focus on the other two mechanisms.
For best results, your training program should be based around getting stronger at the compound lifts – primarily in the 5-15 rep range.
“Also, why are your calves so small bro? Do you even…”
Yeah let’s move on. Those guys suck.
Think of your training like a pizza.
Your compound lifts with a focus on progressive overload are like the crust, sauce, and cheese. They’re essential. As long as you have these components, you have a pretty good pizza… albeit a bit bland.
Finishers are like the pepperoni and pineapple on top. (Yes pineapple. Don’t hate on me.) They’re a great finishing touch to spice things up, but they’re non-essential.
Blend them together just right, and you have EXACTLY what you’ve been looking for. The perfect (workout) pizza.
The recipe for a great training day should look something like:
- 3-4 compound movements, trained primarily in the 5-15 rep range, with a focus on progressive overload.
- 2-4 isolation exercises geared towards weaknesses.
- A 5-15 minute, goal specific finisher.
With me so far? Great.
So you know that other group of dudes in the gym? You know.. the ones that say:
Just go vegan bro. It’s the only way to get a lean, healthy body.
They’re also onto something… haha ok ok. I’m just playing with ya.
No need to go vegan. But really – the most important thing for fat loss is your diet. You’ll burn a lot of calories with a fat loss focused finisher. BUT, it won’t be nearly enough to “burn off” a bad diet.
So to build a lean, strong, and athletic body, your priorities are:
- Nutrition. Really – it’s just as important as your training. If how your nutrition strategy doesn’t align with your goals, you won’t get the results. (Lost here? Check out The Beginner’s Guide To Track Your Macros.)
- Spending the majority of your training focusing on improving the compound lifts in the moderate rep ranges.
- Have 1 & 2 on point? NOW you start focusing on things like finishers.
Ok, I have faith you’ve got your priorities straight. Let’s get into the fun stuff.
Building Your Finisher
When building your finisher, you need to:
- Be smart with exercise selection
- Make it goal specific
Let’s talk exercise selection first.
Choose low-complexity exercises. As fatigue sets in, form breaks down. Attempting highly technical exercises while super fatigued? You’re gonna have a bad time.
Say you decide to focus on your glutes and hammies with your finisher, so a “hinge” movement is in order. You know barbell deadlifts are a great exercise for your backside… but they’re also a very technical movement. Probably not ideal for a finisher.
But a kettlebell swing? That’d hit the same muscle groups, with much less risk of ruining your perfectly good spine.
Basically, try to choose exercises that aren’t very technical, or are less likely to ruin your life if you “fail”.
Simply find less complex variations of the foundational movement patterns to plug in.
Foundational Movement Patterns
- Squat
- Hinge
- Lunge
- Push
- Pull
- Carry/Anti-Movement
To help you out…
Your Exercise Key
(Categorized By Movement Pattern):
| Squat | Hinge | Lunge | Push | Pull | Carry/Anti-
Movement |
| Bodyweight Squat | Banded Glute Bridge | Reverse Lunge | Band Resisted Push Up | Chin-Ups | Bottoms-Up Carry |
| TRX Assisted Squat | Single Leg Glute Bridge | Walking Lunge | Deficit Push Up | Pull-Ups | Suitcase Carry |
| Jump Squat | BB Glute Bridge | Split Squat | Single-Arm Bench Press | Cable Row | Farmer’s Carry |
| Goblet Squat | Banded Hip Thrust | Front Foot Elevated Split Squat | DB Bench Variations | Renegade Row | Front Rack Carry |
| Heels Elevated Goblet Squat | Single Leg Hip Thrust | Deficit Reverse Lunge | DB Shoulder Press Variations | Inverted/TRX Rows | Overhead Carry |
| Landmine Squat | BB Hip Thrust | DB Step-Ups | 1/2 Kneeling Landmine Press | Chest Supported Rows | LLPT Planks |
| Single Front Rack KB Squat | KB Deadlift | KB Front Rack Step-Up | Shoulder-To-Shoulder Landmine Press | Band Pull-Apart Variations | Pallof Press Variations |
| Banded Pulse Squat | Banded RDL | Lateral Step-Up | 1/2 Kneeling KB Press | Band Face Pull | Hollow Body Hold Variations |
| Wall Sit | Offset RDL | Front-To-Back Lunge | Single Arm Push Press | TRX Face Pull | Dead Bug Variations |
Here’s some solid options for isolation work.
| Glutes | Hamstrings | Quads | Back | Chest |
| Frog Pumps | Swiss Ball Leg Curl | Leg Extension | Straight Arm Pull Down | Cable Chest Fly |
| Band Lateral Walk | Seated Leg Curl | Sissy Squat | Band Pull Down + Aparts | Cable Incline Fly |
| Band Glute March | Lying Leg Curl | Hack Squat | Chest Supported T-Bar Row | DB Floor Fly |
| Banded Hip Abduction | Slider Leg Curl | Narrow Stance Goblet Squat | Pull Down Variations | DB Squeeze Press |
| Shoulders | Biceps | Triceps | Abs | Calves |
| DB Lateral Raise | DB Incline Curls | Bench Dips | Cable Crunch | Seated Calf Raise |
| Around-The-World Lateral Raise | Band Hammer Curls | Band Pushdowns | Hanging Knee Raise | Standing Calf Raise |
| Chest Supported DB Back Fly | Zottman Curls | Band Overhead Extensions | Weighted Crunch | Single Leg Calf Raise |
| TRX Scarecrow | Spider Curls | Close Grip Push Ups | Reverse Crunch | Weighted Toe Walk |
And some good cardio options.
| Rower | Sprints |
| Assault Bike | Battle Ropes |
| Deadmills | SkiErg |
| Sled Push | Jump Rope |
| Sled Pull | Shuttle Sprints |
Goal Specificity
It’s easy to throw together a few exercises and create a brutal finisher… but you want more than that. You want that perfect ratio of pepperoni to pineapple. An effective finisher requires more thought.
So yeah, this area of your training allows a little more freedom and creativity. But DON’T just do things at random. Your finisher should always be specific to your goal.
Fat Loss Finishers
Your goal here is to jack your heart-rate up, and burn maximum calories in minimal time.
To achieve this, you need to manage muscular fatigue properly.
Say your finisher was:
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) 10-minutes
a.) Chin-ups x8
b.) TRX Rows x15
Both movements recruit primarily your back and bicep muscles, meaning these muscles would fatigue pretty quickly. Before long, you’ll need to rest 60-90 seconds to continue.
The problem here? Muscular fatigue was the limiting factor – when the goal was pushing your cardiovascular system to its limits. Out of the 10-minute AMRAP, you’ll have spent a good chunk of time resting.
This is like going to a Mexican restaurant with the goal of eating some delicious fajitas… but you accidentally eat an absurd amount of free chips and salsa instead. By the time your fajitas arrive, you’re too full to eat ‘em. You didn’t really get what you came here for.
To avoid muscular fatigue becoming the limiting factor: alternate between upper/lower or push/pull exercises.
Get creative with your modalities for fat loss finishers. Weighted carries, sleds, slam balls, and body weight exercises are great for making this feel not so “cardio-ish”.
Finally, mix it up with these. Again – novelty for the sake of novelty is dumb, and not great for results. But here, your goal is to burn as many calories as possible. Doing the same finisher over and over will lead to your body getting very efficient at said finisher, and decreased calorie burn. A few options:
AMRAPs (As many rounds as possible)
This is a great option for ramping up your heart rate AND potentially getting a crazy pump as well.
Set a timer for 5-15 minutes, choose 2-4 exercises, and work to complete as many rounds of your circuit as possible.
Since you’re performing a constant circuit, don’t choose multiple exercises that are too fatiguing (e.g. assault bike sprints paired with battle ropes.) It’s usually best to pair exercises that train different modalities and intensities.
(It’s easy to get sloppy here, focus on maintaining quality form throughout the AMRAP.)
Examples:
-AMRAP: 10-minutes
Rower x 10 cals
Push-up x 10-15
Farmer’s Carry x50 meters
-AMRAP: 10-minutes
Med Ball Slam x15
TRX/Inverted Row x10
Sled Push x50 meters
AFAP (As Fast As Possible)
Here, you’re trying to hit a specified number of reps (typically 50-100), or burn X amount of calories as fast as possible.
Don’t choose exercises that’ll absolutely ruin you when done at crazy high-reps. AFAP work is best suited to exercises that don’t have a ton of eccentric work.
Examples:
-AFAP
100 Kettlebell swings
-AFAP
Burn 40 cals on the assault bike
-AFAP
Air squats x24
Reverse lunges x12/side
Jump squats x24
Jump lunges x12/side
(Credit to the man Cody “Boom Boom” McBroom for this one.)
-AFAP
Or, you can mix the two if you really hate yourself.
a.) Rower 20, 15, 12, 10 cals
b.) DB thrusters 20, 15, 12, 10 reps
Alternate between exercises. Don’t die.
HIIT Finishers
Quick, but brutal.
Here, you’ll be doing 10-15 seconds of all-out effort, followed by 2 minutes rest, and repeating for 4-5 rounds.
HIIT finishers are best suited to modalities you can perform an all-out “sprint” on. The assault bike, deadmills, prowler, and hill sprints work great.
Example:
-Assault Bike Sprints
15-seconds all-out effort
2-minutes rest. Repeat x5
Really, your finisher doesn’t have to follow any of these structures. Just make it something that works multiple muscle groups and jacks your heart rate up.
Muscle Building Finishers
Here, your goal is creating lots of metabolic stress. Focus on chasing the pump, and feeling the burn. These should feel much less “cardio-ish” than your fat loss finishers.
You can use these to target a single lagging muscle group, or take a more balanced approach and hit opposing muscle groups
Mechanical Drop Sets
Christian Thibaudeau was the first coach I heard talking about mechanical drop sets.
You’ll pair three variations of the same movement pattern, progressing from the weakest to strongest variation as the set goes on. This allows you to continue to push the weight as fatigue accumulates.
Examples:
-Chest Focused Mechanical Drop Set
a.) Reverse grip DB incline press x8-10
Rest 10-15 seconds
b.) Neutral grip DB incline press x8-10
Rest 10-15 seconds
c.) DB incline press x8-10
Rest 2-3 minutes. 3 total rounds.
-Shoulder Focused Mechanical Dropset
a.) DB Arnold Press x8-10
Rest 10-15 seconds
b.) DB shoulder press x8-10
Rest 10-15 seconds
c.) DB push press x8-10
Rest 2-3 minutes. 3 total rounds.
Myo-reps
The closer you take a set to failure, the higher the percentage muscle fibers in said muscle group recruited to continue moving the weight. The last few reps leading up to failure recruit the most muscle fibers, and are the most effective for stimulating growth a.k.a. effective reps.
How to do Myo-Reps
- Start by taking a weight to or very near failure in the 9-20 rep range
- Rest 3-5 breaths, before hitting 3-5 more reps
- Repeat in this fashion for 3-5 mini-sets of 3-5 reps
By taking your first set near failure, you’ve fully recruited and fatigued the fibers of said muscle group. The short rest periods between mini-sets don’t give you much time to reduce fatigue, meaning that all of the mini-sets are performed with your muscles in a fully recruited and fatigued state. So all the reps of the mini-sets fall in the “effective reps range”. (4)
Basically, you get all the training effects of 4-6 work sets, in a fraction of the time.
This technique lends itself well to isolation exercises. I especially like it for lateral raises, bicep curls, and leg extensions.
Myo-Reps are great when you’re working on a tight schedule. Say you only have 30 minutes to train. Times almost up, and you still need to touch on shoulders.
Enter: Myo-Reps
Example:
-Lateral Raises
20 reps (Ending at or near failure)
*Rest 5 breaths
5 reps
*Rest 5 breaths
5 reps
*Rest 5 breaths
4 reps
*Rest 5 breaths
3 reps
*Rest 5 breaths
3 reps
Your shoulders will be fried by the end of this, AND it only took a few minutes.
(Credit to Borge Fagerli for this one.)
Growth Factors Sets
Growth factor sets hit a muscle group with three very different movements in a row. The goal here is to keep the muscle under constant tension for 60-70 seconds achieve a CRAZY pump.
Examples:
-Quad Focused Growth Factor Set
a.) Leg extension x10-15
b.) Landmine squat x10-15
c.) Goblet loaded wall sit x60 sec
Rest 2 minutes. Repeat x2-3.
-Back Focused Growth Factor Set
a.) Straight-arm pulldown x10-15
b.) Pronated grip lat pulldown x10-15
c.) Supinated grip lat pulldown x10-15
Rest 2 minutes. Repeat x2-3.
Applying this method simply comes down to mixing up the angles and/or grips you’re hitting a muscle group with.
(Credit to Christian Thibaudeau and Paul Carter for this one. I first learned about growth factor sets in their book Maximum Muscle Bible.)
EMOMs (Every Minute On-The-Minute)
Here, you’ll set a timer (usually 6-10 minutes) and perform an exercise or exercises at the start of every minute.
Choose 1-2 exercises, with a moderate rep range (should take about 30-40 sec to complete). Alternate which exercises you perform “every minute on the minute”.
These are super versatile.
Examples:
-EMOM 8-minutes
a.) Split squats x6/side (Starting at minute 8, 6, 4, 2)
b.) Chest Supported Row x8 (Starting at minute 7, 5, 3, 1)
Great upper/lower finisher.
-EMOM 10-minutes
Chin-ups x6-8
EMOMs can also be applied to a single movement to add tons of volume. This is frequently done with chin-ups and kettlebell swings.
-EMOM 10-Minutes
a.) Cable incline fly x15
b.) Feet elevated push-up x10
A solid way to finish off a single body part as well. Pair an isolation exercise with a compound movement.
Other muscle building finishers
-Lower Body Torture
a.) Banded RDL x30
b.) Bodyweight reverse lunge 15-20/leg
60 sec rest. Repeat x2-3
This is a variation of a finisher I learned from John Rusin. It absolutely torches the lower body, especially the glutes and hammies.
–Upper Body Pump
a.) Band Resisted Push-ups x MAX(-1)
b.) Band pull aparts x20
c.) Band tricep pushdown x25
d.) Band hammer curl x25
30-seconds rest. Repeat x3
Just like with fat loss your finisher doesn’t have to follow a specific structure. Just be smart with exercise selection, and focus on feeling the burn.
Again, they’re called FINISHERS, not ALLOFYOURWORKOUT-ERS. That doesn’t even make sense grammatically… much less in training program design.
Keep your priorities straight, choose a finisher specific to your goals, and most of all – have fun.
Sources
- http://www.lookgreatnaked.com/articles/potential_mechanisms_for_%20a_role_of_metabolic_stress_in_hypertrophic_adaptations_to_resistance_training.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5489423/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46288878_The_Mechanisms_of_Muscle_Hypertrophy_and_Their_Application_to_Resistance_Training
- https://borgefagerli.com/myo-reps-in-english/
Jeremiah Bair is the biggest Taylor Swift fan in Lincoln, Nebraska. He’s also a certified nutrition coach, fitness writer, and owner of the Online Coaching Business Bairfit. His Instagram is noticeably absent of any calf pictures.
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