If you’ve ever picked up a VHS off the shelf at Blockbuster—you still do that too, right?—you know that movies often aren’t what they appear to be at first glance.

• The Deer Hunter isn’t about hunting deer.
• The Neverending Story actually, you know, ends. There’s even a sequel.
• 50 Shades of Grey is not a coloring book.

Strength training is the same way. Plenty of movements look like a whole lot of weirdness—or a whole lot of nothing—when you see them in a 10-second YouTube clip without context. But with a little more context, they turn out to be just the thing you needed all along to build an epic overhead press or nail that first pull-up.

These three movements are all worthy of being performed without a shred of self-consciousness. Still, it’s a good idea to be prepared for the inevitable question: “What is that working?”

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SPOILER ALERT: exercises discussed in the article are HBT (Hanging Band Training) Overhead Press, Lying Hollow Position, and the Spoto Press (pictured above).¹.