EXERCISE SELECTION
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EXERCISE SELECTION
You’ve decided that you want to strength train. Or you are ready to take it to the next level. How do you choose the correct exercises? There is a way to do this. It’s important to have it not be random. To pick the right exercises we need to understand the major muscle groups, their joint actions, different classifications of exercises, the different modes, and your personal needs.
The Major Muscle Groups
The first place to begin is with the major muscle groups that are responsible for our human movement. These major muscle groups are the hip muscles (gluteals), thigh muscles (quadriceps and hamstrings), the chest muscles (pectorals), upper back muscles (latissimus dorsi and rhomboids), the shoulders (deltoids), the upper arms (biceps and triceps), the midsection (abdominals, erector spinae, obliques) and the calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus). All of these muscles are responsible for major human movement. These muscle groups need to be trained consistently.
Joint Actions
When we understand joint actions we will have a much better understanding of how to select an exercise for each muscle group. Each muscle has an action that moves bone. We call this a joint action. When we understand this we also learn that we don’t need to over-complicate exercise selection with picking too many exercises per muscle group.
A key to exercise selection is to pick the exercise that best replicates the joint action and works the muscle groups that you need to work. You do NOT need to exercise the joint action over and over by choosing different exercises per joint action in a training session like some trainers will lead you to believe.
Compound Versus Isolation Exercises
Another consideration is when to choose compound exercises, isolation exercises, or both.
Compound exercises are exercises that work more than one muscle group at the same time, therefore, more than one joint action. During a compound movement, more than one joint is involved so therefore more than one muscle group. With isolation exercises only one joint action is involved so only one muscle group.
An example of a compound exercise is an overhead press. With the overhead press both the shoulder and elbow joints are involved. There are two muscle groups involved in this exercise and they are the deltoids and the triceps.
An example of an isolation exercise is a side raise. You are only using the shoulder joint and only using the medial deltoids. Another example is a triceps pressdown. The only joint involved is the elbow joint and the muscle involved is the triceps.
It is best to do both compound exercises and isolation exercises. Compound exercises can be more efficient. You can get more work done with less exercises. They also replicate many of our human movements because we rarely do a few movements independently.
Isolation exercises are great as well because in some cases those muscles really do need to be singled out. At times, in compound exercises, the stronger muscle group takes over and does more than its fair share of work.
Pick a compound exercise and an isolation exercise for each muscle group. You can pick more than one each to have for variety but you don’t need to do more than one compound and one isolation exercise per muscle group in a training session.
Some bodybuilders and gym goers falsely think that you need to train muscles from many different angles. This has not been proven and not seen in my over thirty years of experience and learning. For example, they may think that for triceps you need to do a seated dip (compound exercise) along with a pressdown, tricep kickback, and overhead tricep extension all in the same training session because the triceps (or whichever) need to be hit from many different angles. Let me take you back to joint actions. The joint action for the triceps is elbow extension. This means that the angle of the elbow is increased. Do you really think that the triceps can feel whether it is a pressdown, kickback, or overhead tricep extension doing that movement? I highly doubt it. Pick one compound and pick one isolation exercise per muscle group per training session.
Mode
Free weights, which are barbells and dumbbells, selectorized machines, body weight, and elastic bands are all good modes for strength training. They all have their pros and cons. Our body needs resistance for the muscles to grow. All of these forms of resistance work. I have my favorites and others have their favorites. There are convenience issues, there are safety (spotting) issues, there are space issues. All of these considerations matter. But there is no best mode. There may be a best mode for you at a given time.
Choose your exercises based on the modes that you have available to you and work best for you. A goblet squat is a squat using a dumbbell, a leg press is a squat using a machine, and a barbell squat is a squat using barbells. All are great tools.
Pick exercises that cover a compound and isolation exercise for each muscle group and use the mode that you have available to you and works best for you. It is great to have a variety of exercises that work best for you. It’s good to have variety. This keeps you from getting bored.
Summary
Make sure that all of the major muscle groups are being addressed on a regular basis. If you determine that you have deficiencies in some muscle groups make them more of a priority but do not just totally ignore other muscle groups. Pick an isolation and compound exercise for each muscle group and use the modes of resistance that you have available to you. Learn different exercises for the muscle group but not because you need to do MORE per training session but so you have variety.