Article posted today by Eric Bach @Eric_Bach
says 5 best exercises are:
or some variation of the same exercise (like high-bar and low bar squats, for example).
Thoughts?
Agree or Disagree?
*Pulls pin on grenade *: traditional Deadlifts are bypassed in favor of RDL, how does this make you feel?
For hypertrophy, sure, nothing really controversial about it. I feel as if there are a slew of previous articles on the site making the same claim.
it does have me curious as to why almost every program (including hypertrophy) still has deadlifts written in then. Are they a staple for building strength (which inherently also builds muscle), or are they a benchmark for progress?
Trying to tell people to get rid of deadlifts always earns the ire of the internet powerlifting hivemind collective.
I think itās a silly choice for hypertrophy, and those thoughts arenāt un-echoed.
The big thing is that there is SO much instruction out there FOR the deadlift that, if youāre on your own, you have great resources. Trying to get some uncoordinated perptual āinside kidā to understand the nuances of an RDL vs a SLDL compared to a conventional pull is going to result in a herniated disc.
I agree, but to an extentā¦ If weāre to understand that getting stronger = bigger muscles, then that would inherently make all lifts āgoodā for muscle growth.
The difference is that most people will peak on dumbbell curls somewhere in the vicinity of 50lbs (for 5+ reps), so the maximum improvement range is rather small. But for Deadlifts, most natural men would max out in the vicinity of 500-600lbs for 5+ reps, so the maximum improvement range is quite large.
If progressive overload = muscle growth, wouldnāt the heaviest exercises also stimulate the most growth?
Iām playing devilās advocate here, Iām aware the fatigue:stimuli ratio is terrible for deadlifts.
You donāt EVEN want to get me started on what āgetting strongerā means, haha.
I honestly dont even believe that exercises matter that much.
I only look at movements.
What i think we need to get stronger at is :
1)Vertical Pull
2)Horizontal Pull
3)Vertical Push
4)Horizontal Push
5)Hip Hinge
6)Squat
ANY exercise that is somewhat any of these movements will be good. I dont think anyone will see the difference if a person does squats or frontsquats, for example. I really dont think that if he also does other exercises, his legs will look somehow very different.
Same goes with absolutelly every of the movements i wrote down.
You can pick 6 exercises - one for each movement, progress on them, and i dont think that a person who does different 6 exercises, will look noticably different.
If I was going to get rid of the regular bench, I would replace it with the press (overhead). I think dumbell bench is just too much of a PITA when it gets heavy to be practical. Also, most gyms donāt have heavy enough dumbells for this to work long term.
Agree with this 100% + they kind of feel crappy on my shouldersā¦ BB feels much better.
Huh. Iāve never felt the press to be a good muscle builder. If youāve got dumbbells going up to 100 or so, thatās going to be more than enough for 95% of folks who are interested in training for hypertrophy.
Not sure if I should be thanking you for the compliment, or if your yardstick needs to be re-calibrated 
I think the bench is easier to progress long term than the press, but I would take the press over DB bench as far as progression goes.
100s would be fairly light if I was going to use it as a primary movement. I think many guys if they practice DB bench awhile get really good at it. At one point my DB bench was about the same as my flat bench (and I donāt think I am unusual). I say this because a 200 lb bench isnāt very advanced. 100 lb DBs isnāt very advanced if someone practices them a lot and gets the balance down.
Ha! Iāve trained plenty of places where there are folks for whom 100s wouldnāt be enough. And they werenāt for me for many years. But for 95% of the lifting population, 100s are going to be enough. How often have you seen anyone in a gym do reps with the hundreds on a flat bench?
Not very often because theyāre busy pressing 315 on BB lol. Agree with @mnben87, if flat DB press was trained as a primary movement the way BB Bench is, 100lbs wouldnāt be enough for most.
Still, it did take me some time to get up in strength for anything this heavy. (I donāt do flat DB bench)
Well, that changes my perspective a bit. Maybe I have just always sucked at dbell bench. Even when I was barbell benching in the 400s doing 100 to 115 or so on the dbell bench for reps was a challenge for me. Edit to say I was also never training this as a primary movement during this time period, so perhaps thatās why I never got all that good at it.
If you donāt do them very often, they are difficult for what they weigh. Balance is tricky at first.
I should say I would just replace DB bench for BB bench instead of the press. BB bench gets some hate, but it allows for lots of weight to be moved, and isnāt that hard to progress on over time.
The entire premise of the article is flawed in my opinion. There is no way I am limiting my exercise choices to a fixed number of different exercises, and never to only 5. An analogy: āThe 5 Best Muscle-Building Foods of All Time.ā
Hankās choices make sense
But I would still add more, especially arms and legs.
I meanā¦
I like these kinds of thought exercises myself. Iāve picked out my 2 ādesert islandā exercises.
I agree with this statement to a point, but isnāt the whole point of SLDL to be able to isolate the prime movers in a deadlift more, therefore making those particular muscles stronger/bigger?
I come from a belief that if your bench would be 500, no way in hell your arms are still smallā¦