Of course this has been the subject of a thousand T-Nation columns. Tips For Benching! Bench Accessory Lifts You Need! Twelve Next Level Chest Exercises THEY Don’t Want You To Know! EMG Results For Every Exercise! Benching Is Overrated! How To Treat Shoulder Injury!
Above the noise, you have goals and limited time and limited energy and the gym is always busy at the worst times. So screw the data. Forget the experts.
What do YOU think are the best exercises for each body part (however you choose to define that)?
Whole Body: Rack Pull & Four Second Hold
Overhead Hold (Smith) & OH Carry Biceps: Kroc row, Preacher curl, Chins Triceps: Rope, Weighted Dip, Close Grip BP Back: Incline Supported (High) Smith Row,
Chins and Pull-ups (Weighted) Chest: Bench, Chest Dips Legs: Box and Low Squats, Deficit Deads,
Leg Press, Hack Machine, Lunges,
Hip Thrust Machine Cardio: Seated Rope Pull Cardio Thing
(Also this for forearms). Core: Ab Wheel, Leg Raises
Legs…squats
Back…deadlifts and chins
Chest…incline press
Biceps…bb curls
Shoulders…arnold presses
Triceps…close grip bench
Abs…hanging leg raises
Calves…donkey raises
Cardio…running
nowadays my favs are
Legs…leg extensions
Back…nautilus pullover
Chest…chest press Pre-exhaust with pec deck
Shoulders…side lateral raise
Biceps…preacher curl
Triceps…dip machine
calves…calf press only because there is no donkey machine
Abs…crunch machine
Cardio…i do the above in circuit fashion as a full body
This is an interesting topic that seems to change over time. Recently, I’ve discovered that I respond well to submaximal training with excercises that work the muscle in it’s full length, when tension is being distributed in the most stretched position. I generally also am in favour of excercises that allow controlled negatives. Science may back me up here.
Legs - Belt squats, deep with explosive intent (flywheel)
Back - Chinups or supinated barbell rows
Chest - Nautilus machine seated chest presses
Shoulders - Lighter, controlled single arm movements (especially with chest expander)
Triceps - One arm extensions behind the back (chest expander)
Biceps - Machine scott curl (especially like the german brand GYM80 version)
Abs - Nautilus One Ab machine
Calf - Any one legged movement
I miss the Nautilus machines. I thought all of them worked well, but apart from military gyms you never see them in Canada now. I don’t know why people get misty eyed over the pullover in particular, though it is a fine machine.
Whole Body : Conventional Deadlift
Legs : Squat, Any Barbell Variation
Chest : Incline Bench, or Larsen Press
Triceps : Close Grip Bench or Heavy Dumbell Skullcrushers
Shoulders : Shoulder Press, Any Barbell Variation
Back : Barbell Row And Weighted Pullups
Whole Body: Clean and Jerks Biceps: 21’s Triceps: A triple set of JM presses, Skull crushers, and overhead presses lying flat on a bench, all with an ez-curl bar Back: Parallel-grip lat pulldown Chest: Incline Bench Legs: Leg/ham machines while changing toe angle Cardio: Swimming or the rowing machine Core: Table pushaways, “nocturnal cardio”.
I really don’t do much core stuff since I want the X-shape more than abs that pop. Which is why I’m adding this;
I personally don’t train thinking of body parts, but my favorites by category are:
Ring dips for upper push Front squats for lower push Weighted pull ups for upper push Clean grip high pulls from floor for total body pull emphasis Barbell Thrusters for total body push emphasis
Box jumps and hill sprints for explosion/conditioning
Just out of curiosity, what was your goal for doing super sets, tri-sets, or giant sets? For what it is worth, I did them mainly for a pump at the end of that body part.
Shoulders: dips again. They truly are the upper body squat. Which didn’t make the list but if I had to summarize the entire leg in to one movement it would be heavy squats.
