I want to let you in on a secret… You ready? I don’t do the same strength exercises every time I hit the weights. I know, scandalous. We have been conditioned (hah, exercise humor) to think that repeating the exact same workouts every single session is necessary for gains. It’s not and it’s b-o-r-i-n-g. But how do you choose exercises then?
Now, I will say that if you have a very specific goal, your strength routine should reflect that. In other words, your routine should have a repertoire of exercises that you complete every session. Depending on the goal, this will probably be about 75% of your exercises.
An example… when I first started out, my boss was a powerlifter. So his main goal was typically hypertrophy, or at least to be able to lift more weight each session. His chest workout always comprised of standard barbell bench presses and incline barbell presses. But his third exercise he would change up week to week based on how his body felt. Some weeks he’d throw in some dumbbell presses, other times he’d do pec flyes.
If you, like me, strength train to develop general strength, for fitness, to see visible changes in tone, weight loss or the like, then you have more flexibility in your programming. For us, it’s not about being able to leg press our body weight or running a faster mile. All goals involve, you know, squats though.
Squats are still important in terms of the specific muscle groups being worked, but we can choose different variations to target specific sections of the muscle. Or completely different exercises that also hit those muscle groups. And we can choose based on how we feel or what we want on any given day.
One caveat: if you are going to include this type of variety in your training, then you should have a better than average working knowledge of the main muscle groups and which exercises are targeting which muscle. You can check that info out here on MMW by accessing the Wellness Toolbox tab on the menu.
So, how to break it down? Well, the biggest return on investment for strength training comes from compound motions. Compound motions are those motions that involve moving at least two joints. Bench presses, overhead presses, lat pull downs or pulls ups, deadlifts, squats, and lunges are the big six. Regardless of which variation or what type of equipment you are using, these should form the bulk of your routine. (Side note for safety: deadlifts are very complex and take awhile to learn. Give yourself time. And if you have low back issues, scrap the deadlifts and do a combination of a row exercise with a simple spine extension like supermans.)
You should make sure that you are doing at least two compound motions per functional group (push complex, pull complex, and lower body). You can, of course, vary the type of equipment used. In other words, if you don’t like barbell bench press and want to use dumbbells, then have at it.
In order to train with muscle balance in mind, there are a couple other guidelines I like to encourage. First, if you are doing two compound motions for the push complex, make sure you are matching with the pull complex. Second, you should regularly be completing one sided exercises. This means using dumbbells instead of barbells or just having one arm or leg in motion at a time. This isn’t necessary every single workout, but at least a couple times a month.
Now that the compound motions are taken care of, we can talk about isolation movements. Isolation exercises are those exercises that create motion at only one joint. Bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg extensions or curls, calf raises and so on. These are smaller muscles, or smaller portions of larger muscles, and so control smaller motions. Most of the muscles involved in isolation exercises are agonist movers (they assist in creating motion) during the compound exercises. Meaning the compound motions are also training these muscles. However, I like to throw a few isolation exercises in because these muscles are often not getting the overload they need since the bigger muscle groups are still creating most of the power in the compound motions.
You don’t need to go bananas with isolation exercises. Pick one for each agonist mover. So, for push complex, you’d have one triceps and one front deltoid isolation exercise to go with your presses. In the pull complex, you’d have a bicep exercise and a rear deltoid exercise. The lower body is trickier. Squats and lunges hit everything, but it is usually a good idea to do one isolation each for quads, glutes, and hamstrings. Plus some calf raises for good measure.
The isolation exercises are, though, where you can really have fun and pick new and different exercises each session. Again, the compound motions don’t vary and they should be your bread and butter, regardless of goals. I actually like to sprinkle the isolation exercises throughout a session to break up the monotony. But you can certainly group them at the end as an incentive to get through the standard stuff.
Tell us in the comments what your favorite strength exercises to beat boredom are!
