Fitness Solutions for You blog

Exercises everyone should do

1.) Deadlifts

The deadlift is arguably the single best movement you can do; some professional bodybuilders have said that if you could only do one exercise, it should be the deadlift. It is the most compound movement you can do and is great for building mass and overall strength. The deadlift directly works the gluteus maximus, quadriceps, hip adductors (inner thigh), hamstrings, trapezius, and rhomboids, and uses the erector spinae as a stabilizer. The deadlift is also referred to as the best measure of raw overall strength, as it is simply lifting heavy weight right off the floor. Most other exercises have the weight suspended or pre-loaded at some point, while the deadlift is simply that, a dead lift.

Performing deadlifts will strengthen your back and many other muscles. Doing compound movements such as the deadlift and squat effectively works multiple muscle groups at once and should be part of anyone’s workout regimen. The deadlift emulates real world motions and can help prevent injury by strengthening your back.

2.) Squats

The squat, like the deadlift, is a very compound movement that works myriad muscle groups at once and has vast benefits beyond simply working the muscles directly involved. The squat directly works the quadriceps, gluteus maximus, hamstrings, hip adductors, and calves simultaneously. The squat paired with the deadlift is the best combination for building mass, functional strength, and general physical preparedness.

Performing squats will not only strengthen your legs; it can help build the rest of your muscles as well. Squats work out the largest muscles in your body and cause the release of growth hormones that stimulate the growth of other muscles in your body that are not even involved the slightest in performing the squat itself.

Just as muscles grow and calluses form in response to training, joints and ligaments adapt to the increased stress from lifting weights. There is evidence that performing squats will strengthen the ACL and PCL, some of the tissues most vulnerable to sports injuries.

Like any complex exercise, there are many variations that can and should be performed.

a.) The hack squat, which is performed essentially by holding the barbell with hanging arms behind you and squatting down with it. While the same muscles are targeted, a whole different set of stabilizers are involved.

b.) The front squat, which is performed essentially by holding the bar across your shoulders and crossing your arms in front of you to hold the barbell. The front squat puts more focus on the top of your quadriceps and involves nearly a dozen stabilizers! Performing front squats is also a good way to improve your form for doing regular squats because it is almost impossible to do front squats with bad form because of the mechanics of the motion; you would topple over if you used incorrect form.

c.) The back squat, which is the most often performed variation of the squat. The back squat, which will hereafter be referred to as just the “squat,” is performed by placing the barbell high on the back of your shoulders with your feet shoulder-width apart and descending until your upper leg is parallel with the ground. Depending on the width of your foot placement and the angling of your feet, you will target different muscles. With a narrower stance you will target your quadriceps more and with a wider stance you will target your hamstrings more.

d.) The full squat, which is performed like a squat, but rather than stopping at parallel you continue down until your hamstrings just barely touch your calves and go back up. There is a great deal of debate surrounding the topic of whether full squats, also known as “ass-to-grass” squats, should be performed in favor of squats. A high level of flexibility in both the hips and ankles is required to safely and effectively perform the full squat. There is also evidence that further growth is promoted by doing squats to parallel because it allows you to use more weight, but there is also evidence that stress on the knees is the most at parallel, and stopping there with a heavy barbell on your back isn’t good. I personally do both variations and would recommend performing both variations to anyone capable of reaching the depth required for a full squat.

e.) The box squat, which is a variation of the standard back squat. Such accomplished powerlifters and strength trainers as Dave Tate have argued that the box squat is so effective that the need for any other type of other squat does not exist. Performing box squats ensure that you hit a consistent depth with every repetition and assist in performing the motion with picture perfect form. Performing the box squat allows you to sit further back than you normally could, which more directly targets the muscles involved in the squat (because you are sitting back onto an object, rather than the air) and places less strain on your knees.

As with any exercise, one should exercise caution and seek counsel from a professional before performing any new exercise to ensure proper form. If you bounce off the box or use more weight than you are capable of using you can and likely will get injured (as is true of any exercise). When performed properly the box squat helps you get perfect form, places more strain on the muscles involved in squatting (which in turn leads to further muscle development), and ensures that you always go as deep as you should.

As a side note, I would also strongly recommend doing single-leg exercises such as lunges or single-legged split squats. If hip and ankle flexibility prohibits you from performing full squats, you will not properly target your gluteus maximus and upper hamstrings with regular squats. However, single-legged motions such as lunges or single legged split squats do not require the flexibility that full squats do and provide the sufficient targeting of the gluteus maximus and upper hamstrings. After a recent knee injury, I was limited to only working out one of my legs and realized the importance of single-legged exercises when the following day my gluteus maximus was more sore than it ever had been in years.

3.) Bench press

The bench press is the most effective movement for working your upper body. The bench press works your pectoralis major, front deltoids, triceps, and latissimus dorsi while utilizing your biceps brachii as a stabilizer. The bench press is a very universal exercise because it can be done with many various grips and performed at many different angles to put more focus on different muscle groups. With a narrow grip there is more focus on the triceps, and with a wide grip, more on the outer pectorals.

Performed on an incline, there is more focus on the upper deltoids and upper pectorals, and performed on a decline there is more focus on the lower pectorals. Some people perform the bench press on a decline if they reach a plateau for flat bench press, because there is a shorter range of motion with decline bench press so you can do more weight, and some of that is transferred to flat bench press. Scapular retraction (squeezing of the shoulder blades) focuses the pectorals and inhibits domination by the triceps.

4.) Rows

Bent-over, seated, lying, one-armed, and incline rows, as well as pull-ups and pull-downs, are the next most compound movements after deadlifts, squats, and bench press. Most of these exercises involved the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, lower trapezius, biceps brachii, and brachialis. These exercises will effectively work the majority of the muscles in the upper back, the perfect complement to the bench press, which works the majority of the muscles on the front of your upper body. Performing pull-ups works nearly every muscle in your upper back and your arms, if only as a stabilizer.

5.) Face pulls

Face pulls are commonly referred to as the most underrated exercise because they hit a group of muscles that are often neglected from other complementary exercises. Face pulls can be performed by attaching a barbell or rope to any cable station in a position that is about eye-level and pulling it towards the middle of your face. Face pulls increase the mobility of your scapula, strengthen your external rotators, and balance your shoulder muscles.

The inclusion of these five movements and their variations will provide a very good core to any workout regimen. These exercises are appropriate for any level of athlete, from someone who has never touched a weight in his or her life to an elite bodybuilder. Everyone who knows what they are doing in the fitness world will include these exercises and their variations in their workout regimen–and the sensible ones do.

Tags: muscles, weightlifting

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 am and is filed under weightlifting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.