Exercise selection for effective muscle building

• To evaluate the effectiveness of exercises, it may be worth dividing them into categories, such as single-joint or multi-joint exercises, or by equipment used
• Exercise Evaluation Criteria:
• The performance of the target muscles should be the limiting factor for an exercise
• The target muscles should be able to be trained safely with a lot of weight
• It should be possible to train the target muscles throughout the full range of motion
• It should be possible to gradually progress the weight
• Different exercises can hit different parts of the target muscles
• The exercise selection, the number of different exercises, and the rate at which they are swapped out depends on the advancement level of the trainee
• However, it can be roughly said that about 70% of the exercises should be multi-joint and 30% single-joint

Classic basic exercises instead of exotic gimmicks

"A one-legged squat on the BOSU Ball with arms extended to the side and dumbbells in hands is a super exercise for the deep muscles of the core! Because it puts a tremendous amount of stress on those muscles so you don't fall over."

This or something similar was the statement of a well-educated trainer three years ago, during a conversation about effective exercises for the core muscles.

So, this kind of acrobatic exercise with pink dumbbells in the hands is supposed to be more effective for the core musculature than a full range of motion squat with both legs on a stable surface and a barbell on the neck with a good amount of weight on it?

Readers of this blog will already be able to guess what our answer to this question will be. But what makes a truly effective exercise? And what criteria should you use when choosing an exercise?

Exercise categories

First, let's sort exercises by commonalities and divide them into certain categories. This allows us to establish rules or guidelines for training certain muscles, which can be applied to several exercises at the same time. Very roughly, the exercises in strength training can be divided into two categories:

• Single-joint (isolation) exercises, e.g. biceps curls
• Multi-joint (compound) exercises, like squats

Alternatively, we can categorize them by the equipment used:

• Bodyweight exercises, e.g. push-ups
• Barbell exercises, e.g. barbell deadlift
• Dumbbell exercises, e.g. dumbbell flys
• Cable pull exercises, e.g. cable triceps presses
• Machine exercises, e.g. the leg press

Regardless of the exercise, you should always observe solid technique during execution. This includes not swinging the weight and exercising the muscles through the full range of motion.

The eccentric portion of the movement should be done in a controlled way and the concentric should be performed explosively. The muscle works eccentrically when it is lengthened - so when the weight is lowered in the biceps curl, for example. When the muscle is brought back up, this is called the concentric movement.

Criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of exercises

So now, which exercises are effective and which are not so effective? To answer this question, we first need criteria for the effectiveness of certain exercises or exercise categories. Effectiveness is high when many muscle fibers of the target muscles are stimulated to the maximum. When is this the case? There are four criteria for this:

1. The performance of the target muscles should be the limiting factor for an exercise.

   Suppose when doing a barbell deadlift without wrist straps and without a mixed grip, the set must be ended because the grip is weakening. The strength of the grip is determined by the forearm muscles, so in this case those muscles were the limiting factor.

   This means that the target muscles of the exercise - in the case of the deadlift, the glutes, the hamstrings, and the lower back - have not been pushed to their limits. Thus, the deadlift without wrist straps and without a mixed grip in this situation is not an effective exercise to hit the target muscles.

2. The target muscles should be able to be trained safely with a lot of weight.

   The extreme negative example here is the case of the one-legged squat on the BOSU Ball presented above. If we consider only this criterion, then barbell and machine exercises would definitely be preferable to dumbbell and cable exercises.

   For example, when bench pressing with a barbell, much more weight can be moved (safely) than when bench pressing with dumbbells.

   One of the reasons for this is that the barbell requires less stabilization. The barbell can only move up and down, forward and backward, and left and right.

   The dumbbells can do all that too. But they can do it independently and in different directions. In addition, they can also move inward and outward.

   In this case, still being able to move the weight safely requires strength and focus, so much less weight can be used overall.

3. It should be possible to train the target muscles over the full range of motion.

   The importance of training over the full range of motion should probably be clear to everyone by now. However, with many exercises it is impossible to use the target muscles over their entire possible range of motion, even with perfect execution.

   If we were to look only at this criterion, dumbbell and cable exercises would be superior to most barbell exercises.

   When bench pressing with a barbell, for example, a lot of weight can be moved, but not over the full range of motion. This is because the depth of the lowest position is limited by the height at which the barbell hits the chest.

   Actually, the pectorals could still guide the weight further down. This is possible with the dumbbell version of the exercise. There, the dumbbells can be guided so low that the pectorals are under maximum stretch.

   Exercises such as cable flys typically have a fairly constant resistance over the entire range of motion. If, on the other hand, the flys are performed with the dumbbells, the resistance is much lower in the top position.

   This is not to say that exercises with a constant resistance curve are always superior to those with a non-constant resistance curve. Both can (and should) be effectively integrated into a training plan.

4. It should be possible to gradually progress the weight.

   This is a very big disadvantage of bodyweight exercises. It is possible to put on a weight vest for push-ups, for example, but in practice it is quite unrealistic to let the weight increase little by little.

   Even if you make a weight vest that you can add more weight over time by adding new weights, the maximum weight is still relatively low. No one has ever managed to move nearly as much weight during push-ups with a weight vest as during the bench press.

Finding exercises that meet all the criteria is quite difficult, as each exercise has advantages and disadvantages. For example, many dumbbell and cable exercises allow the target muscles to be used over the full range of motion, but for these exercises, you cannot use as much weight.

Variety in exercise selection to stimulate all muscle fibers

In addition, many exercises train only parts of the target muscle. In the incline bench press, for example, the upper part of the pecs is trained more than the lower.

With triceps exercises that are performed above the head, the focus is on the long head of the triceps. Triceps exercises with the upper arm on the torso, on the other hand, hit the lower head more. There are many more examples beyond these ones.

Therefore, different exercises must be performed targeting each muscle group in order to stimulate all muscle fibers to the maximum.

Another reason for doing different exercises is that it also prevents injuries, since different exercises place the load on different joint structures.

Another valid reason to remember is that training is much more interesting when different exercises are performed and changed regularly.

This is good for the psyche and motivation, and thus it increases results. It also reduces the risk of letting training slide at times or even completely swapping the gym for the couch at home.

Of course, this does not mean that a maximum number of exercises should be performed within one training session or even within one training cycle. This would entail, for instance, performing 20 exercises with only one set each per training session. This is not recommended under any circumstances!

For one thing, you would have to warm up for one set at a time. This is very time-consuming and tiring, especially for advanced athletes who have to warm up longer and more intensively than beginners.

It is not uncommon for a professional to do 5-6 warmup sets before the deadlift to warm up to the weight of the first working set. If only one set of work followed, they would have spent much more time warming up than doing what really gets them ahead.

Furthermore, many studies have shown that the "novelty effect" of an exercise alone can lead to muscle growth. If you constantly perform every conceivable exercise, then the body cannot be surprised with new exercises in later training cycles.

Cyclical adjustment of exercise selection for optimal muscle development

A better strategy is to focus on a few exercises per muscle group each training cycle and swap out some of those exercises when moving on to the next cycle.

Over several training cycles, all muscle fibers can be stimulated to the maximum. At the same time, injuries are less likely to occur and the workout never gets boring.

What could the whole thing look like in concrete terms now? The following example shows a possible exercise selection for the quads over the course of three training cycles:

Training Cycle 1

Day 1: Squats + Leg press

Day 2: Squats + Leg extensions

Training Cycle 2

Day 1: Squats + Leg press

Day 2: Squats + Smith machine squats with feet very far forward

Training Cycle 3

Day 1: Front squats + Leg press

Day 2: Front squats + Smith machine squats with the feet very far forward

As seen in the example, some exercises should always be retained in the training program. At the beginning of a new (challenging) exercise, valuable training time is spent learning the movement.

Only after several sessions can the body target the muscle fibers with full efficiency. This is the case even if this exercise has already been performed in previous training cycles.

Differences in exercise selection between beginners and advanced trainees

An important factor in exercise selection is your level of advancement. This is because advancement strongly affects how many different exercises should be performed per training week and how many should be changed from cycle to cycle.

Furthermore, beginners should generally focus more on the large, multi-joint exercises, also known as compound exercises. This is partly because they are very efficient, stimulating many muscles at once.

As a beginner, a comparatively small training stimulus is sufficient, so the many small muscles which are also trained during the large basic exercises experience a sufficiently strong training stimulus.

For advanced athletes, this is not the case, so they must additionally ensure that all muscles are trained consistently with single-joint (isolation) exercises. In addition, it is very important that a beginner learns a good technique in the basic exercises in the first place, so they should spend as much time as possible on them.

Furthermore, isolation exercises can be used to specifically compensate for weak points. As a rule, however, it is only after a few years that it really becomes clear which muscles in one's own body have responded well and which less well to a balanced beginner's training.

This is comparable to carving a statue out of stone: first, the sculptor will work out the rough proportions so that something reasonably human-like emerges. Then, they take care of the details, such as the exact shape of the nose or the eyes in all their subtlety.

Beginners should limit their exercise selection accordingly and concentrate on the large compound exercises. Often 1-2 exercises per muscle group per training cycle are sufficient, which are then also only relatively rarely exchanged.

Thus, the beginner stimulates all muscle fibers sufficiently and has enough time to develop perfect technique for the exercises performed.

The more advanced you are, the more varied your exercise selection should be in order to stimulate all muscle fibers to the maximum. Advanced users can afford these frequent changes, because they do not quickly forget the technique of the exercises.

In addition, more single-joint exercises should be introduced. Muscles such as the arms, calves, and lateral deltoids require a greater training stimulus with increasing training age than large multi-joint compound exercises can provide, since these muscles are only indirectly trained by those exercises.

As a rough guideline, about 70% of the exercises you use should be multi-joint and 30% single-joint. For beginners, the ratio should be more like 80-90% to 20-10%. On the other hand, for very advanced (> 10 years of training experience), about 50-60% multi-joint exercises is sufficient.

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Exercise tutorials from Alpha Progression:

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