Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2460: The Best and Worst Exercises for Each Body Part

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Best and Worst Exercises for Each Body Part Why every exercise that exists, given the RIGHT context, is a great exercise. (1:06) Best and Worst Exercises for Each Body Part:  LEGS (8:18) Best: Squats Worst: Adductor/abductor machine GLUTES (13:23) Best: Hip thrust Worst: Cable kickback CHEST (17:38) Best: Incline press Worst: Svend press BACK (22:41) Best: Pull-ups/Barbell row Worst: Single-arm cable rows SHOULDERS (25:50) Best: Overhead press Worst: Front raises BICEPS (29:13) Best: Dumbbell curls Worst: Standing front double bicep curl TRICEPS (30:51) Best: Close grip bench Worst: Reverse grip press down/Dumbbell kickbacks Listener Questions: When should we include the worst exercises? (34:00) Is the ability to create a pump valuable? (35:31) What are the best rep ranges? (36:18) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP for 20% off your first order (new customers) and double rewards points for existing customers. ** November Promotion: MAPS Resistance | MAPS OCR 50% off! ** Code NOVEMBER50 at checkout ** Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump TV - YouTube (Search most exercises mentioned) Mind Pump #2155: The Art & Science of Building Perfect Butts With Bret Contreras Mind Pump #1827: The 3 Best Rep Ranges to Build Muscle & Burn Fat Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Michael Israetel (@drmikeisraetel) Instagram Bret Contreras PhD (@bretcontreras1) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is mind pump. Today's episode, we talk about the best and the worst exercises for every body part that you train. By the way, this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, Legion.

They make high performance supplements for muscle building, fat loss, for overall health, great products. By the way, the labels, what the label says is what's in the bottle or the bag. This is very high quality stuff. Go check them out, get yourself a discount. Go to buylegion.com, that's B-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N.com forward slash mind pump use the code mind pump get 20% off or double rewards points We also have a sale this month on some workout programs maps resistance and maps OCR both 50% off

If you're interested go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code November 50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. All right, today we're going to talk about the best and the worst exercises for every body part. Don't waste your time doing some of these bad ones. Let's get into it. I like this. I just recently, I think I shared it with Dylan, I might have shared it with Doug too, an episode that I saw that Mike is retail, which recently has been coming up in our feed a lot. He's like the bodybuilder scientist. Yeah, we're definitely due for an interview and a hang out with him because I think it would be

a great conversation and I've been seeing more of his stuff. He did this episode, I feel bad I can't shout out who the podcaster was, I didn't know who they were, but they interviewed him and basically did something similar. He ranked them a little bit different than what we did. Uh, but same concept going down and kind of give her, it was interesting. Uh, I'd say 95% of it. I was like a hundred percent online with it. So I'm like,

Oh, that's interesting. He's, he's not a big fan of that. I like that. So before we get into it, I think it's important to understand. Remember, remember we trained lots of people for years and years and years. And most of the people that we trained were not bodybuilders or athletes, they were everyday people. And what you find is that every exercise that exists, given the right context, is a great exercise. Every exercise that exists, given the wrong context, is a terrible exercise.

So although we're going to list best and worst, even the wrong context, is a terrible exercise. So although we're gonna list best and worst, even the worst exercises, I can think of a scenario where that's a great movement. I'll give you a scenario so people understand where you're coming from there. Okay, I'm in bodybuilder mode. I'm training six, seven days, I'm inside the gym. I've already hit all my big compound lifts.

I mean, I hit the deadlifts, the overhead press, the incline chest press. I've hit all my big compound lifts. I mean, I hit the deadlifts, the overhead press, the incline chest press. I've hit all my big movers. I'm pretty sore. I'm a little bit uncomfortable. But I'm going to the gym anyways. And I want to touch my shoulders and maybe touch my chest. OK, what I mean by that is I've already

done enough heavy volume or hard training for my chest and my shoulders this week. But I still want to go there and almost do what we call trigger or focus sessions, which I don't want, I've already done enough heavy volume or hard training for my chest and my shoulders this week, but I still want to go there and almost do like what we call trigger or focus sessions, which here's an example of where I might do like a, you know, cable fly, and I might do a front raise with dumbbells. I might do these exercises that I would consider way low because they don't do a lot of damage, but I still want to do a stimulus

and I want to do maybe something that's a little bit different than what I've been training. So in that context, that makes sense. So if someone, which I'm so glad you brought this up because it's, this is YouTube for us, you know, heaven forbid somebody see me do something on YouTube that is different than something they've heard me say a thousand times on the podcast. Or this shows up in our program in an obscure way, but it's really addressing one very specific thing. Right.

You know, just recently, I forgot to mention this to you guys earlier today when we were doing the Qua. You guys know I'm running the series and the first month I did like a Maps 15-esque program and then I've now transitioned into this new kind of split that I wrote and ever there's like a handful of people this like I thought you said that full body is the best program you've been saying that for five years like are you lying or what's it's just like in the context of what I've been communicating right now this is what I currently am

doing doesn't mean that there's no value to splits at all. Yes, full body I think is still superior for 90% of the people. It doesn't mean I don't move in and out of a full body routine every once in a while. So context matters. Context makes a big difference. In some exercises, you know- I do HIIT training sometimes. Whoa. And you know, in correctional exercise, throw that in the mix. A lot of exercises that would be great for correctional exercise aren't great muscle builders. They're not great at improving performance and vice versa.

And all these exercises exist for a reason. So some exercises which are phenomenal for correctional exercise are also terrible for muscle building or performance and vice versa. So context makes a big difference. And some exercises are rare, but have value in very specific ways. I'll give you an example. A Jefferson curl. Okay. If you weren't well versed in exercise and well versed in maybe exercise history,

understand the body. If you saw anybody doing a Jefferson curl, you would immediately be like, Oh my God, you're going gonna hurt yourself. Don't do that, that's terrible. And literally, it's picking a bar up and putting it back down. In a rounded position. Like where you're rounding your back all the way up and then coming all the way down. And a lot of times in a deficit. In a deficit. Now that exercise, if you have good control and stability, has a lot of application for certain, you know, scenarios. One of them being like

Greco-Roman wrestlers. Greco-Wrestlers would do versions of this exercise, especially in the Soviet Union because when you've got a guy flattened out on the floor and you're trying to pick him up and to get him, you get in this rounded position to lift him. And so they would do this exercise to strengthen their backs in a very specific way. So it's just, again, another example. Yeah. That and we talked the other day about neck training. And it's something I would never do with my clients, but in sports specific applications,

you're going to need support there. So you have to actually train it to strengthen it. So we're actually going to put those types of exercises for neck training within the program. Now that we're almost done setting the table here, I think the biggest takeaway that I'm hearing is that there's always exceptions to the rule. There's always an example where even what somebody else

would say is a quote unquote bad exercise, where it's not in a specific case, or where the context where this matters. Now I think the biggest, most important takeaway from this episode that we'll do right now is I think if you are somebody who is trying to build the most muscle or get in the best shape and you are not doing the best ones that we list. And be as efficient as possible.

And you're doing more of or you're doing some of the ones that we would consider worse, you are missing out. You're missing out on the potential of building more muscle, getting stronger, getting fitter at a faster rate if you were to make sure you do it. So I think that's the most important thing. If you check all the boxes and you're like, oh yeah, doing all those, then it's a little less relevant that, oh, you might do an exercise here or there that we would consider less valuable. This is for general overall fitness, muscle building, fat loss. So that's how we're listing best and worst.

And in your routine, if you're doing all these exercises, the best exercises should definitely be prioritized over the worst ones. So it's okay to do all these in your routine, but the best ones definitely be the ones that are the focus. Whereas these worst ones, if you have extra time, maybe throw them in. And the reason why I think this is such a valuable ones that are the focus, whereas these worst ones, if you have extra time, maybe throw them in.

And the reason why I think this is such a valuable conversation is because I'm very much so guilty of the first decade of my lifting career of doing a lot of these worthless exercises and not doing the big ones. Wasting time. Yeah, just choosing to skip barbell back squats because I didn't feel like it, and I did leg extensions and leg press instead. And so, and it's not that leg extension and leg press are bad, it's just that, man, what am I doing,

doing that and not doing the barbell back squat? So that's- So that's, and then we'll start there, legs, best exercise barbell squats. I think it, there isn't an exercise that does what the barbell back squat does just in entirety. Again, there are other exercises that are better for other things, but for general muscle, general strength, general performance, a barbell back squat, a full barbell back squat, first of all, the range of motion is exceptional. So a leg press is a very short range of motion

comparison. Number two, it involves the entire body. Lots of strength and stability in the back and core and even the upper back are required to perform a barbell back squat very well. Which is good because it's teaching your body to work together and when you're moving in the real world and using your legs and lifting heavy, it also typically involves your upper body. It's almost never just your lower body. It also works the quads, the hamstrings, the glutes, and even to a small degree the calves because of the ankle extension, afflection when you go down and up. It's just an overall you're gonna get this exercise will just do more than the next three or four exercises combined typically. And I think that's that matters too. And you

said it, you set the table already by saying, you know, when we look at this, we look at it from the lens of training a lot of normal people. And it's not just hypertrophy, it's also functional, building the most muscle, overall joint health. Like what are my clients? And the squat, it just hits so many things and packs on so much muscle, it has to be the king of the leg exercise. They call it the king of all exercises, but I'll even say this. It's fundamental.

A good example would be, if you took somebody and had them add 50 pounds to their leg press, or you took that same person and had them add 50 pounds to their squat, Very different, very different. The 50 pounds of leg press might be perceptible in terms of muscle. It's easy to do. 50 pounds on a squat, you can tell.

You can see it typically in the body. Now worst exercise, it's gotta be the adductor, abductor machines, the knees out, knees in machines. Now there's some potential value for correctional exercise or whatever. Although to that I'd say there's better alternatives. Oh man, if that's taking up 10 to 15 minutes of your 50 minutes in the gym, you're wasting time. I mean there's just, there's too many exercises that,

even the cases, because I've been in a debate with somebody about the value of these, and again, of course, you can find a reason. I can find a reason to use it, but I would still make the case that if whatever that person made, the argument that they made for it, I could say, well, I could think of another body weight

or another exercise I would do that would get the same results as what you're trying to get from that machine. So I 100% agree with this being one of the worst. Yeah, I mean, the only value I usually see from that is just to strengthen any kind of imbalance Or you know correct and you know if it's some kind of rehab situation or that but You know in terms of like having a functional movement that covers the basis of those like I'll rather do like lateral

Lunges your lateral to box lateral launches side planks with leg lifts even. Side step ups. This is popular in the gyms because this is actually, I'll tell you what, you go to any gym, especially the big gyms, the big box gyms, you go to any gym, you will always find, always find an adductor and abductor machine. So adductor is the one that you push your knees in, abductor is the one where you push your knees out. Plus I don't like to make eye contact with people. I mean I blame the thigh master on this one. Just because the marketing on that was so strong, it's one of the most sold tools ever in fitness history,

and it was sold to women that it would shape and sculpt your thighs. And so I still think that's carryover. Highest selling piece of exercise equipment of all time. Ever, ever. And I do believe that that that's carryover. Highest selling piece of exercise equipment. Ever. Ever. And I do believe that that's the carryover. I think the carryover of people that are still alive that got marketed

to about the thigh master, think of it as a bigger, better thigh master. Yeah. Totally. I think it goes beyond that. I think what it does is it touches on the myth of spot reduction. That's why I think it's so popular because Because people still think that if they train an area, that the body will lose fat from that area. So if I want leaner abs, I do ab exercise.

If I want leaner legs, I do leg exercises. That's not how the body burns body fat. The body burns body fat systemically, and it takes it from where you're genetically predisposed to take it from. So typically the first place you gain it is the last place that you lose it. So adductor, adductor, it's, it was women that are like, Oh, I want the outside and the inside of my legs to look more, to,

to have less body fat. And by the way, these are such tiny muscles that you're working that you could develop them. You wouldn't even notice. I mean, they're important muscles. Don't get me wrong. They're important to stabilize. Especially like squatting. I look at it as a supplemental to the squat. If you want your legs to look more sculpted and shapely okay then do squats. It'll give you way more of that yeah than an adductor abductor machine ever will and you could do that a million times more and what so it's it's totally one of the worst pieces of equipment. I agree. Alright glutes let's talk

about glutes. Best, you know, squats are up there, but I would say hip thrusts, and I'll put hip thrusts higher than squats because of this. And we have studies now that show that barbell squats, barbell hip thrusts, both develop the glutes right around the same. Yet, why is it that the glute, you know,

the fitness professionals or influencers that are known for building glute, the fitness professionals or influencers that are known for building glutes like Brett Contreras, why are they such big proponents of the hip thrust? I think it's because when someone has difficulty building their glutes, they probably have difficulty connecting to their glutes, and it's easier to connect your glutes with the hip thrust.

In general. Yes, the hip thrust will connect you to your glutes, whereas a squat, some people just have trouble with squats, really building their glutes with the hip thrust. In general. Yes, hip thrust will connect you to your glutes, whereas a squat, some people just have trouble with squats, you know, really building their glutes. I also see it as this, is I don't know too many people that build a routine around building their legs or their butt and they do hip thrust, but they don't do squats.

And if I did squats on Monday, there's a good chance by Wednesday or Thursday when I want to train my legs again, my quads still might be a little sore and I could handle, because hip thrusts, even though they're not technically in isolation, they're more of an isolation exercise and you could still load in really hard. And they don't damage your body like squats. Yes. And so it doesn't do as much to the body.

And so I can easily, where I might not be able to run back heavy barbell back squats again on Wednesday or Thursday, I could load hip thrust pretty good again and so the combination of keeping squats and hip thrust in there for the glutes it has to be one of the best combos. Yeah I was thinking about this because again like Brett Contreras you know he's very honest with data and he's like well the data shows squats and hip thrusts you know build the glutes about the same amount but with people who have trouble feeling the glutes about the same amount. But with people who have trouble feeling their glutes,

I used to do this as a trainer. When I had a client who really had trouble feeling her glutes. You used to do floor bridges before. It was always bridges or hip thrusts, right? It was bridge and hip thrust, same thing. It was always that to help have them feel it. So I think that's why this is the best exercise for glutes.

All right, worst exercise, cable kickback. Now I know a lot of women do these. It's great to add extra volume, but really, is it doing much? No, I mean, not really. It's a light exercise. You might get a better pump. It's like stimulating your glute,

but really it's not. It's a shortened range of motion. You can't load it very much. It's just it- You could never do these and you'd be totally fine. A hundred percent. You can never, if you hit squats and hip thrust, uh, deadlifts and stuff like that, but literally just squats and hip thrust alone, you're going to build your butt. And then you would go down the list of,

you know, lunges, Bulgarians, good mornings. I mean, there's so many other, uh, RDLs like there's so many other RDLs, like there's so many other movements that after you've checked the best two, I would go down before I ever even considered getting my client on the cable kickbacks. This is a junk volume exercise. That's why I think you see a lot of, so you'll see women in the gym do this,

who maybe see other fitness influencers do it, but the fitness influencers who are really known for their full body development and glute development, they do these. Now, why do they do these? Because they work out a lot. And they want to add extra volume. They just want volume.

And they've done lots of hip thrusts and squats and deadlifts and their body can't handle anymore. I think it's because it looks sexy on Instagram, that's why. I think it's an excuse to shoot the camera right on your ass and then flex the butt and I think it does well on social media. It's not a bad point. But as far as the value of the exercise, the other reason why I think it does, why people are attracted to it, at least this was the feedback from my female clients that love

to do this exercise, is they feel it. And we mistake a lot of times. Like the burn. The burning sensation of a muscle as it's working it really well or you're building a lot of muscle there. Just because something burns a lot and you can feel it, doesn't necessarily, it is building a lot of muscle there. Especially when you compare it to things like

hip thrust or barbell. I had a trainer once illustrate this really well because a client was like showing them that they do this like arm circles every day and they're like, but I feel it burn on my shoulders. He's like, yeah, you'll definitely feel that your shoulders are burning. Right.

And I think that's true. Like you'll feel a muscle burn, but that doesn't mean you're effectively building it. It just means it burns and it hurts. All right, next, chest. Now this might be controversial, but I put, and I think you guys would agree with me, from both a aesthetic point of view,

but also from a functional point of view, I know that bench press is supposed to be like the best exercise for chest, and it's definitely up there. It's definitely at the top, but I would say incline press, I would put slightly above it, and there's two reasons. One, aesthetically speaking,

when you build your upper chest, you have a nice balanced looking chest. When you build a chest just from bench press, sometimes you could develop this kind of like lower peck look where it doesn't look as aesthetic. And then from a functional standpoint, if you're pushing and needing the strength to push away, you're almost always leaning into what you're pushing. Incline probably has more carryover to what you would need in performance than let's say a bench press, which is more leaning back. Yeah, and it kind of helps set you up, I think, a little more effectively in terms of getting

those shoulders pinned back. In terms of good form, I think it helps to kind of maintain that. And you can load it substantially just like you can with the flat bench. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of debatable, I guess, between the two of those. But I do kind of fluctuate between both. So there's, I mean, there's no argument for me. You know, I've been screaming this for a long time that this is my favorite exercise to build the chest.

There's also this too, you brought up how we're also looking at this through the lens of being a personal trainer. You've talked about before that, you know, part of the secret sauce of Maps Antibolic was your knowledge of most the clients that would purchase this program would be female clients that avoided doing heavy lifting. Therefore, you put it in phase one. There's nothing miraculous about phase one. You could technically start the program in phase three and work it backwards and get just as good of results. But you know that most people neglect that five by five training.

The same thing goes for incline chest press as I feel as a trainer. Many people avoid it because they're weaker in it. And so you're avoiding an exercise that is one of, if not arguably, the best exercise for your chest. So therefore, it wins even more for me. Because I know very few people that say say I incline press more than I flat bench press and if you're that person you're missing out because I already think it's a superior

movement anyways. It definitely is if you neglect it and you train more flat bench and so for that reason alone I think it wins because of that. Yeah and again from an aesthetic standpoint I think it wins because of that. Yeah, and again, from an aesthetic standpoint, you'll develop a more bodybuilder looking chest with an incline that we will be flat. Now that being said, flat is right up there. I mean, you could switch these and I'd be totally fine with that.

You wouldn't hear me complaining. All right, worst exercise, the spend press. Where did that come from? You know, somebody's Sven, somebody's last name was Sven, maybe? Is that where, is it named after somebody? It's such a weird exercise. Have you done it before?

I've tried it a few times. I have. So you take two dumbbells, you press them together. So what you're doing with it- More plates, we used to do plates. You're creating- Maintaining contraction there. You're creating inward tension,

and your elbows are a part of the bottom, and then because the pecs bring the humerus together, you're getting that, you're still getting a range of motion with the chest. I just don't, you could do the same thing. It's like an isometric exercise more than, and of course we know that isometrics have value but boy I would not put isometrics over a barbell, you know, bench press, anything. Oh, it's a world's strongest man competitor, Sven Carlsen.

Oh, okay well, yeah. Am I gonna talk trash to him? Hey, listen, I'm sure this is why he was strong. You got bored. Now I can see some value as a junk volume exercise. Like you've done your presses, you've done your flies, you've thrown some cables in your, you know, 12 sets deep hitting chest. You want to get a better pump.

Then you grab a pair of dumbbells or two plates and you squeeze out your chest and wrap out. I've seen people do this with a Smith machine from the side. I've seen people do it with a plate. That's how I used to do it with plates. We used to smash like two five pound or 10 pound plates. I didn't know people used dumbbells.

Again, so yeah. I mean this doesn't even come close. I can name 10 other real quick chest exercise. What do you put you pushups, I feel this doesn't even come I mean I can name ten other real quick I guess you put you push-ups. I feel like are better. Yes too many. There's too many exercises that are better And again point of this is that you know If you're the if you're the kid or the guy Who did chess this week and you did spin press and you didn't do incline barbell press? That's the point of this episode is like you definitely missed out now If you were somebody who checked all the boxes

and you had some extra time, you went to the gym on the sixth day, and you did some spin presses because you didn't want to do any more damage to your chest. Look at your list, and we're gonna get you to rearrange all this. Yeah, I've done these when I've done a long workout for chest, and I'm doing high volume,

and I'm like, you know, I'm toasted, but I just want to squeeze a little more blood in there. I want more, like the most intense pump. Then I'll go and I'll like, you know, I'm toasted, but I just want to squeeze a little more blood in there. I want more, the most intense pump. Then I'll go and I'll do something like this and again, it's junk volume. It's not creating much damage. Not really sending much of a signal. I'd probably get the same effect by just squeezing my chest a bunch of times, you know? So yeah, that's why that's there. All right, back. I put two exercises for back because the back is interesting. You've got the back's ability to pull you up.

The truth is the back shouldn't be one muscle. Yeah, that's true. We just said back because how many of us? We were talking about mid, upper, lower. That's why that makes this challenging and why there probably is going to be more than one exercise that somebody can easily make the case. I mean, I would actually put in there and it's not in there

and it's probably the most controversial one, which is deadlifts. Deadlifts are not considered a back exercise, yet I think it's one of the most valuable things for people's back. And it always gets people up in arms online that wanna argue and debate that. But it's never, you never hear that from somebody

who's got a heavy deadlift that has that from somebody who's got a heavy deadlift that has like, somebody who has built a heavy deadlift will always be like, oh my God, it built my back more than almost anyone. Yeah, and I feel like that's, and that's the proofs in the pudding in something like that. No, that's a good point, that has to be there. But I pull up some barbell rows, you know,

pull ups are gonna hit the lats, barbell rows are gonna hit more of the mid back, so it's like your width versus thickness with body. That's the one to punch, but that's I mean Literally, if you just obviously deadlifts you got to do those But if you just did pull-ups and Barbara Rose, I think you'd be fine I you would always be okay I think so too and I'll get your back in the sense that Again looking through the lens of a trainer not just bodybuilder hypertrophy, right bodybuilder hypertrophy guy I say oh, I want the deadlifts in there. I want this other movement in there through the lens of a trainer, not just bodybuilder hypertrophy, right? Bodybuilder hypertrophy guy,

I say, oh, I want the deadlifts in there, I want this other movement in there. But when I think about probably the most important exercise that I did with every single client was seated rows, or barbell rows. That's why I wrote. You're just a row is such- Pull the shoulders back. Yeah, it's such an important exercise for everybody to get strong at just for overall function, overall health, and it's gonna build muscle. It's just too important to not include that as one of the best exercises. Worst single arm cable rows. It's not a bad exercise. I can see value in it. I just think there's so many other exercises and again when I see people doing these it's either a trainer

trying to teach connection which is fine or it's a bodybuilder and at the end of the workout, it's that junk volume. That's how I used it. Yeah. So I used to do them. And if I were to do them, you'd catch me doing them now. It would be after I've already checked the other eight exercises off that I have to do before, then it makes sense to me. It's tough.

We were talking before we did the episode and we're trying to think of a really shitty back exercise. There's not many. There's not. I was actually, and then this is way too much in my world of functional world where they're like, you could do like a rope pull and you could kind of do a drag and I'm like, that's kind of, you know, that's kind of fun, but you know, not necessarily back targeted. No, it is, but it's not. It is, but he's kind of do a drag and I'm like, that's kind of fun, but not necessarily back targeted.

No, it is, but it's not. It is, but it's kind of, you know. Yeah, no, I mean, barbell row, excuse me, a dumbbell row, if you're gonna do a single arm row, a dumbbell row is just way better. Way better than a cable row. But if you're just trying to get a pump, you don't wanna create much damage,

you know, you're at the end of the workout, hey, what the hell, I'll throw in a few more sets of something, then go ahead and do this, but otherwise, you at the end of the workout, hey, what the hell, I'll throw in a few more sets of something, then, you know, go ahead and do this, but otherwise, no, not really. Shoulders, all right, best has to be overhead press. I can't think of a better way to develop standing. Thank you so much. I have to.

And full range. Yes, all the way down. Down to the bridge of your nose stuff, all the way down to your chest. And go all the way up, like it works the delt, it works the stabilizers, it works the scapula, it gives that outward rotation of the scapula, you press it up over your head,

the upper back stabilization. You will, this will give you good, strong, well-developed shoulders, better than almost any other exercise. I mean, there's an argument, I mean, I'm going through this right now, right? Because of my chest, I had to avoid it. Now I've told you guys, I can see the difference. I know my physique,

but I've actually been really impressed with my ability to kind of keep my upper chest shoulder area like developed and not, cause I mean, to not, to not work your chest out directly, uh, and to build as much muscles I built is like, Oh my God, am I mean to not to not work your chest out directly and to build as much muscles I built is like oh my god am I going to be so off but the fact that I've just I've been hitting a lot of overhead presses is actually still maintained a just an upper chest shoulder area that's decent. I can tell the difference because it's my physique but that's how what great carryover from that the overhead press just does such a good job of developing the entire shoulder caps the trap area the upper chest area it's just a great great move totally and worst.

And some people might not like this but front raises you know with the amount of available front delt exercises everything from every press right not just the overhead press every every horizontal press bench press inc press, incline press, overhead press, it's all front delt. Yeah, any pressing you're going to get the front delt. Yeah, I mean, why hit the front delts again if you're going to do, or with a raise, if you're going to do a raise doing lateral. With a lever that long. With that long of a lever, you can only do so much. You're limited by how much weight you can do. And then even if you try and attempt to do it with really heavy weight,

you're also going to arch the low back and swing and do all this other crap. It's touchy too. If you overdevelop certain areas of the shoulder, you get into impingement issues and tracking issues and things like that too. So people get like, well, I'm strong here, so you're going to keep adding volume in where you're strong and then you're going to screw things up. It's just if you're gonna do some kind of a raise, lateral raises, there's lots of value. Hitting the side delts or rear flies even more value, hitting the rear delts because they don't get activated as much with all of the presses but all the presses, so much

of the stress goes to the front delt that adding another isolation front delt exercise doesn't make sense. Again unless you can just add volume to your workout and you've done all the stuff and if you've got the volume left over and the extra pump then yeah. I'd challenge people to add rotation in there as opposed to that right because it's just so neglected. Or rear delt stuff. There's so many rear delts it's the same thing. I mean there's too many things for the shoulder that are valuable to, I can't tell you the last time I did a front delt raise. And then the point you made earlier is like, some of these exercises, when we say worst,

another way to measure, is it the worst is like, you could build the most amazing physique and never do these. And never do that exercise. Like, I just don't know anybody that could build the most amazing physique and never squat or never do a row. Like there's movements that you just need to do to build an impressive, great, strong, functional physique. These are ones that's just like you could do without that exercise.

Biceps. Best, they put dumbbell curls. I like dumbbell curls better than barbell curls, although I love barbell curls. I think they're right up there. I like the dumbbells because they allow the supination. So that's where you turn your hand as you curl. Because that also is an action of the biceps, is the supinating. So I think that it fully develops the bicep. It's, you can go heavy with them.

It'll give you great arms. Probably never need to do another bicep exercise again if you just did those. Yeah, I agree. I think the reason why it beats out the barbell too is the barbell ends up hitting your thighs. And so a lot of times you don't even get that really good full extension when the dumbbells are my size I can open all the way up and take that full range of motion. So I would say that the dumbbells Beat that for sure now worst. This was easy was a standing front double bicep

This is the one with my favorite body. They'll grab yeah the cables from the it's like they're doing a front double biceps This was yeah, this was my favorite to do to show off my arms at the end of the workout. That's 100% why they exist, yeah. Yeah. That's why people do them. Me, me, me. It's like, the argument now, I can see a bodybuilder's argument.

So I used to have a trainer that worked for me, it was a bodybuilder, and he did them, and I'm like, that's kind of a waste of time. And he goes, well, you're right. However, I'm practicing flexing in this position, because that's how I present myself on stage. That's how I'd argue. Aha, now that right. However, I'm practicing flexing in this position because that's how I present myself on stage. That's how it are. Aha, now that makes perfect sense

because he would do it like pretending like he was doing a back double bicep, then he would do it like he was doing a front double bicep and just work the bicep while maintaining tension everywhere he was posing. So what about the prison curl or what's that one called where you're like here? That's a concentration curl.

Yeah, that's not bad. You don't like those? I just feel like those are funny. No, not like those are great. That's just the personal thing. Triceps, closed grip bench press. Although dips, body weight dips has got to be up there. You can go heavy with this.

It really develops the triceps exceptionally well. Gives you good additional strength. I'm glad you chose this one because again, I'm reminded of like the, and again, this could just be my own personal experience, although I feel like I've seen this a lot with clients, is it's an exercise that I don't think enough people do it. How often, I don't see a lot, I don't walk in a gym.

Isn't that funny? One of the best exercises. Yeah, when you think about exercises that are valuable, and I do feel it's been nice to see this transition in the gym, right, that we've moved away from not deadlifting and squatting. That I can't go in the gym and not see someone deadlifting squatting, right? You go in any public gym, you will 100% see a deadlifter and a squatter and an overhead press probably happening at least once inside the gym. But I could easily go to

the gym and not see a single close grip bench press. And yet it's the most valuable tricep exercise. So one of, if you would argue dips would be the other one, I love this movement. It was one of the tricep exercises that I neglected for a long time. Once I finally started using them, it for sure built my triceps more than anything else. Yeah, when I, this, I could tell a difference

in the size of my triceps by doing this and not doing it. Just this exercise alone. And this was, I got good at these as a 19 year old when I really started to implement these. Not only that, but it added strength to all my other presses. I could bench press more, I could overhead press more. I could load substantial amounts

and that's really where it took off for me for sure. A lot of times that's the limiting factor on someone's bench press is then an inability to lock out. And the tricep strength that it takes to lock out a bench press and so they've got the strength to get it off the first like four to six inches off the chest but then they can't get it locked out and then doing that close grip trains that which then carries over to the chest

too so such a great exercise. Worst, now little debate here, I put reverse grip press downs, I think press downs are great. To reverse your hands and grab the bar does nothing different to the triceps. Except for make it harder to hold the bar. Yes, the triceps is not involved in any rotation whatsoever.

All it does is make it so now it's harder for you to hold onto the bar. Now some people are like, I feel it more in my triceps. Probably because you're squishing your arm into your side more, but it changes zero activation of the triceps, so it's just a waste. It's a waste of time, That's why I put them up. I made the debate.

Dumbbell kickbacks. Dumbbell kickbacks are trash. I'm kind of on that team. Dumbbell kickbacks are trash. Cable kickbacks, not so bad. Dumbbell kickbacks are just, I mean, the. Well, it's just awkward, and you got to kind of hold your arm up in that isometric kind of position.

That's why it's so good. You only get about 15 degrees of activity. That's about it. This much activity. It's a minimal movement. It very quickly turns into a swing. Yeah. I mean, when you think about the importance of taking a muscle

through full range of motion, tension on the muscle the entire time. Now, in a cable, different. You can do that because resistance is at the bottom. Exactly. With a cable, it keeps that resistance the entire way through that movement. But with a dumbbell, even with your that resistance the entire way to that movement But with a dumbbell even with your elbow you're only getting that when the full extension super partial range

Yeah, and then you swing most way so yeah I would I would make the case that it that's I mean those are close One and two for worst tricep exercises for sure no we have some questions Doug Yeah, we do the first one is when should we include the worst exercises? You know for most people never unless you're at the point where you have a lot of volume in your training you can handle a lot of volume you're a fanatic you've been working out for a while everything looks good you want to add some more time in the gym but you know that adding some of those best exercises gonna be too much on your body well then you can throw some of these in

there get a little extra pumpin. Yeah the way I would describe that is like the way we wrote MAPS Aesthetic, if you're familiar with MAPS Aesthetic, it's like you have the three foundational days and then you have these focus days. It would be somebody putting this like on a focus day. It's like I on the foundation. Yeah, on the foundational days, I'm checking the box and all the best exercises. All the best exercises are going to be included in the bulk of my training. And then, oh, I have these other two or three days I come to the gym

where I do some machine work. I'm not trying to really go hard, just trying to add volume. Okay. Here's where I start to include some of these quote unquote worst exercises. Yeah. And, you know, the other place would be if there's any correctional exercise purpose. Sure.

For them, I can think of a be if there's any correctional exercise purpose for them. I can think of a lot of correctional exercise reasons for a lot of these exercises, but some of them, right? Some of them. If I have, for example, a person has a shoulder injury and they're unable to stabilize their humerus in this back position, I may have them hold it there while trying to do a tricep exercise.

I'm just trying to create a scenario. Abductor, adductor, I've had scenarios where. I've used it for rehab. Yeah, rehab type of stuff, so correctional exercise would be the other place. Is the ability to create a pump valuable? Yes, okay, so I love this question. You know, one, a great way, not the only way,

okay, so this isn't foolproof, but a great way to identify your ability to connect to a particular muscle with an exercise is how easily it gives you a pump in the target muscle. And I would do this with clients too. When a client said to me, you know, wow, when I do that, when I get really tight in my whatever, hamstring, my glute, my, then I knew we're connecting. We're connecting to that muscle.

This for you is a good exercise to get us to connect. So I, and I personally, when I work out, if I use a machine to do an exercise and I get a pump real easy in the target muscle, I'm probably gonna do more of that because I think it's more valuable. Makes you look bigger on the podcast. Thanks.

Yeah, that's great. What are the best rep ranges? All of them. Yeah. All of them. They all build muscle. Or the one you never do. I mean, that's my, typically the way I answer that question

is I always flip it back on the client who's asking that question and I say, tell me what you've been doing for the last three months, six months, whatever. Typically there's always a rep range somewhere in there that someone's neglected. Sometimes that's the extreme range where you're all up to 20 reps.

Sometimes it's the other extreme going down to singles, doubles, and triples. Most people tend to hover in the 5 to 15 rep range, which of course is the bulk of most your training should probably be. But definitely on those end ranges, there's tremendous value, especially when you never do them. Yeah. I mean, when I trained everyday people, the last, and most of my clients were everyday people, the last, I'd say, 10 years of my career,

I saw so much value in teaching them how to do sets of one, two, and three reps. I mean, these were everyday, you know, engineers, mom's dads. They're not gonna think to do it unless, yeah, they're under that kind of guidance. And because they never did, the gains they got were ridiculous.

I'd have Mrs. Johnson who works out with me once or twice a week, and I'd start training her to teach her how to do singles and doubles, and her body would just react and respond. Those were my favorite tools. I also found that there was this kind of empowering thing, too, because if you lift five, there's a big difference between a weight you can move five plus times

to a weight you only have to move once or twice. You can normally load that bar significantly more. And when you take a client who's never done that, I remember when I went to this. But they've never learned how to summon strength. Yes, and then it builds this new confidence of how to do that. And then they take the way they learned to do that

with singles, doubles, and triples, now apply it to their five by five or 10 rep training. And all of a sudden you see significant strength. It can grid it out even more. It was a trip to me to realize that people are afraid to fully exert themselves. So when you teach them how to do it, they're like, oh my God.

And you're going to be okay. Totally. Look, if you like this show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin. I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam is at Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check

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