There is no such thing as a required exercise.
Repeat it so you will process it. There is no such thing as a required exercise. Many people spent a lot of years suffering through pain and injury, all because they do not understand that one small sentence. When I started lifting back in the late ’90s, it was basically Biblical law that to build muscle; one had to do the big three exercises: Squats, Deadlifts, and Bench Presses. Not only were these compound movements basically a requirement, but then on top of that, you were supposed to lift them with extremely heavy weight to induce muscle growth. For the better part of twenty years, I beat my body to death on those three exercises, sustaining constantly torn and strained muscles and joints. Everything related to lifting became an ego game for me, it was all about how much weight I could lift, and how big I could get. If only I had known then what I know now. The first thing you have to understand is that having the right genetics is paramount to being able to move heavy weights consistently. There is a guy in my local gym who is over 50 years old that can still deadlift 600 lbs. Understand that is an extreme outlier. Everyone has different joint and bone structure, which creates a dominant advantage for certain body types, which is why it is far easier for a person who is 5’4” to do deep squats as opposed to someone 6’4” with long limbs. Before you do anything, you need to assess your genetic capability. For a great many years, I completely ignored this principle, and just plowed through regardless. I actually took pride in the fact that I knew I didn’t have the best genetics for lifting, but that I did it anyway. It became a point of pride that I was 280 pounds and had over 1300 pounds in combined lifts. I was build like a juggernaut, bigger and stronger than a lot of NFL linebackers, but the entire time, my body was paying the price. First, my body structurally wasn’t supposed to be carrying 280 pounds, as I was not a natural mesomorph body type. As a result, my feet and knees were always in pain carting around that much weight. I was never comfortable during any of the “big three” exercises, as the barbell continually forced my joints into uncomfortable positions, which meant that I was constantly bearing shoulder and back pain as well. For year after year I put my body through the meat grinder, not understanding one simple truth: There is no such thing as a required exercise. Understand this; there are two types of muscle fibers: Fast Twitch Slow Twitch And they don’t give two shits what exercises you do to stimulate them. They don’t give a damn if you use a straight barbell, or two dumbbells to work chest, they only care about one thing: PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD. Progressive overload means that to induce muscle growth, you have to challenge those fibers with weight and movements of which they aren't accustomed. And the fact of the matter is that you can achieve progressive overload on the muscle fibers without doing joint-busting exercises. You can stress those fibers and induce growth without ever touching a traditional barbell deadlift, squat, or bench press. Now let me preface this by saying, if you are genetically capable, and can do these exercises safely, then I do recommend them, especially the deadlift. There is a very fine line between not being genetically built for them in reality, and convincing yourself you aren’t to absolve yourself of hard work. Be honest with yourself: if your shoulders are developing pain from barbell bench presses, then go use dumbbells instead. Take a look at two of the greatest bodybuilders of all time: Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwartzenegger. These two men arguably possess the greatest chest development of all time. Both did bench presses with a barbell once in a while, but neither did powerlifter level weight on those exercises, instead relying mostly on dumbbells for the superior range of motion. I can attest to this myself, once I ditched the barbell and started on exclusively dumbbells for chest work, my shoulder issues reduced dramatically, yet I still had a massive chest. Twenty years later, I’m a whole lot older, and a whole lot smarter. If one exercise irritates you, do a different one. There are a thousand variants of every exercise. Do barbell back squats bother your joints? Then try Front, Pistol, Goblet, Sumo, or any of the hundred other squat variants. For me, regular squats and deadlifts felt fine the majority of the time; the real problem came with the flat bench press, so that was the exercise I needed to replace. Here is the only thing that matters to muscle growth: Overloading the muscle fibers to stimulate growth, and then eating enough calories with sufficient recovery. It is not rocket science, do not allow yourself to fall into rigid doctrine as it relates to fitness. If you overload and stimulate the fibers, and you eat enough calories, you will gain muscle. Some try to over complicate these basic principles, but at the end of the day, this is the principle that matters, and you can do it without doing exercises that break you. That being said, it sure was awesome deadlifting over 500 pounds. 10/10 - would recommend that feeling. Now go crush it, just not yourself in the process. I would be interested to know if any of you had an exercise you needed to replace, and what you did about it. Let me know! Steve Mager If you enjoyed this article, please share it and follow me on social media: Facebook: www.facebook.com/StevenAMager Twitter: https://twitter.com/StevenAMager Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_mager/ Get my book, Forging the Iron Mind: [https://amzn.to/2uxRvCs]
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