Exercise selection for muscle building is an evergreen topic. Some will swear by “time-tested classics” like the squat, bench press, and deadlift for cultivating mass. Others will speculate as to which exercise is superior for building muscle, based on a variety of factors.
Unfortunately, direct comparisons of muscle growth from different exercises are remarkably scarce. As a result, in the absence of direct evidence, we do need to rely on generalized principles – or criteria – to select exercises. So, what should we look for in a good muscle building exercise? What do we have evidence for?
At the end of this newsletter, we’ll give you a few of our favorite exercises for the chest, back, and legs.
Targeting one of the functions of the target muscle. This one is obvious, but it’s also a pre-requisite. To properly train a muscle, you need to load/resist a joint function the muscle is capable of performing. This is where exercises like the pinch press fall short; the primary function of the pectoralis major is to horizontally adduct the shoulder. However, this joint function is unresisted during the exercise. This criterion requires some knowledge of anatomy
High likelihood of pushing the target muscle to physiological failure. Alongside targeting a function of the target muscle, pushing that muscle close to failure is arguably the most important component of exercise selection. Training closer to failure seems to increase muscle growth, as per the most recent meta-regression on the topic. Equally, taking a muscle closer to local failure should increase muscle growth. Therefore, exercises that push the target muscle close to physiological failure should result in more growth. This can be a tricky criterion, since it’s difficult to determine whether a muscle hit physiological failure. That said, isolation movements tend to trump compound movements for this criterion, since there are fewer synergists that could hit failure before the target muscle does. Likewise, certain technique modifications can help in this regard, like setting your feet lower on the leg press platform to increase the moment arm the quadriceps need to work against, increasing the odds of the quadriceps being pushed to physiological failure.
Stretch emphasis. A variable that recently gained attention in the literature is the degree to which an exercise focuses on the stretch (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.). This criterion can be further broken down into three sub-criteria.
First, the exercise should at least place a decent stretch on the target muscle. Whether you need to chase a maximal stretch, and whether this will lead to even more growth remains to be seen, but we certainly want a decent stretch.
Second, the exercise should likely be more challenging in the stretched position than in the shortened position (1, 2, 3). Again, the extent to which we need to prioritize chasing this remains unclear.
Finally, an emerging body of research suggests that performing lengthened partials could lead to more muscle growth than a full range of motion (1, 2, 3). Therefore, picking exercises where you can safely perform lengthened partials without the risk of crushing yourself or getting pinned is a good idea.
Loadability. Yet again, this is an obvious criterion, but it needs to be stated. If an exercise’s loadability is so poor that you cannot get close to failure with a set of between five to fifty repetitions, it won’t be ideal. This applies to challenging bodyweight movements like pull-ups, where not everyone is able to get 5+ reps per set. Similarly, the bodyweight squat can rank poorly on this criterion, since many lifters will be able to do 100+ reps before hitting failure. That said, nearly all exercises ever performed in the gym are sufficiently loadable to meet this criterion rather well. Finally, though this is more of an auxiliary benefit, having the ability to micro-load the movement may marginally facilitate progressive overload week-to-week, though you could simply add reps instead and use a double progression method.
Stability. This one is arguably the most over-emphasized criterion. Just like loadability, nearly all exercises ever performed in the gym are likely sufficiently stable to meet this criterion rather well. The minor differences in stability between commonly performed exercises are unlikely to cause any differences in muscle hypertrophy. In fact, the only study (yes, you read that right) to examine the effect of stability on muscle hypertrophy found no real effect. The study specifically compared a very unstable movement – the wobble board squat – to very stable movements, the regular barbell squat and the Smith machine squat. So, if an extreme proof-of-concept study like this failed to show an effect, you probably do not need to be overly concerned about stability.
Fatigue. While this is a slightly nebulous and subjective concept, picking exercises that are less fatiguing is likely a good idea. For example, doing a seated barbell overhead press may be a bit less fatiguing for your core and lower-body than doing a standing barbell overhead press. While there are no hard-and-fast rules here – yet again, evidence is sparse – it’s probably a good idea to err on the side of exercises that involve fewer stabilizers, have you sitting down, and “feel less fatiguing,” all else being equal.
These last two criteria are a bit more context-dependent.
Time efficiency. This criterion can go from being irrelevant to being paramount, depending on how much time you have to train. Generally, dumbbell, bodyweight, cable, and stack-loaded machine exercises are more time-efficient than their barbell and plate-loaded counterparts, since you cut out the set-up and loading time. Compound movements are also favored with this criterion, since they allow you to train a larger fraction of your body’s musculature in any given set.
Unilateral vs bilateral. This criterion is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, bilateral movements are a bit more time-efficient, since you only need to perform half the sets. They can also feel more-or-less fatiguing, depending on the exercise performed, compared to unilateral movements. On the other hand, unilateral exercises may allow you to use your nervous system a bit more efficiently, allowing you to reach local muscular failure more effectively – this is called the bilateral strength deficit. Unilateral exercises also allow you to remedy any potential side-to-side muscular imbalances.
As promised, here are some of our top underrated picks for building muscle.
For the chest, dumbbell pressing variations offer a great stretch while being time-efficient.
For the back, the chest-supported machine row is a great option, offering reduced fatigue and increased time efficiency compared to the bent-over variation.
Finally, for the lower body, the dumbbell split squat is a great option: it provides a great stretch for the knee and hip extensors, while reducing involvement of the lower-back musculature, and being quite time-efficient to prepare for compared to other squatting variations.