Movements Over Muscles

Muscle-Building Tips and Advice for the Natural Bodybuilder

     In my last essay on how to gain mass fast, I mentioned that the secret just might be getting stronger on a handful of exercises.  (This essay, I suppose, is just an extension of that last one.)  In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that I’m right.  If you’re a natural bodybuilder, then the one thing more important than any other is to get strong on a dozen or so exercises, with your strength-focus in roughly the 5 to 10 rep range.

     One approach is to achieve this is to focus on movements over muscles.  In other words, instead of going to the gym and “obliterating” or “destroying” (why do bodybuilders always seem to use military-sounding jargon for a lot of their training) your quad muscles with endless sets of leg extensions, leg presses, and machine whatever, how about just trying to get stronger on the squat?  Same goes for the remainder of your muscle groups.  Instead of training bodyparts or muscles, try training lifts, exercises, or movements.  This may not be the most common approach, but it is the more effective one.

     Here are the movements you should concentrate on.  Get strong on all of these and I can guarantee you a well-developed physique.

Squats

     There’s a reason that the barbell back squat has been the go-to mass-building movement for nearly a century.  It works better than any other.  And there really isn’t a replacement.

     You could spend the entirety of your training life and do nothing other than the barbell back squat for your legs.  Tom Platz built his enormous quads with, really, nothing more than the squat.  I think he only did other movements to stave off boredom.  I met him one time (over 30 years ago).  I should’ve asked if that was the case, but I didn’t.  The point is that you don’t need anything other than the back squat, but you still might want to utilize some additional movements.

     The front squat and the bottom-position squat are probably your best alternatives.  Both still barbell lifts.  I also really like the double kettlebell front squat, assuming you have access to heavy enough kettlebells.  If you’re a lifter who has trouble with the barbell movements, this is most likely your best option.

     I’m occasionally asked if there is a valid replacement for squats.  The question is typically asked by taller lifters who have trouble with depth on the different barbell squats.  Although the most straightforward answer is, “no, there’s not a replacement for squats,” and that has been my typical answer over the years, I think there might be one viable squat alternative: the sumo deficit deadlift.  It essentially is a squat, and if you are having trouble with the more traditional squatting movements, this would be the first option I would try.  Oh, and it’s tough, which means it’s more likely to actually, you know, produce results.

Presses

     You should concentrate on getting stronger on both a horizontal press and a vertical press.  Most modern lifters, unfortunately, focus almost exclusively on horizontal presses (i.e. bench presses) but neglect the vertical dimension of the press (i.e. overhead press).  This creates not just strength imbalances, but, I believe, the myriad of shoulder, specifically rotator cuff, injuries that are so prevalent in the gyms and the athletic fields/courts of the day.

     Despite the overuse of the bench press in modern gyms, it’s still a good movement.  In fact, I’d argue that it’s a great movement, so long as it’s not the focal point of all upper body work, which, sad-to-say, it often is.  But when it’s treated equal to other upper body lifts—chins, overhead presses, cleans, curls, dips, et al—and, thus, all of those lifts are trained equal to the bench press, it’s as good as any other kind of pressing movement.

     I put three presses above all others.  I think these are great for physique athletes, competitive lifters, and really just anyone looking for an impressively built upper body.  Those three lifts are the flat barbell bench press, the military press, and the one-arm dumbbell overhead press.  If you wanted to substitute the weighted dip for the flat bench press, I wouldn’t have a problem with that.  Aside from possibly substituting dips, if you have well-developed shoulders and arms, but an underdeveloped chest, you may want to consider the flat dumbbell bench press as the better alternative to its barbell brother.

     As you advance in both size and strength, you also might want to consider adding an incline pressing movement and/or the behind-the-neck press.  An upper body program consisting of getting stronger on flat barbell or dumbbell bench presses, incline barbell or dumbbell bench presses, military presses, and behind-the-neck presses would be hard to beat!

The Back

     Notice that I have listed a bodypart for this sub-heading as opposed to a lift.  I did this for a reason.  When many bodybuilders say they just trained “back” at the gym, what they actually mean is that they just trained their lats using one vertical pulling movement, usually cable pulldowns.  To train the back properly, however, you need a horizontal upper body pulling movement (some sort of row), a vertical upper body pulling movement (some kind of chin), a lower body pulling movement (such as cleans, snatches, or deadlifts), and some sort of shrug for your traps.

     For the rows, stick with either barbell rows or one-arm dumbbell rows.  Those should be your two main stays.  For the vertical pulls, use primarily different forms of weighted chins.  Neutral, close-grip, medium, and wide-grip chins should all be utilized.  If you’re strong but really large, then you can substitute a pulldown movement for the chins.  And, finally, for the shrugs, I think it’s best to just alternate between barbell and dumbbell shrugs.  Both should be trained heavy, but both hit your trapezius muscles in a slightly different manner.

Curls

     Curling movements, similar to the flat bench press, have been overused for many years by (primarily) young bodybuilding acolytes looking for bigger “guns.”  And, once again similar to the bench press, curls have become much maligned for this very reason.  But you need to do curls.  They are essential for anyone looking to gain as much muscle mass as possible.

     I don’t think you need anything more than barbell curls, ez-bar curls, or standing dumbbell curls.  Those three can all be trained heavy and are, in many ways, whole body lifts, even when performed without cheating, though there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of cheating toward the end of a set of curls.

Loaded Carries and Other “Odd” Lifts

     This is the final group of what I would call essential movements, yet one rarely performed by the average gym-goer.  Even if they don’t do them well, most trainees are going to do some form of squats, pulls, presses, and curls yet these same trainees may never, as in their entire training life(!), do any form of loaded carry.  But loaded carries build strength and size better than almost anything else out there—with the exception of squats, of course.  In fact, if you did workouts consisting only of squats and some form of loaded carry, you might not need anything else.  Or very little.

     You several lifts to choose from that fit the bill here.  Sled drags (pull it walking both backward and forward), farmer walks, sandbag carries (in fact, anything you can do with a sandbag is good), tire flips, wheelbarrow carries, stone lifts of all types, keg tosses, barrel walks—you (hopefully) get the point.

Putting Together a Training Plan

     Those are the what that you need to do.  Now let’s look at the how.

     In one training phase, you might decide to get stronger on the following:

·         Front squats

·         Power snatches

·         Incline barbell bench presses

·         One-arm dumbbell overhead presses

·         Wide-grip weighted chins

·         One-arm dumbbell rows

·         Dumbbell shrugs

·         Barbell curls

·         Sandbag carries

     In a 2^nd training phase, you might select these:

·         Bottom-position squats

·         Power cleans

·         Weighted dips

·         Behind-the-neck presses

·         Under grip weighted chins

·         Wide-grip barbell rows

·         Barbell shrugs

·         Standing alternate dumbbell curls

·         Tire flips

     You have a myriad of training options.

     If you’re new to training—or at least new to serious training—then simply do either list as a full-body workout.  That’s not just for beginners, however.  If you’ve been doing split workouts for some time, and your progress has stalled, or if you’re just looking for a new growth impetus, then you should also consider total body training.  A 9-exercise full-body workout can be quite a challenge even for the heartiest of lifters, assuming full attention and concentration is given to all of the lifts.

     Also, if you’re new to training, 9 exercises—even if it doesn’t look like much on paper—may simply be too much for you.  In this case, train full-body but rotate in different forms of pressing and different pulls at each session.  Using our 2^nd workout above, one session might be squats, cleans, btn presses, barbell rows, curls, and tire flips.  The 2^nd session would be squats, weighted dips, chins, shrugs, curls, and tire flips.  Slowly work up, over a couple of months, to all 9 of the movements.

     You can also take the opposite approach of full-body, and work on each lift at each training session.  If you’re fond of the American bodybuilding “system” of having an arm day, a chest day, etc., then this is probably more up your alley.  By focusing on movements over muscles—having a squat day instead of a leg day, a press day instead of a chest and shoulders day, and whatnot—you simply get a better session.

     You are able to get more work in at each session using this training split, so it’s also ideal for high-volume lifters. Your week of training might look like this:

Monday: squats

·         Back squats

·         Front squats

Tuesday: presses

·         Flat barbell bench presses

·         One-arm dumbbell overhead presses

·         Military presses

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: pulls

·         Deadlifts

·         Power cleans

·         One-arm dumbbell power snatches

·         Barbell shrugs

Friday: curls

·         Barbell curls

·         Standing dumbbell curls

Saturday: odd lifts

·         Sled drags

·         Farmer walks

·         Tire flips

Sunday: Off

     In between the one-lift-a-day system and full-body workouts, you can always just use a more “reasonable” training split.  Split your program into 2—perhaps 3 at the most—workouts.  I like a workout of squats, lower body pulls, and “odd” work at one session and all other upper body work at the other.  Your two workouts in that case might look like this:

Workout One:

Back squats

Power cleans

Farmer walks

Workout Two:

Flat bench presses

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses

Weighted chins

Barbell rows

Barbell shrugs

EZ bar curls

     You can also take a more “full-body split” approach, by training lower body and upper body muscles at each workout.  In this case, your program might look more like this:

Workout One:

Front squats

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses

Weighted chins

Barbell curls

Sandbag carries

Workout Two:

Deficit sumo deadlifts

Flat bench presses

Dumbbell shrugs

Barbell rows

Sled drags

     One of the things I like about 2-way splits is their adaptability.  You can train every day, alternating back and forth between the two workouts, and just take a day off when you feel like it.  You can train on a 4-day rotation, doing Workout One on Monday and Thursday and Workout Two on Tuesday and Friday.  You can just train every-other-day.  Your training plan should be based on the amount of volume and intensity that you utilize at each workout.  Obviously, the more frequently you train, the less overall volume and intensity should be used at your sessions.

 

    

 

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