Ep. 157 - Exercise Selection for Hypertrophy: An In-Depth Examination

Exercise selection, a multi-layered piece of cake that you don’t have to eat all of to benefit from, but really, who eats just part of a slice of cake (weirdo)? For hypertrophy, it can be as simple as having a few compound exercises for each major muscle group, a few isolation exercises to round them, smaller muscle groups out, and training through a full ROM. But, what about the folks who tell you compounds are all you need? And what about all those bodybuilders who swear by (certain types) of partials? Well, the former folks may have not considered the functional anatomy of specific muscles, or how biarticular muscles function in compound exercises, and more importantly, they probably don’t care. Most of the time, these minimalists are actually answering a different question and have different goals from the competitive or non-competitive physique athlete, but on the internet, this gets lost. Likewise, those IFBB pros training through a partial range of motion…is it just steroid-induced ego lifting? Or are they perhaps focusing on something you hadn’t considered? In this episode we go through each layer, helping you understand why the range of motion is an important variable, and how certain types of partials are actually fine, and maybe even beneficial, while others will short change your stimulus. Finally, we talk about why it’s a good idea to not just stick to compounds if your goal is hypertrophy, and which specific muscle groups and exercises you need to consider.