In this article we are going to discuss which exercises for strength training you should involve in your strength training program. If your coming from my article Guidelines For Making A Strength Training Workout Program then you have already heard my soap box on how people put too much energy into exercises for strength training. While it is important, for the average lifter it isn’t as important as you may think. In this article I am going to explain how to determine which exercises to using in your training

Where to start

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When deciding which exercises to choose you need to understand how your body moves. The body moves in a relatively predictable manner. You can push and pull either horizontally or vertically, you can squat, hinge, take a single leg stance, or rotate. Each of these should be accounted for in a program to ensure balance in the body.

There are many people who never program many of these directions. Men tend to bias upper body, mainly pressing, and women tend to bias lower body exercises. I get it I used to hate lunges. I mean who wants to do double the work with half the weight? Not many people, but if you want to be healthy and keep lifting into your latter decades then you need to include exercises like this even if only for a brief time every couple of weeks.

Here are some examples in each category

Push

Horizontal: push up, bench press, chest press, dips, flys,

Vertical: military press, dumbbell shoulder press, lateral raises     

Pull

Horizontal: rows of any type, shrugs, high pulls, rear delt flys  

Vertical: pull ups, pull downs, pull over

Squat

Barbell squats, front squats, goblet squats, leg press hack squat

Hinge

Deadlifts, RDL, hip thrust, back extensions, hamstring curls

Single leg

Split squats, Bulgarian split squats, single leg RDL, single leg hip thrust, walking lunges, reverse lunges, lateral lunges

Rotate

Abdominal cable or band rotations, side planks, half kneeling rotations, single arm farmers walks

How do I pick which exercises to include?

This is dependent upon your goal. At this point you should have already made a SMART goal and decided your exercise split. These two factors have a big influence on your exercise selection. Ill explain why below.

Goals

It wouldn’t be wise to set a specific goal for each movement at the same time. You will end up doing everything and getting no where. Instead I would recommend using the rule of three and choosing three exercise you want to focus on for the next 4-12 weeks. You can call this your big three

Your big three is determined by you goals, some exercises may lead to better performance for different activities. For instance a bodybuilder’s exercise selection will differ very much from a CrossFit competitor.

You should pick exercises that allow you to move the most weight safely. The most popular example is back squat, bench, deadlift. These three exercise hit all major muscle groups extensively so are a good fit for any goal especially strength. Not all people can safely complete these three exercises though, so here are some examples to help you visualize how to pick.

Examples:

My favorite: Front squat, overhead press, RDL (Great for strength and hypertrophy)

Body Building or past injury: Bulgarian split squat, dumbbell chest press, barbell hip thrust

Beginner: goblet squat, pushups, chest supported Row (good for strength and hypertrophy)

Power Athlete: Front squat, push press, power clean

Kettlebell Enthusiast: Turkish get ups, Swing, Snatch

Body Weight Enthusiast: Pistol squat, handstand push up, Pull up

The options are endless, the key point here is focus your energy on a select few of exercises and switch them up regularly to hit all movement patterns.

Workout Split

Split greatly influences your exercises as well. Some splits work similar muscles on back to back days or have very little recovery days naturally built in. Choosing exercises that will not lead to overtraining is crucial. Here are some tips based on the most common workout splits.

Full body workout splits

Start with your most technical exercises first and finish with the most fatiguing exercises here is an example with squat, bench, and deadlift.

• Squats are very technical and require a large amount of stabilization. They should be done first.
• Bench not as technical as squat, and not super fatiguing either. Put this in the middle.
• Deadlifts are very fatiguing and do not require as much precision as squats this is why they are usually saved for last.

Accessories are then allotted to tie up any loose ends. When using a full body program you must rest at minimum a day in between sessions in most scenarios so recovery isn’t so much of a concern with exercise selection.

Push pull workout splits

This one you tend to work similar muscles day to day, mainly with legs. Squats and deadlifts are usually performed a day apart. Glute and/or lower back soreness can impede the latter exercise.

It is worth the effort to organize exercises that induce DOMS (AKA sore muscles) on a day followed by rest. Exercises that induce the most soreness are ones that stretch the muscles the most such as deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, pull ups, etc.

Putting your days with the most volume towards the end of the week is wise as well. It would not be smart to squat 10×10 on Monday, deadlift 5×5 on Tuesday then try to squat again on wed. Spread the volume over the week in a way to avoid fatigue and injury.

Upper lower/Push pull legs

Typically not much to worry about here there is usually enough rest between the same body part to avoid over training

Organize your session with the same principles as full body putting your most technical lifts first.

I personally like to train this 4-6x per week. Having my biggest compound exercises in the beginning of the week and my exercises geared more towards pump at the end.

Planning accessories

You now should have your goal set, split picked, and know what your big three are. After you map out your workout based on the big three consider adding accessories if time permits. There are three main rationale for including accessories.

Improve main lifts

Rationale for those interested mainly in strength to add accessories is to improve their main lifts. Let’s use an easy example such as the deadlift.

Maybe you cannot complete your lockout on your top lifts.

You may want to add rack pulls or banded deadlifts as an accessory to improve your top end strength

Maybe you struggle getting the weight off the ground

You may want to pull from a deficit or add snatch grip deadlifts to your accessory lifts.

I think you get my point, choose exercises that bring up your biomechanical weaknesses.

Induce hypertrophy

Those who want to look as strong as they are may want to add accessories for an aesthetic effect. For this I recommend choosing exercises that bring up neglected body parts. Keep them brief and intense to elicit maximal gains and to allow for more recovery time.

Example:

Most commonly neglected muscles no matter what your exercise selection is for your main lifts are rear and side delts, traps, hamstrings, abs, and calves. Adding in 1-3 sets all to failure for these muscles groups scattered throughout the week, maybe even utilizing them on a weak link day is best.

Avoid injuries

Last but not least, accessories help to avoid injuries. No matter how strategic you are when picking your big three you are going to have weaknesses. Weaknesses are entry points for overuse and therefore injuries. Again we will use the traditional big three (squat bench deadlift) as an example.

Some weakness not addressed with the big three are usually scapular strength, hamstrings, and single limb strength. With this in mind it would be smart to add in exercises such as external rotation exercises, trap exercises, single leg movements such as split squats and single leg RDL, and extra hamstring work such as RDLS, good mornings, and hamstring curls.

Wrap Up

I hope this information has found you well. After reading this I hope your have a better idea of how to chose your exercises for strength training. If you enjoy reading articles on Distinct Strength then please sign up for our weekly newsletter to stay up to date with articles and have access to members only discounts!