Success Is Not Measured By The Number Of Exercises You Do
Last Update On December 12, 2011
How many exercises do you need?
Good question. To be honest I think you should always focus on the essential exercises that feel right on your body and bring results. Most people are getting caught into that pro-bodybuilding bullshit where you do 5 exercise for chest, 5 for biceps, 10 for legs and 15 for back. This is a complete waste of time. Not to mention that the simple rule: “The more you do the more chance there is to do it wrong.” applies here. It's not how much you do and if you do too much work you will hinder your results tremendously or even hurt yourself.
Try this experiment for a few weeks - reduce your number of exercises by removing non-essential movements. Write a list of each exercise you are doing and ask yourself: “Why am I doing this? Am I seeing results from it at all? How do my joint feel about it?
"Ok. Bro But Ronnie Coleman says you should hit the muscle from every angle? U MAD?"
I don't care what a steroid loaded genetic freak says. For the mortal we have to do only what's effective for us and remove everything else. You can always experiment and change one exercise for another over a certain period of time but never do any movement just because “you have to”. You will end up over-training and hurting something. For months I used to do only one exercise for chest (weighted ring push-up) and it worked better than bench presses and flies all together. Of course some of you will disagree but hey it worked for me so why change it?
"Ok. Bro, how many exercises should I do?"
The following is just a guideline and not a do or die rule. Change it if you feel you have to and don't be afraid to do 1 or 2 exercises per muscle group. Like we said - it's quality we are after not quantity.
Chest - up to 4;
Two compound exercises such as bench press, dips, push-ups, dumbbell inclines... and up to 2 isolation movements such as cross-over and flies. However if you feel over-trained the cross-over and the flies should be the first to go.
Back - up to 6;
2-3 exercises with emphasis on the lats - pull-ups, pull-overs, lat pull-downs...
2-3 exercises with upper back emphasis - wide grip rows, dumbbell rows, shrugs....
1-2 exercises with spine erector emphasis such as lower back extensions, deadlifts....
Arms - up to 4;
Two exercises per muscle group at most;
Legs - up to 7-8 (calves included)
Up to 3 quad dominant exercises such as hack squats, leg extensions...
Up to 3 hamstring dominant exercises such as Romanian Deadlifts, leg curls...
1-2 exercises for calves;
This is my rule of thumb. Anything above it will be over-training for me. Hey sometimes I would just do this: 1 exercise for chest and front deltoids, 2 for arms (one for tris+ one for bis), 2 for quads, 2 for hamstrings, 1 for calves, 5 for back (this is my strongest), 2 for shoulders (one for rear delts and one for side delts). This is a simplistic plan and if you feel overworked by your current Ronnie Coleman like schedule give it a try.
