Transcription
I gathered a list of the top three exercises for every single muscle. Are dumbbell curls a waste of time? Should you be barbell bench pressing these? Along with dozens of other workout questions, are about to be answered by me and exercise scientist Dr. Mike Isrel. Let's kick it off with our first muscle group: back.
First exercise of back, Dr. Mike, what is it going to be? We are going to be doing the lat prayer, also known as the straight arm lat pull down. A lot of details here to get it done right, so let's dive in.
So this is how I would normally do the exercise. Okay, yeah, we can make it a little better. What I want you to do is I want you to tilt over, keeping your chest up and letting your elbows come up behind you until you're essentially parallel to the ground. And then I'm going to ask you to pull in while coming up a little, and then on the way down, I want you to come down and let your arms really float up so you get a crazy amount of tension through those lats at the very point at which they stretch the most, which is like all scienced-out hypertrophy pill or whatever. So okay, I'm here. So even lower hips, lower, and then this up. Good big stretch here. Yeah, yep, and then as you come up, yes, and then back down slowly. Deeper, deeper. Oh, wo, yes, and then hit it again. Yes, perfect, and then down deep, deep, deep, elbows up, and then all the way up. Perfect. That's it. Did you hear that noise that I just made? That was a little prep bessing and embarrassing. You've been uh, voice cracking lately, right? Puberty round two. Back to Middle School, my man. Get that, that Tren, that Primo, bow in. Oo, fancy. Are you ready for the next exercise? Let's do it.
And here we are, the pull-up. Wow. Okay, the next exercise of Mike's choice is going to be the pull-up. This is like a super, super staple. And ooh, watch this. I can be a young person. The pull-up is goated and slept on. Wo, FRFR. Am I a Tik Toker yet? You're talking like you're texting, Mike. Yeah, isn't that how kids do nowadays? I'm going to do them how I always do them, and then Mike's going to tell me everything I'm doing wrong. That is excellent. Gorgeous. At of 10, how is the form? It really is a 10, but I'm not going to say it's a 10. I'm going to say it's a nine. Okay, cuz like with these hoes at the club, you don't want to tell these they're tens out here. You feel me? Back down to earth, you a nined me. And speaking of girls, what is that over there? What he doesn't realize is he's building an entire workout program just for you guys. No, no, that girl, that's a girl, and I'm going to give it to you guys at the end of this video: full workout program for free. You did a couple of awesome things. You did a full range of motion with a big dead hang, full stretch at the bottom. It's critical to get the most growth. You had a grip width that was totally awesome. One of the big myths is if there's this optimal grip or ideal grip. You can do parallel grip, you can do underhand grip, you can do far out, you can do medium. The variation is the name of the game.
Third exercise, Dr. Mike, we have a mini barbell. Yes, mini. I'm not a little like you. The world's biggest man. Yes. So barbell row, but with a deficit because a big stretch is really awesome for the back. You want to bend over like you're bending into a stiff-legged deadlift, so you want your butt back, knees back. You want this part of your lower back to stay nice and tight, but you're going to been super far, trying to keep the chest up the whole time. Keep bending until the barbell touches the ground, but I want your chest to stay pointed up the entire time. So flatten your back, Jesse, like this, but stay low. Don't pull your shoulder blades back. That's hard, dude. Let your shoulder blades relax completely, but point your chest to the sky. Okay, now row into your tummy. Boom, and then control and touch the ground again. Yes, and try to keep as flat of a back as possible by angling your chest up the entire time. Big chest, look forward. It's going to help. Yes, touch every time. An advanced version is, as it gets tougher, you come up a little higher. Yes, but then download a touch, and then come up high. Beautiful. Excellent, just like that. Big touch at the ground. I, I didn't touch it. Sorry. Perfect. Good enough, dude. That's nice. Yeah, normally I just go like this. Yeah, bro. Ros. Yep. But here's the thing, you see Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, they're like, yeah, buddy, get buddy, lightweight. The full one recruits your mid and lower back more, giving you that gnarly nasty thickness. The stimulus to the muscle is either better or the same, but you don't have to [ __ ] with a ton of weight. Yo, I'm ready for the next muscle. Why are you looking at me like that? I'm going to take you down. You think you're Jiu-Jitsu black belt? Well, guess what, I am. I'm sick AF. That means it. Yeah, we're in, we're a muscle. Let's go.
Next up, we've got one of my worst body parts: delt. We're doing shoulders. First exercise being the seated dumbbell lateral raise. Somehow many people still this one up. Let me see what you've got, Jesse. You want to see me do side raises? Yes. So smooth. Good. These are excellent. I have no critiques. Wow, really? Nope. One thing to try: make sure to stop just above parallel for a split second just to connect with your side delt. Okay, and then as you do the eccentric lowering phase, try to have all the tension come from your side delts. Notably pause. Slow, slow, right up. No breaks. Yes. Pausing at the top is really challenging. Oh my, so much hard doing that. This is amazing. Good enough. Good enough. Good enough. Holy. You see that? More was more dates. Your bro energy is like at a trillion. You're like this. You're like, hey, man, hold up, hold up. So our second exercise for delta is going to be the super ROM lateral. People seem to think that the shoulder muscles no longer do anything at this point or above. If you go all the way up to where the dumbbells are at a 45° angle above or even higher, and then here's the critical factor: control that eccentric all the way through and come back up. You get full deltoid development. You even get some front delt activation at the top. Think of the dumbbells as drinks that you're always pouring out. Oh, I'm pouring drinks at the club. Poor, poor, po. More tequila. What's your best tip to disengage the traps? Yes, I have a really good tip for that. A, that was a good sound. Very good. Show up to the gym, train your adts normally, let your traps engage fully, and then when you walk up to the barbell on the rack with 845s on each side to do shrugs, just don't do them. Your traps already got hit with your adult training. I solve two problems at once for you. You're welcome. Do you don't think you need to do direct trap training? No. God, no. If you do shoulders right, hell no. Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, our next exercise will hit your traps again and from a different angle.
Next up, we have cable face pulls. I thought that cable face pulls were trash. Who said they were trash? As a Cy brro lifter, science ambro lifter, I thought, okay, here there's like no stretch here. Big stretch, big stretch. Therefore, this sucks. The stretch isn't everything. I know it's crazy for me to be saying that. Yeah, it's not a great stretch exercise, but it's an awesome contraction exercise. It gives you a huge range of motion. Show me how you do this. You want to see exactly how? I want to see the terrible way that you do it. That [Music] sucks. Cool. See, I do this. I feel nothing. I'm shameful of myself. Yes, I cry at night. Yes, at least three times a month, and I like watching The Notebook when he like gets into bed with her in the old people home. I start just, I just, I lose it. I lose it. That was actually really good, and it's a fine way to do it. Let me show you. I want to see a better way. So like, what? Like waist? Yeah, like waist, maybe hip, a little lower than hip height. Back up out to generate some tension, and then the it starts at a stretch like this. Yes, I want you to take your elbows, and I want you to drive them up and back to beyond your ears. You're going to pause at the top. You're going to crunch up here, and then you're going to slowly release, and if you bring your elbow out and back, it's going to get exactly the side delt. Oh, yes. Very good. I did not know you could do this. Back and crunch. Good. Big stretch. Perfect. Just like that.
Moving on to triceps, the first exercise being seated overhead tricep extensions. What you're going to do is you're going to press it up completely overhead. Okay, you're going to let your elbows drift forward and in, touch and pause. It's almost like you're doing a crunch. Yeah, it's a tricep crunch. Yes, and then you press all the way back up, and then elbows in and forward gently, slowly touch all the way as deep as you can, and then back up. Just like that, Jesse. Crank out a few more reps. These are excellent. Elbows in and forward. Good. The hardest part is keeping the elbows forward. Keep the tension all the way through. Don't bounce at the bottom. Tension, tension, tension, tension, tension up. Very good. Just like that. And when I hit failure, I would go like this. I'd stand, and then I'd do these. Crank out a few extra. Sure. Yeah, you see that? Subscribe or else. All right, thank you. So next up, we're doing lying skull crushers. I call this the wavy bar. It's a little bit of zest in there, Jesse James. Zest is back, girl. All right, so there are a few options for how to do this. Okay, if you like a little bit more of the stretch, get behind the head and touch the ground over here. So go ahead and extend all the way behind the head, pause, and then come up. Yep, slowly, slowly, slowly down. Control, and then back. And actually a really challenging variation: have a spotter gently touch the very front of your throat because it's a deficit, and it gets a crazy stretch going. Keep the cental control. Do that thing with Jesse's face that he just did. You're going to be right as rain. Have you ever had headlice? Uh, I did when I was a kid. Ah, you can't get lice, you're bald, right? Do you ever just go like this and you're like, what the heck? Why do you always do the kissing [ __ ] kissing? Holy. Well, you've been to jail. Hi, I'm in a prison once. Good God.
Next up, we're going on to the dip machine. So these don't have that flippable option that we want, but they do have the curvys. So you get into the thin part. If you guys do the wide part, it's more chest. If you do the thin part, it's typically more triceps, but for you, since you're a thin king, you're a pretty wide king. I take that back. You're like thin where it counts and wide where it also counts. But what about where it really counts, Jesse? Mike, tell them how to do the exercise right. Yes, the exercise. What you want to do is envision your chest staying vertical and your elbows traveling back as far as possible as you go down. And Jesse, go even lower to where your thumbs are almost touching your shoulders. Oh my God. Okay, yeah, elbows back to me and keep your chest vertical. Vertical, vertical, vertical, vertical. Elbows back, elbows back, elbows back. Deeper, deeper, deeper. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. These are T. That is crazy. Yes. Very good. I would 100% need to use the assistance here. Yes.
Next up, quads. First exercise: high bar squat. Mike's telling me I can't use weights, but I still practice safe sets. I'm going to be truthful with you. Yeah, I don't barbell squat at all. I can tell by your legs. They're not moving it like they used to. I mean, they're small. Cool. That looks just fine. Yeah, go ahead and rack for a sec. We're going to have one correction. So if you get we lifting shoes with a built-in heel, that's the best way to squat, but if you don't have those, you can just take the two and a halves, which we will now take, only your heel, put them on there. Your toe goes on the ground. Make sure they're stable. Be careful. Don't use a ton of weight. Get nice and stable, and then you're really going to focus on staying as upright with your chest as possible with your knees as far forward as possible. Take the bar, roll it up higher on your back a little bit. There you go. Keep your chest higher, Jesse. Stop looking down. There's nothing to see there. You go. Go good, but go lower and sit there for a second. Good. And when you come up, only come up 2/3 of the way and then come back down. Wow, my quads are already feeling it with just the bar. Second quad exercise is going to be a hack squat. Yep. Why are you picking the hack squat? It's a great exercise. The leg press is also awesome. The belt squat is also awesome. You're going to want to slide your feet down on the platform so that you can still press off of your heels at the bottom. So what I'm focusing on my feet is bringing my feet down and then pointing my toes outward, and I'm also going to go to gymshark.com and buy the best, most handsomest clothing with code Jesse10 for 10% off. Just saying. Excellent. Just like that. Really no corrections. These are ideal. That's because I have massive quads, Mike. Yes. Yes. That's what it is. Exercise number three for the quadriceps, it's called the reverse Nordic. This is kind of like a S-tier boss level exercise that you have to be really strong for. You want to keep a straight, completely vertical torso the entire time. Very good. Oh my God. Control, control, control. Pause up. Very good. Holy crap. If you have friends, what you can do is hold on to this for me, so I'm letting Jesse do all the work on the lowering phase. Control it, control it, wait for it, and then on the up concentric, I help him out. Do one more. So low or slow by yourself. No help, no help, no help. Control, and then I have you up. Very good. Just like that. You can go beyond failure, and uh, it really will make your quads as big as Jesse, which isn't so impressive, but it's nice. You see those feathers? Oh my God. Are you a contest bodybuilder? Wow. If that's for quads, I'm just really curious what's going to be for biceps, chest, hamstrings. God only knows. Ooh, uh, glutes are next. Glut GL for the slutes. I don't trust you. That's right. It's time to get down and dirty with some glutes. First exercise: front foot elevated Smith machine lunge. You're already doing almost everything correct, Jesse. Very good. W. So the front foot elevation is to stretch that glute. Instead of stepping down with your foot like this at the bottom, you want to take your shoelaces and put them as far back as you can down gently, and as you come up, the first thing that happens is this back leg comes up. Very good. Oh my jeez. Now I understand why you put no weight on this. Yes. If you're using like a plate on a side, you either have glutes that are like Ronnie Coleman and his prime sized or your clown showing the whole thing. It's not that we're trying to use little weight; it's we're trying to do such good technique that the oops result is that you don't have to use a lot of weight. Nice and easy, slow, gentle touch, and then come back up. Very good. And the more, more you can sit back in this exercise, the better. Super far back with your hips at the bottom. Gently, gently, gently, and then come up. Excellent. Holy crap. It's crazy that the better you get at bodybuilding, it's almost like the lighter you can go.
Next exercise: the glute thrust machine. Sounds sexual to say, but I promise it is. So this is one of my favorite exercises because it has a lot of practical use, like intercourse. Oh my God. Yeah, it's a great machine. You can do this with a barbell, you can do it with dumbbells, you can do it one leg at a time, you can do it before your lunges and your squats to sort of pre-tax the glutes, but let's make sure we're doing this correctly cuz people get this wrong every now and again. Foot stance is wherever you're comfortable with. I feel right here, midle. Yeah, it's nice. So go down really quick. Go down and stay down. It's actually easy down there, and so if you can use a ton of weight and just pulse up really quick, uh, maybe that's not accomplishing what we want, and we already have a lot of length and position training and other glute exercises we do. So for this one, it's going to attach the shortened position, which means the very hip thrust at the end. So point your hips into the sky and hold and crunch for one full second at the top of every rep. One and down slow, and then come up and one full second. One and down slow, and then all the way up and down slow, and just like that. Okay, goed. Yeah, goated. So the next and last glut exercise for today is going to be the sit back squat. Typically people like to do it with a medium stance, so take your feet out a little bit, toes out considerably. Very good. And what you're going to do, Jesse, as you sit, push your butt back, so reach your butt back the entire time and never, ever, ever let your knees go past your toes. I might even go a little wider. Yeah, there you go. Sit back, pause, and then come up. Good, and go nice and deep. Back, back, back, back, back, and then up. Very good. With three muscle groups remaining, I almost have the ultimate blueprint for building muscle, of course, that I'm going to give to you guys for free at the end. Yeah, Mike, thanks for uh, thanks for writing this program. What program? It's a demo video, you fcking idiot. Okay, we are now on to hamstrings. You see that, Mike? You see that? O, what are we doing for hammies, Mike? Stiff-legged deadlifts are number one. The entire time that you're doing this, you want your, your chest to be vertical, nipples out, the whole 9 Y. No, I'm already tight here. Yes. The other cue: you want your knees to be pushed back, not to a full lockout, but just shy of lockout. And how deep do I need to go? That's the deepest you'll be able to go. That's no problem. Perfect. Feel the hamstrings there. Yeah, chest up, knees back, butt back, and butt up. Yes. Good. I feel like I'm getting gains that I would get from doing a normal set from just stretching proper, like the stretch and then getting a good contraction with a light weight feels better than doing it with a heavier weight and going to failure in that way.
Next up, we have the seated and the lying leg curl. My question: which one is better? There's at least one study that shows that the seated leg curl is better because it pre-stretches the hips. It kind of turns it into a mini stiff-legged deadlift, but to be completely honest, if you did like half an extra set on the lying leg curl, it would functionally come to be the same degree of hypertrophy. These are both excellent machines. When you get tired of one, go to the other. It's all right answers. This is what my reps would look like, but you know what? I see someone like Sam Suic, and he's like this, yeah, and he's like, yeah, he does that. Is he on to something? I think he's on something. If you want a little bit of something different, a little bit more of a challenge, not just curl over cuz that doesn't do much, really just arch your back into it. Yeah, yeah, like that. Oh my God. And then that's going to pre-stretch your hamstrings now. Go. Oh, good. Just like you want to kind of like badir it a little bit. Bad girl. The whole thing. Lean, lean more. Yes, yes. Just like that. Oh my God. Big lean. Come all the way up for big stretch. I want you uncomfortable. Hips forward. Big stretch. Feel your hamstrings pulling. Oh my gosh. That's good. That's a get me out of this torture device. Excellent. Yeah, it's terrible. I feel like Sam's doing this, maybe he just loves the machine hug. He got to hug someone sometimes. When you hug somebody that you love, the Sam suck will call it, you're rapping them right, but when you're in love with someone, you're going to tilt your hips into them and wrap them up. So not only do you wrap, but check out my hips now. We're in business. Are you in love yet? No. You. The lying leg curl, the forgotten hamstring exercise. The trick with it is to make sure you control that bottom part. Just control that eccentric. Don't rush at the bottom. Don't bounce out of the hole. You'll be golden. All the same tips apply for all the leg curls. So what we learned for needed applies to lying. Do you need to do both types of leg curls in one leg day? As a matter of fact, you don't even need to do both types of leg curls ever. You can do one ever or the other ever, and you'll have huge hamstrings. It's long going to do some kind of hinge movement and some kind of curl movement. You're going to be golden. The rest is just for fun.
Next up, we've got cals. All right, cool. Next up, we have biceps. Is it buys for the guys or is it curls for the girls? It's both. Yeah, why limit your options? A lot of girls are very pretty, but some guys, and I don't mean anyone specifically, are also beautiful. Do you know who I'm talking about? No. Everyone's been making fun of Mike for doing this exercise, so I figured why not play into it? This is called the clown curl. You're going to want to lay back on a decline bench. You can also do this on a flat bench. Get a crazy stretch in your biceps. Oh, this is the craziest stretch I've ever felt in my life. Pause for a second. Curl back up. Two things that are really important on this one: chest up. Another is that it's really easy to do it when your arms are going out, so you want to make sure your arms are staying tight to the bench and you're reaching towards your heels, and that's going to leave a ton of tension on the biceps. It's going to be really easy here, really hard here. That's what we want because tension at a lengthened position grows a ton of muscle. If you struggle to get sore for biceps, it will wreck you. So next up, Mike chose the incline dumbbell curl. What is your thoughts for biceps? Do we need to do this or can you just stay? If you do the super, make sure to grab at the very end of the dumbbell just like you're grabbing, so like the top, correct? Then it challenges the superation. Superate pinkies up. Keep it there the entire time. Beautiful. Next exercise and the last one for biceps is the free motion cable curl. I call this the Superman cable curl. This is how I built my biceps to be absolutely massive. Let's take you up even higher. Higher. What? Real? What? That high? That high? It's going to feel different, trust me. Have I ever let you down? Belly button is what we're depending on your flexibility. Yes, I see what you're saying here, brother. Oh wow. Good. Oh, dude, I'm about to get so jacked after this video. It's almost like you're building me a program or something. This weird.
The final muscle group, ladies and gentlemen, we've made it to. Have I said enough yet? Chest. We are building pecs of steel, baby. Who's doing it better? Tell the first exercise to the camera: low incline dumbbell press. You're going to reach the inside of the dumbbell to the very top of your biceps and front delts to get that extra stretch, and you're going to hang out there for one full second at the bottom of each rep, and then you're going to press all the way up and out. Very good. Big chest. Jesse has a nice arch. Yes. The arch is part of the plan. This is an overall peak builder. Does it hit the upper pecs? Yes. Does it hit the lower pecs also? Yes. The mid pecs, believe it or not, it doesn't hit at all. Just hit it. It hits those two. Jesse, you're doing great. This is ideal technique. Yeah, because you have forced me to use 20s. Flies are next. You can use 20s for those too if you're an egotistic hope. Then we're going to use them. The second exercise for chest is the flat dumbbell fly. So we're here, chest up, elbow slightly bent. Just slow and deep. Tell me how deep I need to go. Higher. Yes. When you feel a painful stretch in your pecs, but they still feel strong, that's the lowest you should be going. Right there. Yes. That's beautiful technique, Jesse. That's damn near ideal. I would say big chest. Who gives a [ __ ]? I'm just kidding. You were supposed to be concerned. You're just competition to me. I'm the new Jesse James. West variation. We're going to show you is a variation of the flat dumbbell fly. It's called The Jiki Fly, named after its inventor Eric Janii, who's bigger than you and all of your friends put together. This is like the secret exercise of the video that if you're going to take one away, you got to try this one. You come down all the way down and deep and then back. Oh my God. All the way up. Beautiful. Final exercise for chest. What do we have? The deficit push-up. It is made of literal goats. Is that sheep? They're all the same. What the [ __ ] is wrong with you, kid? So you're telling me we're going to end with push-ups? We did not include a flat barbell bench press. Is that not one of the top exercises? It is one of the top exercises, but everyone knows it already. We thought we'd throw you guys something that maybe you didn't know. This is one that I actually do. We've done two second Channel videos, Jesse's name is East. If you didn't know that I had a second Channel, I do. So I've been implementing these for the past year and a half, and it has been game-changing. I end my workout with it, and it's unbelievable. You want to have your butt up. Yes. Butt up. Look forward a little bit, and slowly and under control, let your elbows flare out as you go ultra deep and get a big stretch on your pecs at the very bottom. You want your shoulders to line up with the dumbbells. Now, why is my butt in the air? Because that tilts your upper body down and lets us focus on your overall pecs and your upper pecs as well. And another trick you can do: come all the way down for a big pause. When you come up, only come 2/3 of the way up and then come back down right away. That's going to tire out your chest really fast. If you're really strong and you can do a bunch of reps, you'll be able to do way fewer this way, and you'll zap your. There it is, ladies and gentlemen. Everyone please thank Dr. Mike Isrel for his time, and you guys can try out all these exercises for free. It's on the screen. You can pretty much build an entire program out of it. So thanks for that, Dr. Mike. Subscribe and stay relentless. [Music]