As a personal trainer with over a decade of experience, I get asked this a lot. The truth is, there are none. Bar one exception. Anyone who tries to tell you that such and such exercise is mandatory and if you don't do it you're wasting your time, usually doesn't know what they're talking about. Yes, some exercises may be the most effective for the majority of people. However, these don't make them essential. The only thing that does make an exercise essential. Is that you enjoy it. That should be one of the top priorities in anyones training plan. For anything, we talk a lot about weight training but this extends to all training. You need to enjoy it. Mainly because life is pritty rubbish if you don't enjoy what you get upto. But also because you simply wont do it, or at the least wont put much effort into it, if you don't look forward to it. So number one, make sure you enjoy what you are getting upto. Now that being said there are some types of exercises that can be more beneficial to your goals than others. As a crude example if your goal is to increase your leg strength then Bicep curls are fairly useless no matter how much you enjoy them. So I'll go over some general tips for picking what weight lifting exercises to do. One: Make them EnjoyableI am flogging this proverbial dead horse again. Start by writing down a list of all your favorite exercises, then a list of ones you hate the most. Make sure you pick as many exercises that you like as you can, that are specific for your goals. Try and pick no exercises you truly hate unless you desperately need them for your goals, and if so sandwich them with ones you like. Try and be practical, do you hate them because you suck at them, or because you genuinely hate them. To my clients reading this, split squats don't count, they're just difficult you don't hate them really. Two: Use as many triple extension movements as you can.A triple extension movement is one that uses three joints to complete. So for example in a Barbell Back Squat there is movement through the ankle, knee, and hip. Whereas in a seated quad extension there is only movement through the knee. This is not to say that movements only using one joint are bad, just triple extension movements have the most bang for buck for your effort. Which means you spend less overall time in the gym as well. Great news, I don't like training for ages either. Three: Unilateral exercises are also great.These are exercises that only use one limb, for example the Split Squat. Exercises like these are great for challenging individual limbs so you can work on bringing up weak points. Also they are amazing for training all the little stabalisation muscles in your body. So in summary, pick exercises you like whilst keeping it specific to your goals. Try and give yourself the most bang for buck you can. And Try and challenge yourself with some unilateral work as well.
If you would like any help about what to pick for yourself get in touch with us on any of our socials, or by email! We would love to help out, and if you would like a more in depth analysis get booked in for a personal training session with us!
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