These are the best exercises to build muscle (science-based) II

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:29 #1 Triceps & Chest: Barbell Bench Press vs Push-Ups

01:25 #2 Biceps: Preacher Curls vs Incline Curls

02:57 #3 Glutes: Hip thrusts vs Barbell back squats

04:33 My Online PT Certification Course

05:03 #4 Calves: Seated calf raises vs Stadning calf raises

06:11 #5 Quads: Leg extensions vs Squats

07:13 #6 Upper Chest: Incline bench press vs Flat bench press

08:10 #7 Biceps: Biceps curls vs Dumbbell rows

09:22 Outro

Transcript:

What are the best exercises to build muscle mass? We have a number of studies on this topic. Many exercise scientists, myself included, have looked at exercise comparisons in which groups did one or another exercise with all other variables equated. So they did the same training volume, they trained at the same exercise intensity, and we can isolate the effect of just a specific exercise on the muscle hypertrophy of that target muscle group. I’m going to present a number of these comparisons to you. And let’s see if you can predict the past.

I want to build my triceps and my chest. Should I do a barbell bench presses or push-ups? And remember, the push-ups are done heavy enough to be at the same repetition maximum as the bench presses. They are loaded with bands, for example, or exercise varieties to make them harder. Bench presses are one of “The Big 3”, one of the powerlifts, a famous mass builder. The push-ups have gotten a lot of prisoners jacked, they are a closed kinetic chain exercise and they are “more natural”, whatever that means. So which is the better mass builder?

The answer, according to multiple studies, is that they are exactly equally effective. This fits with the overall literature that as long as you are performing exercises that have similar biomechanics, it doesn’t matter whether something is a machine exercise or bodyweight exercise, whether you are lifting your mom, a barbell or a kettlebell – outcomes are the same if the biomechanics are the same. And a push-up and a bench press are essentially interchangeable biomechanically speaking. The only issue with push-ups for a lot of people is that it’s difficult to load them heavily enough. If you’re struggling with that issue, I have a video on that that you can check out on how to make push-ups harder.

Exercise face off #2: I want to build bigger biceps. Should I do preacher curls because they have a really cool name? Or should I do incline curls because everyone on YouTube is doing them these days? The advantage of incline curls is that you lengthen the biceps more. The biceps also crosses the shoulder so when you have your arm behind your body the biceps is stretched at the shoulder, the biceps are at a longer muscle length, and in general muscles grow more when trained at longer muscle lengths. However, the way most people do an incline curl with the upper arm being vertical in the bottom position, there actually isn’t any resistance, or minimal resistance at least, from gravity on the biceps in the very bottom position. Preacher curls, on the other hand, shorten the biceps a little bit at the shoulder, but they have the most resistance in the bottom position. So which is more important? A lot of resistance in the lengthened position or just reaching a very long muscle length?

It turns out that these exercises are approximately equally effective according to numerous studies. However, different parts of the elbow flexors seem to grow more in response to one or the other exercise. Preacher curls seem to be better for the lower elbow flexors, specifically the brachialis. On the other hand, incline curls seem to be better for the upper elbow flexors, likely including the biceps specifically. Interestingly, there’s been an absolute explosion of studies comparing different types of biceps curls. I reviewed those in this video here, if you want to check those out. The short version though, is that it seems that we have a holy trinity of biceps exercises in Bayesian curls, preacher curls, and incline curls that together they kind of compete for the position of #1 biceps builder. But again, probably some combination of them is best to emphasize different parts of the elbow flexors.

Exercise face off #3: I need to work on my peach. I mean… I need that gorilla booty. Should I do hip thrusts or barbell back squats? Barbell back squats are one of the GOAT, Big 3 power lifts famous for the meme “Yeah, she squats!” But hip thrusts are the new up and comer. Will they dethrone squats as the most famous booty builder of all time? We did a study to find out and we found that… …you guess… They were equally effective! Our theoretical explanation for these results is that hip thrust stimulate more active mechanical tension in the glutes, because they have the highest force production and the highest force production potential in the top position of a hip thrust. So the force production in an active sense is very, very high during that process. And we see things like higher subjective muscle activity and higher EMG activity to correspond with this. However, squats have greater range of motion, they train the glutes at longer muscle lengths, and they have high tension in the bottom position as well, so there’s likely more passive tension and potential stretch mediated hypertrophy taking place. On average, these factors seem to balance each other out, and these exercises are equally effective.

We did this study with MRI looking at the lower glutes, the middle glutes, the upper glutes, even the glute medius and the minimus, and there were no significant differences in any of those regions between the different exercises. Interestingly, neither the minimus nor the medius grew significantly from either exercise, so you need different exercises, such as hip abductions, to grow the side booty. For the gluteus maximus on the back, you can use squats or hip thrusts and you probably should do both because they probably stimulate the glutes in a different way.

Exercise comparison #4: Seated versus Standing calf raises. Which is the better calf builder? This has been very extensively studied, actually, and the answer is that standing calf raises are best for the calves as a whole, seated calf raises, or specifically bent knee calf raises, because it doesn’t actually matter if you’re seated or you’re standing, what matters is if the legs are bent or straight – bent knee calf raises only grow the soleus. the gastrocs, the gastrocnemius, which is what most people think of when they think of the calves, they cannot contract during a seated bent knee calf raise because they are too shortened. And this active insufficiency prevents them from contributing significantly to the exercise. Whereas when you are standing, and the legs are straight, you grow all the heads of the calves. You grow the soleus, the thin muscle underneath, and you grow both heads of the gastrocnemius. So for most people, standing calf raises are more of a staple exercise if you want to train your calves in the first place, and soleus exercises, bent knee exercises are more of an addition that you can use if you really want to target that head specifically. They synergize well with leg curls, for example, where you can do leg curls and bent knee calf raises. Together they will fully train the calves as well.

Exercise comparison #5: Leg extensions vs squats. Which are the better quad builder? Multiple studies have looked at this, and these exercises seem to be approximately equally effective for the quads as a whole. However, leg extensions have a slight edge in that they grow the rectus femoris more. The rectus femoris is the middle part of the quads that is often neglected because it’s not to the famous teardrop or the sweep, but it does add to the size of the quads, especially when you are very lean. It’s the middle part that adds a lot of definition for competitors in particular. So if you want to build the quads as a whole, paradoxically, leg extensions are actually the more complete quad exercise than squats. However, squats have a significant advantage in range of motion in practice because most leg extension machines are not very well designed and don’t allow for a full range of motion, whereas with squats, most people when you’re well trained and you know the technique, you can get to parallel or below and you get a lot more knee flexion, which should result in more muscle growth because of the quads in general in research respond very well to being trained at longer muscle lengths. So again, in practice you probably want to do both.

Exercise faceoff #6: If you have lagging upper chest should you do incline bench presses or flat bench presses? Now you might be thinking: “Bro! What are you even talking about?! The whole reason to do an incline bench press is to target the upper pecs!” However, multiple studies with EMG and ultrasound have found that muscle activity of the upper pecs is not increased by using an incline bench. Similarly, muscle damage levels and swelling are not increased by using an incline bench. What seems to happen instead, and this biomechanically makes perfect sense, if you incline the bench, you reduce the activity of the lower pecs, but you don’t increase the activity of the upper pecs, because flat or horizontal type presses and fly movements in research grow the upper and the lower parts of the pecs equally. However, I will note that we have a lack of long term research directly assessing actual muscle growth here. We have only one study on this, and somehow it found that incline bench pressing was better for both heads of the pecs. However, this study had significant limitations. I addressed this controversy in the following video.

#7: If we want to build our biceps, should we do biceps curls or dumbbell rows? This study compared dumbbell rows with a supinated grip, which is a bit unconventional, but it equated the grip to the bicep curls, which were also done with a supinated grip. Which of the exercises do you think build the most muscle mass? In this study the growth was not the same. Not nearly. Dumbbell rows only grew the biceps about half as well as biceps curls. Pull-downs seem to be significantly more effective for the biceps than dumbbell rows. So why is that?

The difference is likely because the elbow flexion demands during a pull-down are significantly greater. Moreover, the range of motion is greater during a pull-down, you actually get that full elbow flexion, which is likely the reason that you also have an easier time fully involving the biceps, and during any movement in which you are holding a fixed implement, like a barbell or a bar, like during a pull-down, you have horizontal force production from the elbow flexors, and this contributes a very non-trivial amount of force. During a dumbbell row the biceps cannot fully contract, in large part because doing so would move you out of position. We also see this difference for the triceps in which, for example, dumbbell bench presses are a horrible triceps exercise, whereas barbell bench pressers, as we discussed earlier, are actually not so bad, at least not for the medial on the lateral hands.

If you’re interested in more of these exercise comparisons, I’d be honored if you like and subscribe. Moreover, you might be interested in my online PT course. It will teach you absolutely everything you need to know about how to build muscle, strength and lose fat in the most efficient and evidence based manner. The link is in the description.