4hodmt comments on Minimum viable workout routine - Less Wrong

12 Post author: RomeoStevens 21 June 2012 04:19AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (114)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: 4hodmt 21 June 2012 10:05:43AM 0 points [-]

I agree that compound lifts should form the bulk of your training, but I think most people will eventually need some isolation exercises too. If one muscle needed in the lift is less developed, people naturally compensate with other muscles, letting the weak muscle stay weak and the others grow until it becomes impossible to maintain good form.

My back squat and deadlift both stalled because of weak abs. They did not resume improving until I started doing ab wheel rollouts and various types of planks. Likewise, my bench was bottlenecked by relatively weak triceps and stalled until I added dips.

I also notice you're lacking any direct biceps work. This seems common with beginner routines, and I think it's because of the assumption that biceps curls are so popular that people will do them anyway even if they aren't listed. I did weighted chinups, but my back is much stronger than my arms so they didn't do much for my biceps. This isn't just an aesthetic issue, because biceps are important stabilizer muscles in many lifts, and you risk elbow injury if they are too weak. Don't go crazy with curls, but also don't completely ignore them in a misguided signaling attempt ("I'm not a curlbro").

It might also be a good idea to add a bit of knee flexion (eg. leg curl/GHR) so your hamstrings aren't just doing hip extension all the time.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 21 June 2012 10:26:10AM 1 point [-]

This for 3 months followed by maintenance isn't really going to get people so strong that these become a major issue. Bent rows hit the biceps.