Basic exercises in bodybuilding

Author: Alexander Dobromil - trainer and author of the video blog Your Fit.
2011-12-11

Basic exercises in bodybuilding - are the foundation that largely determines the growth of muscle mass. These are exercises with free weights, namely with a barbell and dumbbells. There are also some types of machines with free weights, but they do not fall into this group as they provide "isolated" loading.

Why basic exercises?

The fact is that when performing them, the load is distributed not only to the target muscle but also to secondary muscles (synergistic muscles or stabilizing muscles). Firstly, this allows you to work with a good weight precisely because of the load distribution. You might think that this is not entirely logical since the load on the target muscle decreases. In reality, there is logic in this. Basic exercises allow you to load the target muscle in a way that you would never engage it "in isolation," that is, on a machine. The key point here is the weight.

Imagine that you are performing a press on a machine with a weight of 50 kg. Yes, the load is indeed going to the target muscle, and it is adequately tense. But... In reality, you will never engage your chest the way you do, for example, in a bench press. Yes, the load is distributed, but the chest still takes the main part. And the weight in this exercise is no longer 50 kg like in the machine, but much more.

When performing any exercises, you do not engage the target muscle with a weight of 50 kg in the same way as with a weight of 90. This is the secret.

Another secret of basic exercises in bodybuilding is that during their execution, the body, again due to the weight, suffers stress capable of giving a boost for the synthesis of a large amount of testosterone - the most important hormone in bodybuilding.