exercise selection

Your exercise selection controls your success. Do the right exercises and you’ll build more muscle and get results faster; do the wrong ones and you’ll slow your progress and – possibly – get hurt.

“Well,” you might wonder, “what are the right exercises? What’s the best way to structure your workout and what are some exercises that I can and cannot live without?” You’re in luck.

ConFITdent asked some of the best fitness experts and strength coaches to share their wisdom about crafting the perfect workout program. Geoff Girvitz, owner and all-around bad-ass at Bang Fitness in Toronto; Tony Gentilcore, veteran strength coach at Cressey Performance; Lee Boyce, a no-nonsense fitness guru at Men’s Health from Toronto; and Jeremey DuVall, fitness expert and ConFITdent All-Star.

And for the first time, I’ll add my two cents. (Unless you’re Canadian… you don’t have pennies.)

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the knowledge nuggets. As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment below and we’ll respond ASAP.

If everyone should do one type of lift, it should be __________

Tony Gentilcore

I’m old school and will say either the squat or deadlift. Both incorporate the entire body, and you’d be hard pressed to find any other exercise which will allow you to use more weight and get strong.

It’s a boring answer, I know. But, well, fucking squat and deadlift and you’ll see good things happen.

Geoff Girvitz

If I were to choose a movement for the masses, it would be a sled push. The technical requirements are low, the conditioning and general strength payoff is high and whether you’ve got a bad back, beat up shoulders or the coordination of a drunken magistrate, it’s likely that you can push a sled safely (and often).

Jeremey DuVall

Hip hinge

Lee Boyce

Traditional barbell training. That means the deadlift, squat, and press dominating your workouts. If you can’t, then find out what your weak links are so you can.

Anthony J. Yeung

The deadlift.

If you’re too tight to reach the bottom, use blocks. If it hurts your back, switch to single-leg. However you do it, get it done.

How do you recommend guys plan their workout days (muscle groups)?

Lee Boyce

If you’re going to isolate, then I’d always precede any pushing work with a pull day. Back workout should happen before the chest workout, as it will act as a great way to prepare the shoulders for baring load, making the upper back tighter and more protective of the shoulders. My ideal split would be Day 1 – back, Day 2 – chest, Day 3- legs, Day 4 – shoulders, Day 5 – arms .

Tony Gentilcore

For beginners I generally lean more towards three times per week, following a full-body approach. Rarely will I ever recommend a body-part per day split.

For intermediate and advanced lifters I’ll generally gravitate towards and 4x per week upper/lower split.

And for the record: if you can’t perform at least five (and I want to say ten here) legit, full-ROM, un-assisted, bodyweight chin-ups, you have no business performing an “arm day.”

Seriously, stop it.

Jeremey DuVall

I’m not a huge fan of muscle group splits – or even upper/lower splits for that matter. I’m a big fan of 3x/wk total body lifts with an emphasis on certain movement patterns each day. Unless the client is hardcore into gaining weight, I think the other days are better spent on flexibility work and cardio training.

Geoff Girvitz

I don’t. Our best client results have typically from full-body sessions. For four or more training sessions a week, we keep things full-body but emphasize either lower or upper-body work. For example, we might perform heavy deadlifts and Zercher squats with bodyweight push-ups and overhead carries . . . anything light enough to serve as recovery work.

Anthony J. Yeung

Alternate between Push/Pull or Upper/Lower splits. For Push/Pull, that means one day you’ll squat, press, etc, and the other day you’ll deadlift, row, etc.

Cardio: Before or after lifting? Why?

Geoff Girvitz

If you’ve got a primary goal for a training session, the question is how anything done prior will impact it. If fatigued legs or lagging attention means poorer squatting technique, then save the cardio for later. On the other hand, if fat-loss is your top priority, you might perform high intensity intervals followed by supplementary strength training.

Tony Gentilcore

see previous answer from above (in one of the other sections)

Jeremey DuVall

Unless their an intense triathlete and lifting messes up their form, I go with after. When you perform a ton of cardio work beforehand, you’re usually tired for the lifting session and your form will suffer. Lifting has a larger potential for injury than cardio.

Lee Boyce

After. It’s a game of energy systems. I’d recommend doing cardio after workouts so you don’t use up your glycogen stores before you’ve even touched the iron. You’ll be in a better state to potentiate fat loss if your cardio is planned for after the workout. Don’t make it last too long!

Anthony J. Yeung

“Define cardio” is my response. (I love answering questions with another question — it makes me popular at parties.)

Do you mean “cardio,” as in, elevating your heart rate and getting your blood pumping? Guess what… your workout is supposed to do that. Your workout should also double as a 45-60 minute cardio session, if done correctly.

The most overrated exercise is ____________

Tony Gentilcore

I know I risk losing my man-card in saying this, but here it goes: the bench press.

Lee Boyce

The Bench press.

Jeremey DuVall

The bench press. It’s rare that someone can do it regularly without shoulder issues.

Geoff Girvitz

Right now, the most overrated exercises are the ones that conflate suffering with progress. Events like Tough Mudder offer the novelty of enduring electric shocks and having your heuvos dipped in ice water. No training effect . . . just suffering. A 20-rep squat set sucks but at least it delivers results.

Anthony J. Yeung

It’s a clean sweep: the bench press.

Your shoulders aren’t made to move that way. A better measure of upper-body strength is your barbell overhead press.

The most neglected/underrated exercise is ____________

Geoff Girvitz

It depends on the training culture you’re steeped in. Most of the people who love heavy barbell training could benefit from some single-limb bodyweight training, like working toward a pistol squat or 1-armed push-up. Most of the bodyweight advocates would be wise to put a heavy barbell on their back.

Jeremey DuVall

The bodyweight row. After watching how Ben Bruno loads up his TRX row variations, I’ve almost eliminated other rowing variations from my program. It’s a closed chain exercise (not many rowing variations are), and it allows for the best variety of grip because the handles can rotate to accommodate different shoulder positions.

Lee Boyce

That’s a tough one. As far as conventional exercises go, I’ll say the squat. If we’re talking unconventional, the Z Press is my favourite that most people should do more often.

Tony Gentilcore

Pull-throughs. HERE is a link where I break them down.

Anthony J. Yeung

Crawling. You’ll look like an idiot, but man… the muscular, movement, and cardio effect is amazing.

By Daniel

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