If I had a dime for every time I have been asked what my favorite exercises are, I would be driving an Urus instead of my M5. The question gets thrown around a lot, but how someone feels and responds to a specific exercise is individual. This is exactly why I do not like to program training plans with specific exercises for my clients. I prefer to give a list of exercises for the client to choose based on the area of the muscle they are trying to target.
Some exercises look great on paper but do not feel right when applied. If you are doing an exercise with the proper mechanics and you do not feel that exercise is targeting the specific area of the muscle you are training, do not use that exercise. I do not care if that exercise is touted as the king of all exercises; if it does not feel like it is destroying the muscle you are training, shelf it.
Muscle Group Exercises
I am a big fan of using a lot of variety for exercises, and I recommend my clients change up their exercises (or at least the sequence of the exercises) from workout to workout. This approach also helps the relatively new trainee to get a feel for those exercises that work well for them and those that don't.
Below, I will list my favorite exercise for each muscle group. Remember that you might not have the same choices, and that's fine. Again, what works well for me may not work well for you. These exercises destroy the targeted muscle (for me), and at the same time, there is not a significant risk of vulnerability. I have trained for over 40 years, so as much as I want an exercise to be effective, I also want a low-risk factor.
Chest
Wide-Angle Decline Hammer Strength Press
There is a wide-angle and a regular-angle Hammer Strength press. I do not like the regular version, but I love the wide-angle version with grips as wide as the handles allow. I set the seat to the lowest point (even though I'm only 5'9"), and this wide grip won't allow the elbows to tuck. Then, I go from full stretch to a hold at the top of each rep.
Back
Low-Row Hammer Strength
This piece isn't as common as most other Hammer Strength back pieces. There is only one in or around my city, so I train at one specific gym for back sessions (I have several different gym memberships). I also prefer to alternate my reps by doing one rep on the left and one rep on the right, and then I repeat this left/right sequence for the entire set. This exercise targets the middle back and rhomboids, and no one can ever have enough upper and middle-back thickness.
Honorable Mention goes to dumbbell pullovers. I think this exercise is grossly underrated for back development. If anyone tells you this is a chest exercise, please ignore them. There is some pec involvement, but it's minor (you see what I did there?).
Shoulders
Standing or Seated Overhead Press Behind Neck
This movement is predominantly a side delt movement. I know that flies in the face of what some people will tell you, and I am certain that someone will argue this with me in the comment section, but I stand firm on this. The bar should not be forced into an uncomfortable range of motion, either. Not everyone has the flexibility to do this exercise, so warm up thoroughly and only take the bar down to roughly what would be eye or nose level. If your Smith machine is angled, be sure to face the correct way so that the bar finishes further behind you than at the bottom of the movement. This exercise is meant to be a full-lock or full-extension exercise. Stay away from partials where you might leave the top ¼ of the rep undone. You want full lockout on every rep.
Legs
Belt Squats
I am done with regular squatting. As much as I would love to continue to squat, it's too much of a risk these days after having chronic lower back issues for years. I have been injury-free for over nine years, and I refuse to risk another herniated disc. The belt squat offers a squat version that is more quad-dominant and minimizes the load and pressure put on my lower back.
Honorable Mention goes to pendulum squats. Pendulum squats are my favorite quad-dominant movement for legs, but my rule was to pick one for each muscle group, so I stand by the belt squat for this. Pendulum squats are a very close second, though.
Seated Leg Curl vs. Lying Leg Curl
If I had been asked this question a few years ago, I may have responded that my favorite hamstring exercise would be seated leg curls. However, I chose the lying version today because I honestly believe that my hamstring development has suffered a little bit due to rarely doing lying leg curls since 2020. For that reason, I have gone back to making lying leg curls a priority, and I have already seen an obvious difference.
Donkey Calf Raises
I used to prefer to do these old-school with my fat wife on my back. Now that she is no longer fat, I rely on the donkey-calf machine. I doubt there is a better calf machine ever made than the donkey calf raise.
Lying Leg Raise/Crunch Combo
These days, I have a pretty good set of abs; All I need to do is get lean, and the abs are poppin'. However, because of my past issues with my lower back, it is important to me to focus on what I consider a compound movement for my abs versus doing endless sets of a crunch movement. The visual appeal of well-developed abs is important, but equally important is having a strong network of muscles in the torso that will help to stabilize the hips and lower back while doing heavy squatting, bent-over rowing, or even deads.
My Final Advice
I will repeat that my list of exercises is based entirely on how I respond to specific movements. Your list of exercises might be completely different than mine. And just because you might shelf an exercise that you don't feel works well for you, it would be illogical to not come back to those movements in a couple of years and see if you don't respond differently to those exercises at a later date. Your training will evolve over the years, and had I not revisited some old-school exercises, I would never have considered going back to those exercises—Just Sayin'.
Ken “Skip” Hill has been involved in the sport of bodybuilding for almost forty years and competing for over twenty years. Born and raised in Michigan, he spent 21 years calling Colorado home with his wife and their four children. Four years ago, he and his wife traded the mountains for the beach, relocating to South Florida. His primary focus is nutrition and supplementation, but he is called upon for his years of training experience, as well. He started doing online contest prep in 2001 and is considered one of the original contest prep guys when the bodybuilding message boards were still in their infancy. Skip’s track record with competitive bodybuilders is well-respected, and he also does sport-specific conditioning, including working with professional athletes.
