Exercises I Quit Doing for Muscle Growth (Plus Better Alternatives)
In a Nutshell
The speaker abandoned several classic compound lifts—standing overhead press, heavy barbell rows, high-bar squats, and deadlifts—because their systemic fatigue and injury risk outweighed the targeted hypertrophy they delivered once he was already well-developed. In their place he now prioritizes exercises with superior stimulus-to-fatigue ratios: extensive lateral raises for side delts, machine or cable work for quads and glutes, and rows or stiff-leg deadlifts for back thickness. The overarching rule is that no exercise is mandatory for physique development; keep only the movements that efficiently hit weak points without excessive cost.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
The speaker stopped doing the overhead press because it became an ego-driven exercise focused on how much weight could be moved for reps, reaching 275 lbs standing strict clavicle to lockout shoulder press for eight repetitions. While the overhead press built triceps, upper chest, and shoulder development, the standing version creates massive spinal column loading that fatigues the musculature and connective tissues needed for upright posture. This fatigue takes away resources that could be used for rowing, deadlifting, and squatting training.
Sitting down for the exercise reduces total squishing fatigue. The vast majority of impactful bubble-style delts come from side delts, which are primarily hit with upright rows and lateral raises. After switching to extensive lateral raise variations including super arm laterals, regular laterals, seated laterals, cable laterals, and free motion laterals, the speaker's shoulders became significantly larger than when doing heavy overhead pressing.
For maximum delt gains, some overhead pressing is beneficial, but the primary training should focus on side delt work with extensive lateral raises and upright rows.
The dumbbell fly was used for years to increase chest size and strength with super controlled lowering, minimal elbow bend, and maximum chest activation. The exercise provides maximum loading at the stretch and minimal loading at peak contraction, matching the ideal force curve for hypertrophy training with big tension at the stretch and very little tension at the top.
Sign in to read the full notes
Get access to AI-generated notes, topic timestamps, and more.