The ONLY Exercises You Need to Be Jacked (EVERY MUSCLE!)

Summary

This summary is generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.

Here is a brief summary of the transcript: - Jeff Cavaliere and Jesse Iwakiri from AthleanX discuss their favorite exercise for each major muscle group, if they could only pick one. - They write down guesses for each other's choices before revealing them. - For chest, Jeff chooses barbell bench press while Jesse guesses dumbbell bench press. Jeff likes moving heavy weight. - For upper chest, Jeff prefers cable incline bench press over dumbbell incline. He feels more contraction. - They both choose weighted dips for lower chest. - For back, Jesse loves one-arm high cable row while Jeff guesses barbell row. Jesse likes the stretch and contraction. - Jeff's favorite for lats is straight arm pushdown while Jesse thought face pulls. Jeff likes the stretch and contraction. - They match on biceps (barbell curl), triceps (close grip bench for Jeff), shoulders (various raises for front/middle/rear delts). - For legs, Jeff picks squats while Jesse chooses Bulgarian split squats for his knees. - They match on hamstrings (RDLs), calves (neither trains them) and forearms (wrist work). - Key points: They emphasize choosing exercises you feel working the target muscle and that you enjoy doing consistently.

Video Description

If you could only do one exercise for your chest what would it be? What about your back? Biceps? In this video I’m going to cover the only exercise you need for every muscle group so that you can select those that will hit your muscles the best and help them grow the fastest, especially if you’re short on time.

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We start off with the chest.

The exercise of choice for Jesse and myself is the same, the bench press. The difference lies in the equipment being used to do it. I prefer to use dumbbells due to rotator cuff and labrum issues in my shoulder while Jesse tends to prefer the barbell bench press where he can handle more weight and more easily progressive overload.

For the upper chest, it comes down to the low to high cable crossover for Jesse which allows him to more easily target the upper chest fibers. I like cables as well, but here I prefer to do an incline cable press. By setting the arms out wide a bit you can train the adduction function of the pecs while at the same time not abandoning the pressing benefits.

For the lower chest, we are both in agreement on liking weighted dips. I do like to perform them in one and a half rep style however to accentuate the stretch position of the pecs and increase the time under tension on the chest muscles.

Moving onto the back, I go with the one arm high cable row. This allows me to be on my feet while at the same time focus the efforts onto the lats by driving the arm tight to my side and back behind my body. I also can get a great stretch here. Jesse prefers the straight arm pushdown over the barbell row that I predicted he would.

For the biceps, it has to be a curl. Jesse likes the focused biceps contraction that he gets from doing a standing alternating dumbbell curl while I prefer the heavier weight that I can use on a strict barbell curl into a cheat curl. The drop set on bicep exercises is one of the most effective combinations you can use to build bigger biceps.

For triceps, Jesse likes to push heavy weight again with the close grip bench press. I prefer the long head growing capabilities of the lying triceps extension. This is an example of where you may want to pick the exercise for triceps that best develops the underdeveloped part of your triceps muscle. The long head is best built with lying extensions and the lateral head with close grip bench.

For the shoulders, the shoulder exercise of choice for building the middle delts is the lateral raise. Jesse prefers the stretch benefits of the cable lateral raise while I prefer the overloading capabilities of the cheat lateral raise. Front delts are best targeted by me with a dumbbell front raise (even better if done seated on an incline bench to pre-stretch the front delts on every rep) and by the overhead press for Jesse.

The rear delts are best hit with heavier weights on an exercise like the seated cable row. Jesse likes to do the reverse pec deck machine at his gym if he has access to it. Either way, if you want to build rounded delts you have to make sure you never skip the rear delt.

For the forearms, it comes down to either the carries if you want to build hand and grip strength at the same time or the wrist rollers that allow you to train the front and back of your forearm muscles by simply switching the direction that you roll the bar.

The brachialis muscle allows you to get wider arms and wider looking biceps. This muscle is preferred to be worked by cross body hammer curls by both of us. The ability to keep the forearm more pronated allows you to decrease the contribution of the biceps while increasing the work of the brachialis to better build it up.

To hit the upper back muscles, I think it's pretty obvious that the exercise of choice here should be the face pull. This is not just a small exercise that should be reserved for a corrective exercise spot in your workouts. You can grow bigger upper back muscles by including this every time you train your back (and sometimes even every day). Jesse prefers the power shrug exercise for a more powerful exercise alternative.

There are more muscle groups covered here in the video that you’re going to want to check out.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a science based workout plan that incorporates the best exercise choices to help you build muscle and burn body fat be sure to head to athleanx.com via the link above.

For more videos on the best exercises to get jacked be sure to subscribe to our channel via the link above and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.

Transcription

This video transcription is generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.

Speaker A: What's up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere athleanx.com dot.

Speaker B: Jesse lako athleanx.com dot so today we're.

Speaker A: Going to have a little bit of fun together. If you could only do one exercise for insert muscle group. Well, guess what? We're going to do 16 different muscle groups and we're going to give our favorite exercises if we can only pick one for each of them.

Speaker B: But here's a twist.

Speaker A: Oh, boy.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm going to write down what I think Jeff's favorite exercise is and Jeff's going to write down what he thinks my favorite exercise is.

Speaker A: And then what? We reveal them at the same time.

Speaker B: Reveal them at the same time.

Speaker A: All right, let's do it. Let's start what we always do, guys, with chest. All right, now just to clarify, this is for overall chest.

Speaker B: Overall chest.

Speaker A: We're doing upper or lower later? Yes. Okay, cool. Doesn't matter. Mine doesn't change.

Speaker B: Oh, God.

Speaker A: Doesn't change.

Speaker B: Lone eye crossover. What?

Speaker A: That's how I got my reasons.

Speaker B: I picked the dumbbell bench press for you because I know you like to press when you train your chest.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: But I know your shoulders are jacked up and the barbell's not very comfortable. So you hit the dumbbells.

Speaker A: Yes. The dumbbells have actually afforded me the ability to actually continue pressing long after the barbell bench press is tough for me because my torn labrum and rotator cuff. But that's a good choice. I'm going to agree with you.

Speaker B: So why, why did you pick low to high crossover?

Speaker A: Well, so you've not just once but 1000 times share with me how you really enjoy how you look when you're doing a low to high crossover and how juicy you look. I mean, I figured even if you had a whole bunch of other options, you would not forego doing the low to high crossover.

Speaker B: Well, you're half right. I do love that exercise. I do love that clip. But I would choose the Barbell bench press because I'm moving more weight than I ever have before. True. And I'm not. I notice I don't increase the weight on the dumbbells as much, so I'm kind of addicted to moving weight.

Speaker A: So it's a self motivating exercise.

Speaker B: Yeah. You gonna write?

Speaker A: I don't need to. I've already got my selection, am I right?

Speaker B: Yes, you're right. I do love that exercise.

Speaker A: I mean, at least it's appropriate now.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I wrote for you, dumbbell inclined bench press.

Speaker A: I'd say you're almost right. But I like cable inclined bench press.

Speaker B: Really?

Speaker A: Because I don't have to worry about the sacrifice of the weight as much using cables, and I definitely feel more of a contraction in my upper chest when I do that. I can set the cables a little bit out so I get some adduction into it at the same time. But you're right, it's definitely going to be an inclined bench press, but it's probably cables more than dumbbells. Just personally, for me.

Speaker B: I'm ready. Three, two, one. Reveal.

Speaker A: What do you got?

Speaker B: Weighted dips.

Speaker A: Weighted dips.

Speaker B: Hey, look at that. Yes.

Speaker A: I will clarify something for you, though. My weighted dips, I would definitely do my one and a half style weighted dips, meaning go down all the way, come up halfway, go down again, and then come up, and I do them in drop set fashion, where I do the weighted dip. Then I strip the weight off when I go to failure, and then I do them again in by the weight fashion. So a drop set. Technically, you're almost right. Drop set, doing the one and a half style all the way to failure. Both halves.

Speaker B: Okay. I like it because I'm able to use weight on it, obviously. And also, I don't get a feeling in my lower chest than any other exercise as much as I do with the weighted dip.

Speaker A: Don't cheat.

Speaker B: I'm not cheating. All right, ready?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Three, two, one.

Speaker A: What do you got?

Speaker B: One arm high, cable row.

Speaker A: He watches my Instagram.

Speaker B: Yeah, I watch your Instagram and your YouTube. I shoot the YouTube videos.

Speaker A: So that that actually is true. Now I'm saying this is my favorite, right? This is my favorite. I love that exercise. For hitting the lats, you get a good stretch. I like to be on my feet. I like the fact that I get a good contraction because, yes, that matters, too. All the above, I would actually say that's one of my favorite. That is my favorite. You're right. That's me.

Speaker B: So you were incorrect on the barbell row.

Speaker A: Really?

Speaker B: I don't like that exercise as much as you might think I would.

Speaker A: Well, you know what they say.

Speaker B: What?

Speaker A: Do the things you don't like to do if you want to get better, Jesse?

Speaker B: Fair. But my favorite is a straight arm pushdown.

Speaker A: Really?

Speaker B: Yeah, because honestly, I get a great contraction on the lats, and I get a good stretch, and it's helped me with my deadlift, so I feel a little indebted to it.

Speaker A: Okay, I got you. All right, so fair enough. Again, these are your choices. So even if they suck, you know he's my favorite, right?

Speaker B: I know your favorite, right?

Speaker A: Am I right?

Speaker B: You're right. And you know how I know I'm right? Why? Because every time I see you train your biceps, you do this gosh darn exercise every single.

Speaker A: So it's two exercises technically. So it's the barbell strict. Curl up against the wall, go to failure, step out, cheat a little bit on the way up, and then slow eccentric on the way down. But yes, that is my go to every single time I train my biceps.

Speaker B: Yeah, you got this one right.

Speaker A: Why?

Speaker B: Well, I don't really feel my biceps as great as you might think I would.

Speaker A: What does that mean? Cause they're so impressive.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. But I do like being able to feel the contraction at one at a time and be able to look and see that I'm really getting the weight up and really contracting.

Speaker A: All right. You know why I use that, by the way?

Speaker B: What?

Speaker A: I was saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Speaker B: Well, you have a broken bicep, so.

Speaker A: Oh, that's low. That's a cheap shot.

Speaker B: All right, ready?

Speaker A: Sure am.

Speaker B: Three, two, one, line triceps extension.

Speaker A: That's true. How about this?

Speaker B: Close? It's one of my favorites, but it's.

Speaker A: Not right, so I figured it had to be one of the exercises that has your arms out in front of your body. Am I at least close? You're close because his lateral head of his triceps is much better developed than mine. So what is it?

Speaker B: Close grip bench press.

Speaker A: There you go, guys. This is an example of not always making your favorites, the ones that you do all the time. Because mine is probably underdeveloped in the lateral head because I don't do enough of that. And of course, my overdevelopment comes from the line.

Speaker B: Tricep extension.

Speaker A: Extension.

Speaker B: Yeah, I got that one right.

Speaker A: A good stretch at the top. I'm no dick if you watch that video. I know how to do it right. Get a good stretch. You don't start and stop with it over your face, but that is definitely the right answer for me.

Speaker B: Okay, ready?

Speaker A: Good.

Speaker B: Good. Three, two, one. Dumbbell, front raise, overhead press. You're right.

Speaker A: I'm right because I know how wrong you are.

Speaker B: Oh, come on.

Speaker A: Well, I knew you'd pick this. I'm not going to argue that. If you want one overall shoulder developer, we're talking about front delts here, so front delts here. I wouldn't pick the overhead press, but I knew you would. And by the way, you have a nice overhead press, which is why I think you probably give it more credit than you.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it helps my bench.

Speaker A: Press a lot, but it is a great shoulder exercise. Again, shoulder, but front delts, I'm going to go with the front raise and I don't care what anybody says, if you want to develop your front delt, you can develop it really nicely by having some focused work towards it. What I would do here though is perform it from the seated position on the incline bench so that basically in the down position I have a little bit of a stretch in the front delts that you don't get from just standing.

Speaker B: So I'm half right, half right.

Speaker A: Here we go.

Speaker B: Middle delts cheat laterals for you.

Speaker A: Cable lateral raise for you. I can almost swap these cards.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: It'll be right for me. Was I right?

Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. I love that exercise. I love this exercise.

Speaker A: So the cable lateral raise guys gives you that extra stretch on the middle delt across your body to start it, which I love, and I actually do think I literally could have done either one. But I'm very loyal to the cheat lateral raise because I felt like that gave me my most shoulder growth when I subjected. My middle delts always have been doing really strict weight, very lightweight, strict form. But when I added in some additional looseness to my form by having the cheat lateral and starting to heave forties, fifties, you know, on that exercise, I definitely noticed some more hypertrophy in my shoulders and my middle delt specifically. So that's my choice, but either one could really work for me.

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm in total agreement, right? Yep. Face pulls. Face pulls. Face pulls.

Speaker A: Face pulls.

Speaker B: I think it's face pulls.

Speaker A: Guess what?

Speaker B: What?

Speaker A: It's not face pulls. No, for me it's actually the seated row.

Speaker B: Seated row. Oh, seated cable row.

Speaker A: Seated cable row is one of my absolute favorite ways to build your delts because it's one of the few exercises that you subject your rear delts to more weight, which they actually can handle because they have some assistance in the exercise. But when you do that, I promise you just make sure you get those elbows way back behind the body. Which leads me to my choice for you, which I bet you I'm right on.

Speaker B: You are right on the reverse. I love the reverse pector.

Speaker A: She's a machine guy.

Speaker B: From time to time we don't have it here, but at the gym that I go to, I use it for pretty much every time I train my rear delts and I do exactly what you say. Don't just go to here, get your arms back behind your body.

Speaker A: The key to all rear delt exercises, this is why I don't really like the reverse fly, is that you need to get that elbow way back behind the body. So if you can set that up with the machine, which you easily can do with a reverse pectic, and by all means you could do it. I don't have access to it here, so I certainly am not invested enough to buy one here because I don't care about the exercise that much. But good choice for you.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: Ready, chief. Hamstrings, glutes, glute, ham raise. Your choice. Glute, ham, raise. Ghr. Yes, that is my choice. So I like the glute ham raise because I can simultaneously get that glute work and hamstring work. But it is preceded starts with the glute work. You contract, you stabilize to the glutes, you come up, then you do your knee flexion to get to the top. I think people have a sequencing problem when they do that and they don't really engage the glutes first and then their low back takes on too much of the work. You do it right. It's a great exercise. Not everybody has access to it though, so it's a little bit limited for you. Am I right?

Speaker B: You're right, Barbel. RdLs. I do love that exercise. It's an accessory that I use for my deadlift and I think it hits my hamstrings and my glutes pretty significantly.

Speaker A: Good stretch at the bottom, teaches the hinge. Right? Checks all the boxes. I love this exercise too, but that would be my number one. Barbell curls.

Speaker B: Barbell curls. I know you like to curl and squat rack, so I figured this is going to be your number one leg exercise.

Speaker A: When you can curl, I curl, then you can squat. You can curl the squat rack. No, honestly, the way my knees feel anytime I squat, period, I could always find room for curls on any leg day for sure. Obviously not my choice. For real. My real choice would be, as I mentioned, with my knees. I love some people hate this. I love the dumbbell bulgarian split squad.

Speaker B: I hate it.

Speaker A: I love that exercise. I love that exercise. First of all, I can feel it in my quads the best. It does not cause me issues with my knees. I feel like I can load it up properly for sure. That would be my exercise. Again, this is not a bad choice.

Speaker B: But do you like the feeling that you're gonna throw up afterwards?

Speaker A: I don't get that. I don't get that? And I go hard on them too. But yours is squats.

Speaker B: Squats is correct. And if I could do low bar all day every day, I would. But if I wanted to hit talking.

Speaker A: Quads here, Jesse, I know.

Speaker B: I'm saying if I could hit my quads specifically, it'd be the front squat, even though I have to use much less weight on it and hold that upright posture, which sucks. Right? So, all right.

Speaker A: But a squat in general though, yeah, squats. Let's see how well I know, Jesse.

Speaker B: My marker is dying a little bit, so it may not come out as clear, but I get it. You got it. Power shrugs. Angle shrugs.

Speaker A: That is a good one. I love that one. So can I explain that one first? Go ahead. So the angled shrug, the direction of the fibers of the traps, the upper traps run out this way. Right. So when I get on the angled machine, I grab a cable low and I shrug it from this side, which is in more direct alignment to how they pull. Ive always loved that. But I have to admit one thing, trap training is not my priority. So in my training, a lot of times it falls to the back end of the workout. And when im short on time because I tend to work out late at night, I dont do that because it takes one arm at a time and it takes longer. So I do a variation. I can move two arms at a time, and for me I do a dumbbell shrug, but I do it face down on the incline bench. And the reason for that is I've been getting a lot of neck strain from doing it standing. And when I lay down face down, I don't feel that at all. So it's like no sore neck later on. And I still get the same effect of training my traps for you. I just figure again, all in that whole meathead capacity that you like to train that. We got power shrugs in here too, am I right?

Speaker B: I'm not wrong. I love power shrugs.

Speaker A: Very easy to decode. Jesse. There's two brain cells. You go one or two. A or B.

Speaker B: All right. Ready?

Speaker A: Yeah. Can I give this one away before?

Speaker B: Yeah, we did. So, face pulls, but if you point to the arrow, face pulls again.

Speaker A: Well, I thought the same thing.

Speaker B: Well, you're wrong.

Speaker A: Don't disappoint me, Jess.

Speaker B: I know you love the exercise, and I know you want me to love it as much as you do, but it's not my favorite. My favorite is actually the high pole because I know it hits the whole upper back and I'm able to, it's a good exercise, you get to use a little pretty decent amount of weight with it. When I'm using a barbell and I get that external rotation, which is great.

Speaker A: I actually love the exercise. The high pole is great for all the above, and I like the fact that you can use more weight. Obviously, the face pull, you're going to be a little bit restricted in the weight that you can use. But when it comes to overall total upper back development, I think it's been shown on you and anybody else that's adopted this exercise as much as I told them to. You're going to see really good development, and also you're going to fortify that upper back to make you more resilient to are the things that oftentimes knock us down. So spasms and things that happen in the upper back weakness, it's all gonna be taken care of if you face pull. And those big lifts of yours will benefit, too. Who trains calves?

Speaker B: Not me.

Speaker A: Really? Honestly, I know I've got this 100%.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: So do I.

Speaker A: Okay. All right. Ready? Ready.

Speaker B: What the hell? Come on.

Speaker A: I said if you could only do one. This is it. Rest of your life.

Speaker B: There's too many sides to choose from. Okay.

Speaker A: Jesse builds his forearms.

Speaker B: Not how I build my forearms.

Speaker A: How do you build your forearms?

Speaker B: I build my forearms with wrist rollers. You know, honestly, one of my favorite exercises that you can do is one that you showed me when we first.

Speaker A: Started training together, we took the lacrosse stick.

Speaker B: Yeah, we took the lacrosse stick with a string and a little, what was it?

Speaker A: Five pound plate where we built up. Yeah. But just basically rolling over and under.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: They work the back of your forearm and the front of your forearm. Yeah. That's good exercise. What'd you put for me?

Speaker B: Oh, I put carries.

Speaker A: Carries. I like carries. So two things about the carry, like, it's obviously not a huge forearm builder, it's more of an endurance builder, especially grip strength, too. But quite honestly, if you want to know what the best thing you can do for your forearms is, having trained a whole bunch of people, I got the inadvertent experience of just picking up plates for a lot of people or lifting dumbbells or lifting barbells. That builds your forearms a lot. And a lot of people that just stick to machine training don't experience that sort of ancillary growth of their forearms. All that contributes to enough volume that I think builds your forearms up. If you don't want to do a direct exercise, let's see if we can end on a high note. Ready?

Speaker B: Ready.

Speaker A: Carl's body.

Speaker B: Henry. Hey, look at us. Am I right? You're right. Am I right?

Speaker A: Yes, you are.

Speaker B: Hell, yeah.

Speaker A: The cross body hammer curl, just a slight variation. Instead of coming straight out in front of you, crossing over allows for a little bit more pronation. So we can kind of turn some of that bicep down a little bit and increase the activation of the brachialis. And we're probably thinking, I don't even know what the brachialis is. I never train it. You really should mix the brachialis into your overall arm training if you want to have the widest upper arm, most shirt sleeve filling upper arm, and just overall the most complete training program. Speaking of, I had fun with this, Jesse.

Speaker B: I had a great time. I glad you enjoyed it.

Speaker A: Now go have your forearm training. If you're looking for programs, guys, that actually incorporate some of these exercises into what we do, you can find them [email protected] if you like the video, make sure you subscribe. Turn your notifications on the miss video when we put one out. All right, guys, see you back here again soon.