Boy, how things change.
It seems like just yesterday I was a member of the “pseudo-bodybuilding” fitness philosophy of isolating every muscle and, ideally, adding resistance from every angle individually. As a result, I spent a lot of time in the gym and saw mediocre results.
Two of the exercises I made sure to fit in on “arm day” were wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. With forearms being as long as upper arms it would be madness not to devote forearm exercises solely to them, right? After all, we’ve all heard the horror stories of guys who neglect certain muscle groups on their bodies and as a result look like sideshow circus freaks, right?
How to Spend a Lifetime in the Gym and Have Nothing to Show For It
In those days, the only non-isolation exercises I did were bench presses (flat, incline, and decline), dumbbell rows, and lat pulldowns. It would be years later before I even attempted barbell squats or deadlifts. They just seemed too damned scary to me compared to the safe-looking Nautilus machines. Little did I know that I was wasting my time and picking up bad habits.
Fast forward to today. I have fully embraced The Pareto Principle – that 80% of results comes from 20% of effort – in all health, fitness, and wellness-related areas. The “meat and potatoes” of my weight lifting routine consists of squats, presses, and deadlifts. Nary an isolation movement to be found.
My Perspective, Right or Wrong
My current philosophy boils down to this: the human body has been forged over many millennia by the forces of evolution to procure food, escape danger, assert dominance, and attract mates. It is as true for other animals as it is for us, but each species has its own unique way of doing it, each uniquely adapted to its environment.
Unlike most other animals, the environment to which we are adapted is long gone. We have given up hunting and gathering on the African savanna for sitting in cubicles under fluorescent lights, staring at computer screens. We no longer eat food from the earth, but food from factories and laboratories. And our bodies are suffering as a result of both.
In order to return our bodies to the state of health, attractiveness, and vitality that seems to come so easily for all animals but ourselves, we must learn how our bodies are best used. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not advocating that we all strip off our clothes, stop shaving, and head out into the woods to live off the fat of the land. On the contrary, I believe that the quest to push ourselves, to improve ourselves, to go where no man has gone before (if I may quote Star Trek), is one of the most uniquely human characteristics of all.
But we’ll never get there by eating “food” from boxes, cans, and bags containing more chemicals than actual food. Low fat to low carb to anything else, if you’re eating crap, you’re going to pay for it.
Neither will we get there by doing the “safe” isolation exercises. And if we do, we might as well bring a sleeping bag to the gym, cuz it’s gonna take a long time.
How to Exercise… the LMVM Way
If you hit the treadmill every night for a half hour of steady jogging while you zone out to “Dancing With the Stars” on TV, get your ass outside instead. Do a ton of walking, a little bit of sprinting, and, what the hell, run a 5K every now and then for good measure.
If you do your squats on a Smith machine, get out from under that thing and head over to the squat rack. Make sure the bar catchers are set up. Start with no weight if you need to. Have someone spot if necessary. Just get more in touch with the mechanics of your body and how to effectively use it.
And for God’s sake, ditch the forearm exercises. Up until the last few years, we relied on climbing up and over things and lifting heavy objects off the ground to strengthen our grips. In other words: get your pull up on, get your deadlift on.
When you use your body the way it has been designed to, you will get the automatic payoff of increased strength, higher energy levels… and you’ll be a sexy beast on top of it all!
I'm a science geek, food lover, and wannabe surfer.
{ 6 comments }
Excellent stuff. Simpler is just better for most people. I’ve often found that decreasing the number of exercises and just increasing the intensity worked out those muscles better than all the little exercises put together.
-Drew
Yes ! I think you need variety sometimes but sticking to the majority of functional, compound exercises gives you best returns in the gym.
I haven’t tried throwing tyres around or jumping fromm trees to trees but it might be worth a try.
@Drew:
Absolutely. Might as well take full advantage of The Pareto Principle and kill as many birds with one stone as you can.
@Raymond:
Check out MovNat for some cool videos of a guy who exercises doing only those types of things. I’ve decided to go “minimalist” with my workouts for a while, using just a jump rope, pull up bar, and kettlebell. I’ll probably add a homemade medicine ball and sandbag into the mix once I wrangle up the materials.
I’m adding forearm exercises to my workouts because my grip is the limiting factor in dead-lifts. I’m do perform isolation exercises for my rotator cuff muscles, because I’m a bit older and those muscles need to be maintained.
A nice change from back squats are dumbbell squats. I tend to favor my right side on back squats and performing dumbbell squats forces each side to do the same amount of work. That’s how I discovered I am right-butted.
@Ed:
Thanks for dropping by! The reason I’m not a fan of most isolation exercises is that they are so inefficient time-wise. So I think the greatest forearm exercises are pull ups and deadlifts, since grip plays such a big factor and you are using much of the rest of your body as well. Forearms will always be the limiting factor in deadlifts. It doesn’t mean these muscles need to be worked on separately. On the contrary, since our bodies are designed for movements such as this, you will naturally build a balanced and attractive body by sticking with these exercises. Just master the hook grip and you will be good to go!
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