Why the big three basic exercises are not enough to build mass

Deadlifts, bench presses and squats are not enough

Here's what you need to know...

1. There is no eccentric component to deadlifts, which is especially true when this exercise is performed competition style. No eccentric component, no growth.
2. Deadlifts with extended legs are better because they emphasize both the extension and eccentric components of the movement.
3. Relying only on bench presses alone or using too few variations will overdevelop the anterior shoulder muscles and triceps in relation to the pecs.
4. The "guillotine press" is a far better exercise for developing the chest than standard bench presses.
5. Squats are not particularly good when it comes to maximizing gluteus development. And depending on their leverage ratios, squats may also be a poor performer for quadriceps development.
6. Classic squats didn't work well for Dorian Yates. He preferred squats on the multi-press for quadriceps development.

The big three are not enough

Sorry, but the "big three" powerlifting exercises - squats, bench press and deadlift - are simply not enough.

They are not enough to maximize your muscle mass or even your maximum strength.

Don't get me wrong, performing these three exercises is a great way to improve performance on these exercises and these exercises can also be great tools to become more muscular and stronger. Ultimately, you need to train what you need to compete and you need to spend enough time under the bar performing these exercises to perfect your technique and be good at these exercises.

But the majority of exercisers who want to develop maximum strength and muscle mass and don't want to have weaknesses in these exercises or in their musculature need to do more than just rely on these three exercises.

Now of course you can argue that there are top powerlifters who only train the big three exercises and not much else, but to use them as an example is an error in thinking:

1. There will always be exceptions to the rules.
2. I can name you plenty of excellent powerlifters who use more than the three big exercises and therefore more than make up for these exceptions.
3. What another exerciser does - especially one who falls into the realm of outliers - is not applicable to you.

But let me make my case. Let me start with the deadlift.

Deadlifting is not enough

Deadlifting is not an excellent mass building exercise.

The deadlift is obviously an excellent exercise for building and demonstrating overall strength. This exercise is often used as a barometer of what it means to be strong. The bottom line is that you're basically just lifting random crap off the ground.

No, I didn't say you can't build mass with deadlifts. Sure you can. But deadlifts alone are not an excellent mass building exercise.

Performed correctly, the deadlift movement begins with a push off the floor with the legs, followed by the pull portion of the exercise once the bar is above the knees. You are not actually pulling the weight up from the floor if you are not performing deadlifts with straight legs or if you are performing the exercise incorrectly.

Most of the muscles that do the work in deadlifts are in an isometric/static position, but exercises that involve a load with a significant amount of extension in the eccentric range offer greater potential for muscle growth.

Think of exercises such as incline bench curls, pullovers, sissy squats, deadlifts with legs extended, pull-ups, dips, etc.

The deadlift movement starts from the ground, so there is no eccentric (lowering or negative) part of the movement when the exercise is performed in competition style. No eccentric component means little growth.

Here's what eccentric movement specialist Jonathan Mike, PhD, said in regards to the eccentric load in the deadlift:

"There's very little eccentric load and activity and very little time under tension - especially when you're looking at the time the muscles are actually producing a lot of force and not the total time of exercise execution."

Remember his comment about time under tension, because it's important. Even if you perform a deadlift movement where it takes 5 seconds to perform the concentric or lifting portion of the movement, there are so many muscles involved that the time under tension is very broadly distributed so that none of the muscles involved experience a ton of direct stimulation.

Add to this the fact that the only significant joint movement consists of a small amount of hip extension (and proportionally, even less knee extension) and you have so many disadvantages that deadlifts are not on par with other big basic exercises from a mass-building perspective.

Lastly, deadlifts seem to take more than they give back. Heavy deadlifting tends to ruin systemic recovery, while it doesn't have much to offer in terms of muscle gain.

Does this mean you should exclude deadlifting from your mass building arsenal? Not at all. In fact, I usually use deadlifts as part of a mass building program, as this exercise is an excellent tool for building overall strength.

But if you want a deadlift variation that has more to offer you in terms of building pure posterior chain mass, then the straight leg deadlift is a superior option.

You can place a strong emphasis on both the concentric and eccentric parts of the movement with this variation and this equates to strong growth of the posterior chain muscles.

Bench press is not enough

Obviously, we all love bench presses. That's why every Monday of the year is National Bench Press Day at every gym across the country.

And don't get me wrong, the bench press is an excellent exercise for building the pressing muscles of the core.

But relying solely on bench presses alone or performing too many bench presses without any other variations will often overdevelop the anterior shoulder muscles and triceps in relation to the pecs and cause that "front bent over" look that you see in many exercisers with I.L.S - imaginary latissimus syndrome.

If you look at the chest development of an excellent bench press athlete, it is often quite poor. Nevertheless, most bodybuilders have well-developed pecs and most of them do not use barbell bench presses as the basis of their chest training.

This is simply because they bench press differently to either move more weight or build muscle, but the majority of exercisers don't know how to modify their bench press to maximize either of these qualities.

If you want to use bench presses to develop the pecs, then bench pressing towards the neck, rather than the lower pecs, is a far better exercise for chest development.

However, people will throw 10,293 studies at you that prove this variation will cause shoulder cancer and avoid this variation. But Vince Gironda has used this exercise variation as an excellent exercise for chest development and as far as I know, no one's shoulders have exploded from this.

In addition, people generally use a pretty horrible form of exercise execution (bouncing off the chest, ignoring retraction of the shoulder blades) when bench pressing, so they somehow manage to exclude the pecs from this movement.

If you want good chest development, then you can't just rely on bench presses. Dumbbell presses with different angles and properly executed flying movements (palms forward and a greater focus on the stretching and lengthening portions of the movement without using excessively heavy weights) are much better options for complete development.

The bench press can be an excellent weapon in your mass and strength building arsenal, but its status as a legendary exercise for mass building pecs is highly overrated.

Squats are not enough

Despite their reputation as the queen of all exercises, squats also have their share of limitations from a muscle development perspective.

Squats really aren't great for maximizing gluteus development for most people, and depending on your leverage ratios, squats could also be a poor choice for building quadriceps.

One of the drawbacks of the big three exercises is that you often use certain muscles to do the work, but due to unfavorable leverage ratios of the exerciser, this exercise is often poor at developing those muscles. Squats are no exception.

Squats were a problem for me for a while despite the fact that I could use just under 300 kilos without a belt and knee wraps. The fact was that my quadriceps development left a lot to be desired and I often suffered from minor muscle strains or major problems - a quadriceps tear - during competition.

When I took some time to think about this and spoke to some other people who were suffering from the same issues, I heard one thing over and over again:

"I need to increase the strength and mass of my quadriceps."

These people had finally figured out that in order to maximize quadriceps mass and squat strength, they needed to incorporate exercises like hack squats, leg presses and front squats into their workouts. Squats alone were not enough to maximize either.

And even if you need to perform an exercise to get good at it, the deficits can't always be overcome by persistently performing that exercise.

Dorian Yates realized this with squats quite early in his career.

Despite his love of squats, he found this exercise to be a very poor exercise for quadriceps development due to his body structure. Squats on the multi press with his feet placed slightly in front of his body targeted his quadriceps much more effectively.

Use phases to maximize hypertrophy and strength

If you are a competitive bodybuilder, then it is a fact that you never need to perform any of the big three exercises to be the best bodybuilder you can be.

If you are a competitive powerlifter, then of course it will be hard to maximize your performance in competition without using these exercises in training.

But if you are the average recreational bodybuilder who just wants to look muscular, then you should think critically about whether or not the three big basic exercises are effective exercises for you to maximize your muscular appearance.

If you want to maximize both hypertrophy and strength, then it's best to use different training phases during which you focus on one or the other.

Basically, you use part of the year to focus on getting more muscular. Then move on to a strength phase, during which you focus on developing maximum strength with your new found muscle mass. This is the most effective way to fully develop each of these attributes.

During your hypertrophy phase, determine where you are lacking in muscle development and make it a priority to correct this. If you are like most people, a small muscle is often a weak muscle.

Focus on training this muscle group several times a week with different exercises to maximize its growth. Use moderate to high repetitions and increase the volume as the training cycle progresses.

Set performance goals. For example, if you can currently do 8 repetitions of front squats with 100 kilos, set your goal to 8 repetitions with 115 kilos.

If you decide it's time to move to a strength phase and you want to increase your weights on the three big exercises, then start by reducing the effort you spend on other exercises and increasing the volume on the 3 big basic exercises while reducing the frequency of the workout.

In other words, train the three big exercises once a week with more volume.

The 3 phases of mass and strength

This is a way to summarize everything:

1. Hypertrophy: less emphasis on the big three exercises, more emphasis on improving overall hypertrophy and bringing weak muscles up to par with the rest of your musculature.
2. Basic build-up with the big three exercises: More emphasis on the big three over volume and submaximal intensities. Less emphasis on hypertrophy and other exercises.
3. Strength building: Increase intensity on the big three while decreasing volume.

Remember that you need to manipulate volume, intensity and frequency to meet the necessities for recovery. If volume and frequency are high, then intensity needs to be reduced (intensity in this case referring to a percentage of the maximum weight for one repetition (1RM)).

If you want to train with a higher level of intensity and volume, then the frequency must be reduced. Also, maximizing strength generally requires manipulation of these parameters. Muscle supplements such as Gods Rage and Godmode can further enhance performance.

By Paul Carter | 07/06/15

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/big-3-lifts-suck-for-size-gains