Does anyone else do one exercise workouts?

[Elvia1023]

Why would you. Guys who do stuff like this do so just so they can tell people as it stands out. If you can't focus and give 100% when doing 2-5 movements something is off. But sure if you go into a gym knowing you are only just doing x movement it's very basic and simple and you can put everything into that one movement. For me why not 2-4 movements as I think that is more effective over a long period.

People can state deadlifts only is a great back workout and yes that is very true but it doesn't mean you should just do 1 exercise per day. It's far from optimal and again just something to do so you can tell people you do 1 exercise per day. Yes you could go into the gym and do 5-10 sets of squats and that could be an amazing leg workout but so what. What about calves? Adding in movements will always be better so you can improve all areas.

Yes you could go in and do chest press only, deadlift only, squat only for 3 days and it be amazing training but over time it's far more optimal adding in other movements. Form and intensity and picking the right movements are the most important aspects of training. I would never want to walk into a gym and just do a single chest press for chest though. Well that would be fine depending upon the split but not 1 movement for the entire session. Yes it could be done with great results but for me training should be fun over everything and I like adding in different movements/angles/techniques. That doesn't mean you should do 8 movements either but just enough to cover all bases.

 

[Dens228]

Why would you. Guys who do stuff like this do so just so they can tell people as it stands out.

Or maybe they do it because for some it also works........and they don't tell anyone unless they're asked..........just saying. Anyone who doesn't believe in the same training theories as you is unmotivated or something is off?? You know better than that.

 

[Elvia1023]

Or maybe they do it because for some it also works........and they don't tell anyone unless they're asked..........just saying. Anyone who doesn't believe in the same training theories as you is unmotivated or something is off?? You know better than that.

Not at all. Everyone likes different methods and many are high/low volume and many like 1-10 exercises. I couldn't care less what people prefer and would never flat out state something is wrong. Performing 1 exercise every training day is not wrong either but is it optimal for most... far from it. I am also not implying there is one method that is better for all... far from it. Now some people may only be able to train for 20 mins so if they want to get in and hit 1 exercise hard and that's perfectly fine. Others may want to do squats for 1 hour straight and that is fine as well if that's what they prefer.

My post has nothing to do with the fact he doesn't train like me. I was referring to him stating he can't focus 100% if he does more that 1 exercise. Personally I think that sounds off and is more in his head but sure if he thinks that then fine. 1 exercise is simple and he can just hit that hard but surely you could do the same for 2-4 exercises as well. If he wants to train 1 movement everyday it's up to him but I personally think it's better performing more. Not necessarily everyday but over weeks I wouldn't go into the gym and just perform 1 movement every single day if I wanted the best results possible. If he prefers to do that and is getting good results then great and he should carry on with his routine.

Take my example for legs again I think squats only is great but I would want to hit my calves directly as well as an absolute minimum. Perhaps one day per week he just goes in and hits calf raises and nothing else and that is fine as well but again I think he could do better. There are many holes in this approach but can he get great results... of course... any intense training will get results. Hitting the big 3 movements in the week could also be highly effective but I am talking about building the entire body optimally. There are so many different methods and all can work so I am not stating one is superior. I just personally wouldn't do just 1 movement every single gym day but he isn't me and neither are you.

 

[Dens228]

Not at all. Everyone likes different methods and many are high/low volume and many like 1-10 exercises. I couldn't care less what people prefer and would never flat out state something is wrong. Performing 1 exercise every training day is not wrong either but is it optimal for most... far from it. I am also not implying there is one method that is better for all... far from it. Now some people may only be able to train for 20 mins so if they want to get in and hit 1 exercise hard and that's perfectly fine. Others may want to do squats for 1 hour straight and that is fine as well if that's what they prefer.

My post has nothing to do with the fact he doesn't train like me. I was referring to him stating he can't focus 100% if he does more that 1 exercise. Personally I think that sounds off and is more in his head but sure if he thinks that then fine. 1 exercise is simple and he can just hit that hard but surely you could do the same for 2-4 exercises as well. If he wants to train 1 movement everyday it's up to him but I personally think it's better performing more. Not necessarily everyday but over weeks I wouldn't go into the gym and just perform 1 movement every single day if I wanted the best results possible.

Take my example for legs again I think squats only is great but I would want to hit my calves directly as well as an absolute minimum. Perhaps one day per week he just goes in and hits calf raises and nothing else and that is fine as well but again I think he could do better. There are many holes in this approach but can he get great results... of course... any intense training will get results. Hitting the big 3 movements in the week could also be highly effective but I am talking about building the entire body optimally. There are so many different methods and all can work so I am not stating one is superior. I just personally wouldn't do just 1 movement every single gym day but he isn't me and neither are you.

I misinterpreted your post then. I took it as you referring to everyone who did a one exercise per bodypart type of routine not just the op. My bad on that one.

 

[Elvia1023]

I misinterpreted your post then. I took it as you referring to everyone who did a one exercise per bodypart type of routine not just the op. My bad on that one.

Not at all matey. Maybe I worded it wrong. I actually replied from the replies in this thread but now I see he was just wondering if anyone trains the same way. I don't think any training system/split is wrong. Everyone is different and different things work for different people's bodies, likes, goals and schedules. Guys who act like there is some special split or volume are talking crap. The most important things are form and intensity. If you train your chest hard with great form it doesn't really matter if you do 1 or 5 movements. Well again I think for optimal results some areas need to be hit at different angles etc.

If I was training a few times per week I couldn't hit my entire body effective with a few movements. Can I hit my quads, hams and glutes effectively with squats... of course... especially playing about with stance and execution. But as I posted what about calves so at least add in some calf raises. Just the same for back I could hit everything with deadlifts but I need more movements to hit every area of my back properly. I think most need some form of row or pulldown for direct lat activation as an example. For push you could do an incline press and pretty much cover chest and shoulders but I personally (at the very least) want to add some lateral raises for side delts.

So whilst there is no one size fits all it's just common sense to me. It's a bit like the guys who ask a or b what is best. Squats or leg press, tren or deca when bulking etc etc. You use whatever you have available to you and the same goes for training. Some days 1 exercise only is enough for great gains but surely for hitting all areas of the body you need to get out of that I must only do 1 movement per day mentality. So I am not stating it's wrong and if someone wants to do it then great go for it but for bodybuilding in the long term surely adding in a few other movements in the week is going to turn out so much better for the majority of people.

 

[Biggerp73]

I've thought about this style of training and I think it could work very well. Pick one exercise, warm up, and absolutely kill it for 3-5 heavy sets. Hit one cool down. Done. Probably sufficient to grow and get stronger every workout. My concern is that for some muscles you won't get complete development. For example, someone above suggested deadlifts only for back. While perhaps the average Joe not looking to look good in the double bicep and lat spread shots would be ok, I don't think deads alone is going to produce the kind of lat development that will look good in those positions/poses.

 

[Dens228]

Not at all matey. Maybe I worded it wrong. I actually replied from the replies in this thread but now I see he was just wondering if anyone trains the same way. I don't think any training system/split is wrong. Everyone is different and different things work for different people's bodies, likes, goals and schedules. Guys who act like there is some special split or volume are talking crap. The most important things are form and intensity. If you train your chest hard with great form it doesn't really matter if you do 1 or 5 movements. Well again I think for optimal results some areas need to be hit at different angles etc.

If I was training a few times per week I couldn't hit my entire body effective with a few movements. Can I hit my quads, hams and glutes effectively with squats... of course... especially playing about with stance and execution. But as I posted what about calves so at least add in some calf raises. Just the same for back I could hit everything with deadlifts but I need more movements to hit every area of my back properly. I think most need some form of row or pulldown for direct lat activation as an example. For push you could do an incline press and pretty much cover chest and shoulders but I personally (at the very least) want to add some lateral raises for side delts.

So whilst there is no one size fits all it's just common sense to me. It's a bit like the guys who ask a or b what is best. Squats or leg press, tren or deca when bulking etc etc. You use whatever you have available to you and the same goes for training. Some days 1 exercise only is enough for great gains but surely for hitting all areas of the body you need to get out of that I must only do 1 movement per day mentality. So I am not stating it's wrong and if someone wants to do it then great go for it but for bodybuilding in the long term surely adding in a few other movements in the week is going to turn out so much better for the majority of people.

That's the actual way I do it. A separate exercise for chest, then delts, then tris, next day a pulldown, a row, biceps, next day calves, hams, quads.........

 

[Elvia1023]

That's the actual way I do it. A separate exercise for chest, then delts, then tris, next day a pulldown, a row, biceps, next day calves, hams, quads.........

That's very different to the OP though. He is doing 1 exercise per day. You could do chest press, lateral raises and skull crushers and you are hitting everything well. You are hitting every body part directly so intensity and form are far more important than how many sets or exercises you do. You only have to go to failure on each movement and you have hit everything directly and pretty covered all bases. You can do that with 1, 2, 3 etc movements. It's entirely different just going in and doing 1 movement every day. The OP stated he will just do chest for example. If doing dips for tri-ceps he just does that 1 movement on it's own day. I assume if one day he wants to do bi-cep curls he just does bi-cep curls and nothing else. So never 2 body parts and just 1 exercise each day. I am curious what the frequency would look like.

I could understand this more if perhaps a guy had a home gym and/or he was training 6-7 days per week and rushed for time. Me personally I could not walk into a gym and do 1 movement for tri-ceps or bi-ceps and go home and I am sure most are the same. Squats and deadlifts are very different but even for those as I posted earlier I would at the very least add calves and a row/pulldown movement. Definitely not stating it is "wrong" but so far away from how I like to train. I enjoy training so don't mind cranking up the volume at times and my back/leg workouts often contain many movements. It's working for the OP though so good for him but definitely not the way I like to train.

 

[Dens228]

That's very different to the OP though. He is doing 1 exercise per day. You could do chest press, lateral raises and skull crushers and you are hitting everything well. You are hitting every body part directly so intensity and form are far more important than how many sets or exercises you do. You only have to go to failure on each movement and you have hit everything directly and pretty covered all bases. You can do that with 1, 2, 3 etc movements. It's entirely different just going in and doing 1 movement every day. The OP stated he will just do chest for example. If doing dips for tri-ceps he just does that 1 movement on it's own day. I assume if one day he wants to do bi-cep curls he just does bi-cep curls and nothing else. So never 2 body parts and just 1 exercise each day. I am curious what the frequency would look like.

I could understand this more if perhaps a guy had a home gym and/or he was training 6-7 days per week and rushed for time. Me personally I could not walk into a gym and do 1 movement for tri-ceps or bi-ceps and go home and I am sure most are the same. Squats and deadlifts are very different but even for those as I posted earlier I would at the very least add calves and a row/pulldown movement. Definitely not stating it is "wrong" but so far away from how I like to train. I enjoy training so don't mind cranking up the volume at times and my back/leg workouts often contain many movements. It's working for the OP though so good for him but definitely not the way I like to train.

Full disclosure, there are times I go in and do one work set of three exercises for a given bodypart.........depends on my mood.

 

[opietaylor]

10x10 leg press with 1 minute rest between sets. german volume training. if you pick the correct weight you will be completely done after this and not hardly be able to walk from the insane leg pump.

 

[Cv215]

Back when i was powerlifting some of my workouts would be only the bench, squat, or deadlift. They can take a lot out of you depending on how your training and not much more was always necessary. For bodybuilding your obviously shorting yourself if you're not doing other stuff.

 

[KillerStack]

I think people do too many exercises, especially for small muscles like biceps. I don't see the need for 5 different exercises or whatever. One exercise might be plenty or even optimal, all there is for direct bicep work is curls anyway, there's not necessarily a need to hit it from "many angles" in the same workout.

I remember a Tom Platz leg routine he wrote about. It was 2 sets of 50 reps on squats, that's it.

Quality over quantity, always.

Regarding deadlifts for back that was mentioned. There's a bunch of experts who say it's not a back exercise period. Does nothing for upper back, there's little to no movement for the upper back and lat muscles, and it's just a static hold when it comes to the erectors too. Now I love deadlifts, they are like a religion to me, but I see their point anyway.
Deadlifts are mainly a hamstring and glute exercise.

There's this guy named Doug Brignole who talked about it. Said that to train the erectors you should do a certain type of rolling motion with you lower back with no weight at all, that way the erectors actually move, stretch and shorten the videos are on youtube. This fella

 

[Elvia1023]

I think people do too many exercises, especially for small muscles like biceps. I don't see the need for 5 different exercises or whatever. One exercise might be plenty or even optimal, all there is for direct bicep work is curls anyway, there's not necessarily a need to hit it from "many angles" in the same workout.

I remember a Tom Platz leg routine he wrote about. It was 2 sets of 50 reps on squats, that's it.

Quality over quantity, always.

Regarding deadlifts for back that was mentioned. There's a bunch of experts who say it's not a back exercise period. Does nothing for upper back, there's little to no movement for the upper back and lat muscles, and it's just a static hold when it comes to the erectors too. Now I love deadlifts, they are like a religion to me, but I see their point anyway.
Deadlifts are mainly a hamstring and glute exercise.

There's this guy named Doug Brignole who talked about it. Said that to train the erectors you should do a certain type of rolling motion with you lower back with no weight at all, that way the erectors actually move, stretch and shorten the videos are on youtube. This fella

I wrote that term in this thread but it's not so much you have to hit a muscle from different angles I just meant for certain things you simply need to do more than 1 movement to hit the entire area effectively. Take the back for example and you want to use different angles aka planes of movement as it's one big area comprised of multiple muscles. People definitely do too much as well. For bi-ceps there are only so many curls one can do so sure for them it's very easy. My bi-cep training is usually 10 mins max (but a few movements) after a larger body part. I think many could build great bi-ceps or tri-ceps just hitting 1 movement each workout. Just like the 10 sets of 10 for leg press above is another great workout. The same for squats or deadlifts. But in regards to optimal results in bodybuilding whilst there are no definite answers I think someone is cutting themselves short if just doing 1 movement every single training day. I bring up the calf raises with squats (or leg press) example again.

The hitting things from all angles is what I state especially about back training and for me you can't hit your entire back optimally with just 1 movement. No one is stating you need 5 movements every body part but for most 2-4 is going to be better than just 1 in the long term. Look at every single bodybuilder and they all train differently but 99.9% of them do at least 2 exercises when training legs or back etc. Even if I was pressed for time and spending 30 mins max in the gym I would be adding in more than 1 movement for most body parts. For chest I would do a fly (or dip) and pressing movement at the very least. So it could be 2 movements and if the form and intensity are there you could be done in 10 mins if needs be. The only exception would be arms but even then I like to do some form of tri-cep extension with my main movement (skullcrushers, close grip bench or dips). For bi-ceps of course 1 movement is plenty but me personally I would add in a forearm movement as well to make 2 for the day. Plus I wouldn't be going in the gym and just training bi-ceps/forearms for 10 mins and would definitely add them in after back, chest or shoulders. I also wouldn't be going in the gym and training bi-ceps for 1 hour as I think it's totally not needed. This thread is just an example of how we are all different but I think most are doing at least 2-3 exercises in any given training session.

 

[Ashop]

I find I can focus and give 100%. Typically in the 5 set range. I then change the exercise for the bodypart the next workout. Does anyone else ever find they are training this way sometimes?

Sometimes I do depending on if I'm on a time crunch or not. Right now I'm only doing two exercises per bodypart.

 

[PanterA101]

I think people do too many exercises, especially for small muscles like biceps. I don't see the need for 5 different exercises or whatever. One exercise might be plenty or even optimal, all there is for direct bicep work is curls anyway, there's not necessarily a need to hit it from "many angles" in the same workout.

I remember a Tom Platz leg routine he wrote about. It was 2 sets of 50 reps on squats, that's it.

Quality over quantity, always.

Regarding deadlifts for back that was mentioned. There's a bunch of experts who say it's not a back exercise period. Does nothing for upper back, there's little to no movement for the upper back and lat muscles, and it's just a static hold when it comes to the erectors too. Now I love deadlifts, they are like a religion to me, but I see their point anyway.
Deadlifts are mainly a hamstring and glute exercise.

There's this guy named Doug Brignole who talked about it. Said that to train the erectors you should do a certain type of rolling motion with you lower back with no weight at all, that way the erectors actually move, stretch and shorten the videos are on youtube. This fella

some sort of curl and reverse/hammer curl. Alternate between different days but seriously....

“well this is with a barbell and this is a dumbbell and this machine and this is cables.... now we’ll do a wider grip all 4 and then reverse and then hammer all 4.... and then a closer grip. All 4.

and oh yeah... CALVES ARE GENETIC!!!!”

 

[juggy38]

I think 2-3 movements optimal.

Chest: flat or decline, incline, a fly movement now and then.

Shoulders: laterals (pick your poison), posterior delt movement.

Triceps: 1-2 movements.

Back: this is tricky. The back has lots of planes of movement like Elvia said. But you can build a hell of a back with bent over rows and pull-ups. But then lower lats and traps need love. So then comes the dumbbell row and shrugs at times.

Legs: quad and ham Movemnt, and calves. But then you can get picky and need to train the rectus femoris which only fully fires with leg extensions, and proximal and distal regions of the hams, so good programming would include a hip-hinge and a curl variant.

Do the training you like the most. That’s what is most important if your not competing. None of us are going to win a pro card anytime soon. So do what you enjoy most

 

[KillerStack]

I wrote that term in this thread but it's not so much you have to hit a muscle from different angles I just meant for certain things you simply need to do more than 1 movement to hit the entire area effectively.

I wrote my reply before reading your posts so it wasn't a dig at you. I definitely agree wrt back training and so on. A lat focused movement, a upper back focused one, erectors, perhaps a trap movement if you want to hit traps on back day. And so on.

At the same time, if you have 10 exercises on the menu for the day you may not do everything with full effort. So to go to the gym with the intention of training the shit out of rows and then to see if you have more left might be a good strategy

A coworker who was completely untrained paid a lot of money for an online trainer for a 16 week hellish fat loss/weight training program. He had 5 exercises for the biceps, absolutely ridiculous. Learn to do one type of curls with effort first, learn hard work, not a ton of weird movements

 

[Biggerp73]

I think people do too many exercises, especially for small muscles like biceps. I don't see the need for 5 different exercises or whatever. One exercise might be plenty or even optimal, all there is for direct bicep work is curls anyway, there's not necessarily a need to hit it from "many angles" in the same workout.

These days I warm up with machine cable preacher curls, very light weight, one arm at a time, squeezing as hard as I can, until the biceps are pumped, and then I hit 2-3 heavy sets of standing hammer curls with the dumbells, and I'm done.

 

[Dadbod3000]

I've thought about this style of training and I think it could work very well. Pick one exercise, warm up, and absolutely kill it for 3-5 heavy sets. Hit one cool down. Done. Probably sufficient to grow and get stronger every workout. My concern is that for some muscles you won't get complete development. For example, someone above suggested deadlifts only for back. While perhaps the average Joe not looking to look good in the double bicep and lat spread shots would be ok, I don't think deads alone is going to produce the kind of lat development that will look good in those positions/poses.

One exercise but rotate like one day deadlifts and one day pullups

 

[benchmstr]

I do one movement per body part and alternate every time...I also do full body daily so I don’t count