I've thought this for years and Mike Van Wyck excellently articulated it on the latest Bro Chat. I've started it at his first point on training beginners; his second point starts at 02:01:40.
The Problem:
Bodybuilding dogma says the most important exercises and the best mass builders are the big compound lifts - barbell bench press, barbell squat, barbell deadlift, barbell overhead press. So guys decide they want to start bodybuilding and find a workout program built around those exercises and doing them first in the workout to give the most effort to them.
It's hard to fault them when all the literature mindlessly regurgitates this and the biggest names in the sport promote it. Lee Haney is deservedly revered for his accomplishments in amateur and professional bodybuilding but he should be equally reviled for his horrible training advice - that the only exercises one needs are barbell bench press, barbell rows, barbell squats, parallel bar dips, barbell curls, etc. This just shows what a genetic freak Haney was - he could've lifted any way he wanted and built one of the most dominant physiques of his era. Lee Haney, Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, etc., are the last people new lifters should look to for guidance.
Why This Is A Problem:
The barbell bench / squat / deadlift / overhead press are some of the most technical. complex lifts when performed correctly. Building muscle isn't about technical complexities for the new lifter - it's about feeling the muscle squeeze and stretch through a range of motion. 99% of new lifters can't feel their muscles squeeze when simply flexing them, much less flexing them against a weight.
So we have new lifters with no mind-muscle connection being taught to do very complex lifts that they can't feel in the target muscle. Does it now make sense why so many guys start lifting and give up soon after? How can they expect to make substantial gains in muscle when they can't feel their muscles work and are using the worst possible exercises to target them as beginners? Does it make sense why so many of you reading this never built the physique you thought you would?
There's also a big hypocrisy issue. We love to trash the CrossFit community for throwing new members into Olympic lifts and other complex movements which lead to injuries and no muscle being built but bodybuilding does the same thing. We set new lifters up for failure.
The Steroid Analogy:
Most of Professional Muscle agrees that when a person starts using AAS their first cycle shouldn't be 1,000mg test / 750mg deca / 100mg dianabol. It's better to start with say 500mg of testosterone, get as much as you can from it, then add more when you have trouble progressing.
But when it comes to exercise we tell new lifters to start blasting with the most advanced lifts possible as soon as they start. How does this make sense? We should be teaching new lifters to start with isolation exercises. When their gains from those stall they can add advanced lifts to keep their progress going.
The Solution:
New lifters - and I specifically mean bodybuilders who want to maximize muscle mass - need to first be trained on establishing mind-muscle connection. It doesn't matter what exercise you do if you can't feel it in the target muscle. The new bodybuilder, regardless of plans on competing, should be posing daily to establish mind-muscle connection.
They should be introduced to exercise through isolation movements. They need to know what it's like to feel each muscle squeeze and stretch through its range of motion. They also need to learn the ways a muscle can contract - a fly or press for the chest, a row or pull for the back, etc.
Compound exercises shouldn't be introduced until one has a solid grasp on how individual muscles contract. If you can't contract a muscle in isolation it's very unlikely you'll be able to contract it when other muscles are involved.
My Personal Anecdote:
Before I started bodybuilding I spent a few years powerlifting. My focus was solely on being as strong as possible - moving the weight from point A to point B with whatever it took. When I switched to bodybuilding it quickly became clear that I didn't know how to use my muscles to lift. I decided to start pre-exhausting so I could feel the muscle more and moved my compound lifts towards the end of my workouts. To this day I still do this and regularly active members know the progress I've made over the last 4-5 years. While I don't have a great physique for competing, I do have one of the biggest and most developed physiques on Professional Muscle and I very much attribute my progress to finding my own way with training, discarding all the traditional bullshit. None of my gains have come from barbells and the only things I use dumbbells for are lateral and front raises.
I hope this generates good discussion and opens a lot of eyes on how wrong so much of bodybuilding dogma is and how we should really be structuring training from the beginning to maximize results.
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