Picture this: you’re in the gym, and you’re trying to figure out the best string of exercises needed to enhance muscle growth. If you’re not 100 percent sure about each of your selections, don’t worry. In his latest interview, exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel broke down his go-to movements for each muscle group to ensure progress over time.
Dr. Mike Israetel is a well-known physiologist boasting decades of on-the-ground fitness experience. In addition to examining the intricacies of exercise mechanics, Israetel has become a trusted source of wisdom whether it be on protein consumption, dieting, or how to maximize workout results.
In the recent undertaking, Dr. Israetel listed his ideal exercises for each muscle group, providing insight and justifications for his answers. Having trained alongside everyday folk and IFBB Pros, his expertise might point you in the right direction during your next workout.
Dr. Mike Israetel Lists ‘Unbeatable’ Exercises for Each Muscle Group
Below, you can find Israetel’s top exercises for each muscle group:
Level Up Your Fitness: Join our 💪 strong community in Fitness Volt Newsletter. Get daily inspiration, expert-backed workouts, nutrition tips, the latest in strength sports, and the support you need to reach your goals. Subscribe for free!
Chest
According to Israetel, the incline cambered bar bench press is ‘unbeatable,’ thanks to the pec stretch it offers. He also praised the movement for the pump stimulus it provides.
“The incline cambered bar bench press. The cambered bar allows you–it’s got this little cambered thing, this divot, you can press super deep. That pec stretch is just unbeatable. It’s pretty close to objectively the best chest exercise you could do if you had to pick one but it’s one of my personal favorites.
The cambered bar, if you’ve never used it and you trained chest, you do one set with it close to failure and you’ll get some of the best pump you’ve ever gotten in your life, definitely for one set but even compared to five sets of regular lifting.”
Shoulders
To effectively build the shoulders, Israetel stood behind cable machine lateral raises and says to adjust the pulley to hip level for the best results.
“I think rear delts get a lot of stimulation from back work,” said Israetel. “I would have to say the free motion machine or the regular cable machine where you do lateral raises, you set the cable height at about hip level where your arms just dangle, and doing side raises like that out to the side.
You get a crazy peak tension at the bottom and the top has almost no tension at all and we’re learning now that a lot of tension and long muscle lengths stretched out muscles is the best way to grow muscles seemingly.”
Back
The back can be challenging to cover with only one exercise, but if he had to choose, Israetel believes barbell bent rows are the winning ticket because they tax the lats, mid-back, and spinal erectors.
“T-bar row, chest-supported row, Prime makes an excellent row machine which ultra exaggerates a super deep stretch and is easy at the peak contraction. I’d say that. A cambered row or even a barbell row for me, has always done wonders for my shit. The barbell row is kind of cool because it at least decently trains all three major functions or components of your back.”
“A strict bent row like that, I think as a one exercise for the whole back, it’s not the ideal exercise for any specific part of the back but it hits the lats decently, it hits the mid-back really well, and it hits the spinal erectors too because you have to spinally erect yourself, sounds weird, against the load. To me, barbell bent row because it’s kind of the jack of all trades back exercise.”
Biceps
He favors the lying dumbbell curl, which he hails for its ability to expose the biceps to maximum tension at their longest length during each repetition.
“I have a new favorite. The lying — you almost never see this — lying dumbbell curl. So, you lie down on a bench, a flat bench, you got dumbbells here and you slowly stretch and touch the ground and then curl up and slowly stretch and tough the ground kind of reaching forward as you do it.
It exposes the biceps to maximum tension at their longest length and it’s just unreal. It gives me predictable repeated delayed onset bicep soreness, which almost no other exercise has been able to give me.”
Triceps
He identified the EZ bar behind-the-neck tricep extension as his next go-to, due to its ability to hit all three heads of the muscle group. He adds that this is ‘one of the best exercises’ for tricep development.
“The EZ bar behind-the-neck tricep extension, standing or seated is phenomenal. It works every part of the tricep and a huge deep stretch and it’s just unreal,” says Israetel. “One of the best exercises you could ever do for triceps.”
Quads
Keeping it short and sweet, Dr. Israetel put his support behind belt squats for growing the quads.
“A belt squat properly done, there’s no axial fatigue, there’s no fatigue to your spine because the belt goes on your hips and you can just zap your quads. Belt squats are probably my favorite movement there.”
Hamstrings
He split hamstrings down the middle, advocating for either stiff-legged deadlifts or good mornings.
“For hamstrings, stiff-legged deadlifts or good mornings is really tough to fuck with but any kind of hamstring curl is awesome, as long as I get a nice deep stretch in the hamstring, I really find hamstring training to be one of the dare I say easiest most straightforward muscles for me to train.”
Glutes
Israetel explained that front foot-elevated Smith machine lunges can give him instant soreness if he hasn’t trained the movement in a few weeks.
“Front foot elevated Smith machine lunges. Enough stability from the Smith machine to produce lots of force, front foot elevation pre-stretches that glute. I can get instant soreness from that if I haven’t done it in a few weeks.”
If you want more out of this exercise, Dr. Israetel says to adjust your stabilizing foot so that the big toenail touches the ground.
“One set later my glutes are cramping and I’m sore right away. I will say a really cool tip for folks to try, that back foot, people will typically stand on their toes, what I like to do, on the back foot, I like to put my foot down so my toes actually, my big toenail will be touching the ground. That way, you can’t push off thack back leg, it’s just for stability.”
Aside from exercise selection, Israetel has also been open about effective warm-up and rest period practices. He specified that advanced lifers utilize two kinds of warm-ups: specific warm-ups and general warm-ups, which can include dynamic stretching or foam rolling. As for rest periods, Israetel outlined his four-factor checklist to maximize your time in between sets.
Dr. Mike Israetel combines practical lifting experience with science-backed information to determine which exercises work the best. Feel free to try out his go-to movements for each muscle group the next time you dive into a training session!
RELATED: Exercise Scientist Reveals Strategy for Developing Unstoppable Gym Motivation
Watch the full video from the First Things THRST YouTube channel below:
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube for even more content.
