Movement Selection

There is no right or wrong answer to which exercises are the best to do in your training. The selection of movements is individually based and you should be in tune with your own training to know what is or is not working. The most important concept to understand with movement selection is consistency within training variables.  If you are getting progressively stronger within given rep ranges you know it is going to show in your physique and performance in a competition. 

From a physique standpoint, there is no one-set answer for which movements to do. Find the movements that work best for you and seek to get as strong in those movements as possible. If you hit a sticking point find out why and address it. For example, a barbell squat uses a lot of hip drive and glute, so some people may not feel as big of a stretch in their quads. They may choose to do a hack squat variation or stick to a leg press instead. Some people prefer to get stronger over a variety of movements while some people stick to very specific movements. At the end of the day whichever movements you chose you always want to look back and make sure you were consistent within these movements and assess if you made the desired progress.

From a performance based standpoint, you want to get more specific with exercise selection as it gets closer to your competition. Far out from a competition in a general phase you should be doing general strength training. As the competition gets closer focus on lifts that you will be doing in competition. For example, in a general phase you can train movements such as a leg press and leg extension and phase into movements more specific to competition lifts such as a front squat. As you get even closer to the competition, even more specific such as heavy back squats.