Should we be utilizing barbell movements if our goal is to build muscle?

The short answer is…it depends. Here’s why…

Training for performance and training to build a physique are very different. Training for performance is focused on movements while training in bodybuilding or building a physique is focused on muscles. Muscle building requires us to target the muscle we want to grow as opposed to training a specific movement pattern to be used in sport. 

If you are a bodybuilder or just looking to tone up, the goal is to build as much muscle as you can while maintaining a desired level of body fat. The exercises performed can vary from person to person but still get the job done. In bodybuilding there are no prerequisite movements. We have more options and choices, so how do we choose?

Hypertrophy can be achieved through every exercise. It’s about finding what is going to be most effective for our efforts. I’ve been asked over the years by friends, clients, and family members if barbell movements are the “best” for muscle building. If someone is just starting out and has a young training age (anything under 5 years of consistent training), barbell movements can teach them how to train with high intensity and close to failure, a concept that is very important for hypertrophy. For more advanced trainees, it is less important to focus solely on barbell movements as the principles of intensity are there and can be applied to all exercises. 

Any and all exercises can stimulate hypertrophy so it is important to figure out which movements will allow you to safely progress and overload efficiently. We choose our exercises along the spectrum from compound movements, to targeted compound variations, to machine/accessory movements, to unilateral, and then to single-joint movements. This progression moves from the most general to the most targeted exercises and most fatigue to least fatigue causing. For example, that might mean choosing a dumbbell chest press or machine chest press over a barbell bench press if those movements better engage the target muscle with an appropriate fatigue cost. This process may change throughout the course of someone’s training from beginner to more advanced.

As the athlete progresses, their needs change. Typically, a beginner needs generally to build everywhere. They likely need to build size, so performing compound lifts will be able to hit as many muscles as possible to be effective in their workouts and not spend five hours in the gym trying to isolate every muscle. As an athlete moves from beginner to intermediate to advanced there will be a shift from generally building more muscle towards the work of becoming balanced. An intermediate athlete might be trying to balance the size of their lower body to the size of their upper body while an advanced athlete might be trying to develop certain parts of their quads specifically. With that focus on balance, isolating the areas that we want to improve will allow us to grow those areas without growing the area we seek to balance it with. If we are trying to catch up with one area, we don’t want to create an imbalance of another area we are NOT trying to grow.

Some common examples are a beginner athlete barbell squatting to build up their lower body and general muscle mass while an intermediate athlete is doing a leg press to grow their lower body without straining the core and growing a bigger waist. An advanced athlete might be doing singe-leg extension to balance their right and left legs.

Another area to consider in program design is cost-fatigue ratio for each exercise. We seek to make as much progress as possible, but we are limited by having to budget the amount of fatigue we can handle and recover from without causing injury. Different movements will exist along a spectrum of high-effectiveness to low-effectiveness and high fatigue cost to low fatigue cost per set. This is with the assumption that these sets are being taken 1-3 reps shy of failure, as a general rule of thumb to be most effective. Compound movements are typically very effective for building muscle but have a high fatigue cost. The required stimulus to grow for any area as the athlete becomes more advanced becomes higher. Since we have a limited amount of fatigue we can spend, we may need to isolate where it is being spent, unlike in compound barbell lifts where the fatigue is being distributed amongst several muscles being used. When we need to be specific on where we’re trying to build, it may be appropriate to isolate areas. For beginner athletes whose required stimulus isn’t as high, we can see growth in more areas by using compound lifts so that we don’t have to do 20 different exercises in one workout.

Compound movements are the foundation of a training program for beginners but not necessarily included as the person becomes more advanced. When creating your workout, start by evaluating where you want to develop and choose exercises that allow you to build while still being able to recover weekly and progress. Since we are training muscles, we have flexibility in our exercise selection. There is nothing that’s mandatory so you shouldn’t feel locked in to any particular lift.

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