Be Your Own Trainer: The Only 3 Exercises You Need To Know

The Essentials of Bodybuilding

While there are many components to bodybuilding, 3 of the main essentials are “show”, “performance”, and “”strength”. The “show” is how you look on stage, how your physique shows up on a particular day. The “performance” is would have to do with posing and athleticism. And finally “strength” which allows you to lift heavier, breaking down more muscle fibers and building more mass.

These three elements should allow you to show up prepared for any contest or just look immaculate for the summer. Here are 3 exercises for the 3 essentials of bodybuilding.

The “Show”: Snatch-Grip High Pull

Every builder wants to look yolked. If not, you’d be doing crossfit. Not only do you want the strength and athletic gainz, but you want the sculpted mass look to boot.

The snatch-grip high pull is the perfect exercise for that intimidating larger than life look of a bodybuilder. This exercise targets the shoulder pad area of the delts, traps, and mid-back that give you that “don’t [email protected] with me” look.

For the high pull, focus on exploding upwards with the lower body and hips to create upward momentum. Then pull the barbell violently toward your neck – anywhere between the nipple line and neck constitutes a high pull. Keep the bar close and the elbows high.

Athleticism: Power Snatch From Hang

This is good for explosive movements, coordination, and full shoulder mobility. The power produced is also very high for this exercise. You get higher acceleration and rate of force development and peak velocity in the power snatch – all elements that are key to ultimate performance in explosive sports.

Step by step instructions provided in the video below.

Power: Deadlift

We know this isn’t exactly the newest exercise, but if someone said it best…This exercise is still the best hands down for pure, raw strength.

No movement transfers better to strength than picking things up from the floor and carrying stuff with your hands, the two most important tasks in strongman competitions. It’s primitive, yet so true, “I lift things up, I put them down.”

But at this stage, you know everything about the deadlift, as there’s countless articles written about the benefits of this compound movement. What we will suggest is the Jean-Francois Caron method (Max out on rack deadlifts then 6 sets of 3 reps of floor deadlifts). He’s known for deadlifting over 900 lbs for reps, so I’d take note.

There you have it, these 3 exercises will help you develop three very important components to bodybuilding. Try out these 3 exercises at let us know what you think. Be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.