Exercise Guides: How To's and Comparisons

Any gym-goer on a quest to build bigger and stronger legs will inevitably wonder which exercise is better, leg press or squats?

Some claim that the squat is the king of all exercises, and it’s the only movement necessary to build your legs. Leg press critics believe that the leg press is cheating and a lazy way to train your legs.

Others pride themselves on building massive legs without ever performing a traditional barbell back squat. More often than not, those that don’t squat utilize the leg press in order to grow their legs. These people also brag about how many plates they can leg press.

The good news is that both exercises are extremely effective at growing your legs, especially the quadriceps. Most would argue that both exercises should be included in your workout routine for maximal leg development.

However, if you had to choose just one, which would it be?

The answer depends on your biomechanics, goals, preferences, history of injury, and equipment availability.

This article will help you decide which one to incorporate into your routine by highlighting the differences between the leg press and squat, the pros and cons, how to perform each exercise correctly, and what muscles are primarily targeted.

Keep reading to see which exercise reigns supreme!

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Anyone looking to build a bigger and stronger chest will incorporate some sort of press into their routine. Two of the most effective pressing movements you can do are the flat bench press and incline bench press.

Both exercises are great for targeting the chest, shoulders, and triceps. However, some key differences between the flat and incline bench press will help you determine which one is better for your goals.

More specifically, we will be going over the pros and cons of each, when and how to do each exercise correctly, and answering the following questions:

Which one is better for aesthetics?

Which one is better for strength?

How about performance?

Is it beneficial to do both?

What are the major differences between these two exercises?

Does one have a higher injury risk than the other?

Keep reading to see which bench press variation will get you closer to achieving your health and fitness goals!

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Squats are often considered the king of all exercises because they work the entire body, are extremely effective at adding size and strength to the lower body, and are a very functional movement. 

Anyone with impressive legs regularly performs some type of squat, whether that’s back squats, front squats, goblet squats, split squats, or hack squats. Machines versus free weights is a popular debate in the fitness industry. Within this debate, two exercises that are commonly compared are back squats and hack squats.

Which exercise is better will depend on the individual. This article will help you decide whether back squats or hack squats will get you closer to your goals. We will discuss the key differences between the two exercises, the pros and cons of each, which one is better for strength, aesthetics, and performance, and when/how to perform them to get the best results.

This article will settle the debate once and for all!

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Whether you’re a powerlifter, strongman, bodybuilder, or average joe that wants to build a stronger and more impressive back, having a hip hinge movement in your routine is crucial.

There are several exercises that fall into the hip hinge movement category. Two of the most popular are the rack pull and deadlift.

As the name suggests, in order to do a rack pull, you must have a squat rack because the bar is positioned just below knee height. Rack pulls are very popular in the bodybuilding space because they are great for growing your traps, lats, and upper back. However, rack pulls are also utilized in strength sports since they help improve the lockout on a deadlift.

Deadlifts start from the ground, are more difficult to perform, and engage more muscles. Along with bench press and squats, deadlifts are one of the primary ways people test their strength, especially in competitions.

The deadlift places a lot of stress on the spine, which drastically increases injury risk, especially to the lower back. Not to mention, there’s a shorter range of motion with rack pulls, which allows people to lift more weight.

Although deadlifts and rack pulls have a similar movement pattern and even target some of the same muscles, which one is better for strength and which is better for hypertrophy?

Should you do rack pulls if you already deadlift?

Are rack pulls a better alternative?

All of these questions and more will be discussed in this article! More specifically, we will be covering the main differences between rack pulls and deadlifts, the pros and cons of each exercise, and when and how to do them properly.

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The back squat is the squat most lifters picture first, and for good reason. It loads the entire lower body plus a big chunk of your torso, and it’s a competition lift for powerlifters. The catch is that it parks a heavy bar on your spine, and some lifters find their back gives out before their legs do.

The belt squat hangs the load from your hips instead, so there’s almost nothing on your spine. You won’t move as much weight, but you can hammer your quads and hamstrings without taxing your back, and you’ll recover faster for it.

I’ll break down where each one wins, how to set them up, the muscles they hit, and which one I’d pick for your goal. If your back is the thing holding your squats back, the belt squat might be the swap you’ve been looking for.

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Are you looking for a bicep isolation exercise that will fire up your muscle fibers and help to build strong, thick biceps? 

Choosing the right type of bicep curl can be challenging with so much conflicting information and advice available online.

Today, we’ll compare two popular variations of the standard bicep curl: the preacher curl and the concentration curl. We’ll explain the main technical differences, the pros and cons of each exercise, and how to perform each type of curl with the proper technique.

Let’s get into these two types of bicep curls to help you figure out which one is best for you

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Learning to do a deadlift with proper technique is a rite of passage for any serious lifter. Deadlifts are a staple exercise for improving your full body strength, and they carry over well to other exercises like the clean and snatch and the barbell row. The traditional deadlift is performed with a standard barbell.

 Some lifters replace the deadlift with a variation known as the trap bar deadlift. Below, we’ll go over both the barbell and the trap bar deadlift, the pros and cons of each, and help you determine if one is better than the other for reaching your strength and hypertrophy goals.

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Ask a room full of lifters for the best chest builder and most of them will say the barbell bench press. It’s the lift everyone tests and everyone wants a bigger number on. The dip gets far less attention, which is a shame, because it’s one of the most underrated upper body builders going.

Both lifts work the chest, triceps, and shoulders, so picking between them isn’t obvious. Dips lean on the lower chest and let you train to failure without a spotter. The bench press moves more weight and is one of the three lifts you’ll compete on if you ever step on a powerlifting platform.

I run both, and below I break down where each one wins so you can decide which belongs in your program, or whether you should do what I do and keep them both.

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If you want strong, muscular-looking arms that look great and perform well, it’s important to focus on the triceps.

Although often neglected in favor of shoulder and bicep exercises, the triceps actually make up around two-thirds of your arm musculature. The main purpose of the tricep is to support the extension of the elbow joint.

To strengthen and build your triceps, you need equipment that extends the elbow joint under mechanical tension such as dumbbells or a barbell.  These movements are broadly categorized as tricep extensions.s.

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The bicep curl is one of the first exercises anybody picks up, and if you’ve trained for more than a few months you’ve curled a barbell of some kind. The two most common bars for the job are the straight bar and the EZ curl bar, and they curl a little differently.

It comes down to your grip. A straight bar locks your hands fully supinated (palms up), which drives the work straight into the biceps brachii. The EZ bar’s bends let your wrists rotate in toward neutral, which is easier on the joints and brings the brachialis and brachioradialis into it more.

I’ve curled both for years and I grab each one in different situations. This breakdown covers the pros, cons, form, and muscles worked for the straight bar and the EZ bar so you can pick the one that fits your wrists and your goal.

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The biceps are often referred to as “show muscles” because anytime you ask someone “show me your muscles”, they almost always flex their arms. Getting muscular arms is an essential part of nearly every bodybuilding program. 

The biceps are primarily responsible for flexing your arms at the elbow. For increasing biceps strength, shape and size, we add resistance by using weights or bands.

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If you want a thick, strong back, rows belong in your program. Rows pile thickness onto your upper back, mid-back, and lats, while pulldowns build width. That’s why you’ll see most bodybuilders run some kind of row alongside a pulldown every week.

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Do you want to maximize your bicep growth and strength but aren’t sure which exercises to choose?

Have you been training your upper body for years without seeing the bicep growth and definition you would like?

Are you wondering whether bicep curls using a barbell or dumbbell will be most effective at helping you reach your muscle-building and strength goals?

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Building strong, powerful hamstrings is a great way to improve the strength and musculature of your leg. Not only do big, round, hamstrings look great, they also form an essential part of the posterior chain. Strengthening the hamstrings can help you perform better in other lifts and translates well to everyday functional fitness.

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