A lot of people act surprised when I tell them I don’t barbell bench and prefer to use dumbbells for that type of movement. Or when I started deadlifting I learned by pulling conventional, but after an injury I switched to sumo and have been loving it. Because of my stances on these two exercises it got me thinking on how everyone needs to decide for themselves what exercises they are willing to perform.
When I first started training, I would switch back and forth between doing barbell bench and dumbbell bench. This movement was always one that I struggled with and was not very strong in. Once I started gaining more experience and knowledge I put more effort into learning the correct way to barbell bench press. Over the course of 2 separate 6 month periods I fully committed to flat barbell bench, then for a few consecutive training blocks also committed to working on my incline barbell bench. During each period my bench numbers never hit any impressive weights, but did increase each time. The problem with each time I focused on the lift, I could never feel my chest fully activate during it and I felt like I was just spinning wheels. I tried all kinds of little tricks or variations to make it right, but I just couldn’t find a groove.
I didn’t start deadlifting until a few years into my training. When I did decide to implement it in my training, I learned pulling conventional. Over the course of a few years I was able to get my deadlift to an okay level, again not too impressive of a weight, but I was proud of myself for the improvements I made in it. The problem with my conventional deadlift though was it never “felt right”. I would do all kinds of research and ask coaches and trainers at my gym to check out my form. All of the people I asked said I was pulling with overall good form and would maybe have me tweak only a small thing here or there.
So now I have these two exercises that I’m struggling with and even though I want to get better at them, I just can’t seem to do it on my own. This leaves me with two options, I can either just give up on the exercise and choose a similar one or I can hire a professional coach to work with me on the movements. But as I assessed my goals I didn’t see why I should move forward with either exercise. I care about my physical performance and strength, but I’m a bodybuilder first. I really enjoy squatting and deadlifting but also don’t foresee me competing in a powerlifting competition anytime soon. So rather than spend money on a coach and all this time trying to correct movements I don’t really “need” to do, I can instead just do variations of the same movements that get me the results I want. For bench this means using dumbbells and for deadlifts this means pulling sumo. I made the decision on my own to stop barbell benching and just use dumbbells, but for deadlifts I switched after an injury caused me to take some time off from deadlifting.
When it comes to dumbbell pressing, I still am working on feeling my chest fully activate from it, but the progress I have made is much greater than any progress I’ve made with a normal barbell. It not only has allowed me to make better progress, but I’m also able to get into a grove while doing it and actually feel the exercise. I feel like if I were to have just continued to work on my barbell bench, yes I would have gotten better at it, but it would have affected my bodybuilding goals. Because the choice to not barbell bench did not hinder my goals I believe it has been the right choice. Now if I wanted to do a powerlifting competition anytime soon, this would not have been the case.
For the deadlift, it took me getting injured to make the choice to switch. During my time off I decided that I would give pulling sumo a try and that worst case scenario, I would just switch back to conventional. I’m so glad I had tried it because right from the start, sumo felt so much better than conventional for me. I’ve been telling everyone it what I think deadlifting “should” feel like when I imagine it in my head. It took me a little longer to progress with it because I was also recovering from an injury, but now that I have been at it for a while, my deadlift is the strongest it has ever been and felt the best it ever has. If I was closed minded on making a change and tried to hold onto conventional for whatever reason, I may have never tried sumo and found out how much enjoy it.
These aren’t the only 2 exercises that I have found problems with either. Lat pull downs with a narrow grip V bar really seem to bother my shoulder. It almost feels as if it’s grinding when I do the movement. So rather than risk injuring my shoulder, I just do all my vertical pulling movements with a neutral or wide grip. Then tricep overhead press with a dumbbell hurts both my elbow and shoulder. So rather than force myself to do this movement I do overhead tricep press with either a cable and rope attachment or some variant of skullcrushers with a barbell. Another one that doesn’t create pain during the movement, but is uncomfortable for me is t-bar row machine with my chest supported. Maybe I’m just being a baby or am at a weird height, but it feels like it’s hard to breathe with the pad pressing into my chest. So instead I will do them off of the supported machine or perform a pendlay row or bent over row to hit a similar movement.
Other than the reasons I chose to make a change, there are plenty of people that are also fighting pain when they do some movements or they just simply may not like doing the movement. That is why I believe people shouldn’t believe they absolutely have to do certain exercises. Certain goals obviously you require to perform particular movements, but in many cases there is some alternative. Just like with a diet, there may be some things that are considered “optimal”, but if it isn’t something that will be adhered to, it quickly becomes not the best choice. That is why every lifter who runs into problems with some of their lifts needs to clearly identify their goals. Once their goals are identified, a plan can be made on how to reach them and that plan will determine how to go about their exercise selection. Maybe to achieve their goals the lifter needs to get a coach, or they can do a very similar variant, or they may even be able to fully omit the exercise. Only you can make the choice on whether or not an exercise is worth doing or not.