The Benefit of Assistance Exercises

 

When people go to the gym to life weights they are trying to accomplish the development of one of three different areas: power, strength, or mass. No matter how advanced they become, no matter how hard or for how long they have trained or what results they have achieved they will always be focusing on these three areas. For the novice trainee, it is sufficient to train with the basic compound exercises such as the squat, bench, and deadlift. As the trainee advances however his ability to generate positive results will slow, and at that point it will become beneficial to develop assistance exercises to help ensure growth. In today's article we will look at the kind of exercises that will help you continue growing and explain their importance.

It is important to note that there are literally thousands of different exercises that can be done in the gym, and a creative enthusiast could probably go a whole year without ever repeating the same exact variation of any one classic move. However, not all exercises were made equally, and ultimately if your goal is to develop either strength, power, or mass, then you will want to adhere to the most beneficial exercises that will give you the greatest return for your buck.

When selecting which assistance exercises to do, you need to understand their relation to not only your main compound exercises that you are seeking to improve but also to your body as a whole. A great number of ancillary exercises are of limited benefit. Compare the cable tricep extension to the supine tricep extension. One requires that you lock your whole body so that with perfect form you only exercise your triceps, while the other requires that you use a lot of your body to provide stabilization as you lift the weight. Invariably the exercise that requires that you use more of your body is superior, since it will generate greater neural muscular activity and provide the widest array of benefit.

When trying to determine which exercise to do, seek to understand what is holding you back in the exercise that you are experiencing a plateau. If for example your bench has stopped improving, you could benefit from doing chin ups, which are a compound exercise and will greatly increase the strength of your triceps, forearms and upper back. Selecting assistance exercises that compliment your basic compound moves will always generate the maximum results.

 

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