If I Could Only Do ONE Exercise Per Muscle (Lifter vs Scientist)

0:03 What if you could do only one exercise per body part? Well, a bit of a silly hypothetical question because you can always do more. However, it is a question that I do get often and it's an interesting thought experiment to go through to see, hey, which exercises can you choose if you want to keep things as minimal as possible. Now, in this video, I'll be giving you my takes on which exercises I would pick for each body part if I could only do one exercise. However, and here's the plot twist, I'll be speaking from two perspectives, aka channeling my two selves, the two wolves inside me. One is not milo wolf, but the one wolf is essentially lifter packing and doesn't necessarily care

0:49 about maximizing muscle growth for each body part. And the other wolf is Coach Pack, aka the sciencebased, not science-based, the evidence-based coach you know and love, who will give you the best recommendation as far as maximizing muscle growth goes. Keep in mind, I'm not advising you to necessarily just do one exercise for each body part. But for some of you out there, this may be an appealing way to structure your training, especially if you really don't want to bother with details and stuff. However, if you don't want to do anything whatsoever, myadup.com, smartest workout app in the world, will cover you fully. Don't even watch the video. Just get the app. Thank you for watching. But

1:35 yeah, starting off with the chest and we'll start off with Coach Pack first. Coach Pack would recommend a dumbbell fly as a chest exercise if you could only do one exercise for your chest. Excellent exercise to actually isolate the chest to a great degree. Allows for an amazing stretch, plenty of tension at the stretch, and relatively equipment friendly. However, lifter pack would go for a chest press [Music] machine. A chest press machine is among my favorite exercises. And because I'm not huge on directly training my arms, although I do nowadays, it does also

2:21 involve my triceps. Um, depending on the machine, I might get a top stretch. On some others machines, I will not, but given that I take every set to failure, and I do my best to emphasize the stretch as much as possible, I think is a solid option. For me personally, I really like it. It doesn't require me to warm up. I'm not a big fan of dumbbells personally, but if I was coaching you, I would recommend that you do a dumbbell fly instead. Moving on to the lats. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but the lats. Yeah, classic picture of me flexing my lats on on screen now. Resty, put it up. The lats is where coach pack and lifter pack meet, look at each other, make out, and make passionate love because they both have the same exercise. The underhand close

3:08 grip lat pull down. An amazing exercise that can really blast your lats. Allows obviously for a ton of stretch. Pretty time efficient. Most lat pull downs if not all of them are stuck loaded. Some bicep involvement as well which is great but that's not the main purpose of this exercise. But by keeping your arms close to your body, potentially some more lat involvement than wide grip variations and the typical lat pull down that can sometimes become um slightly more upper back focused. So underhand close grip lat pull down. Both lifter pack and coach pack agree on this exercise. I love it as a lifter and I think it's a top exercise as a coach again for somebody who's looking to maximize

3:54 muscle growth with just one exercise per body part. Onto the biceps. Now, here's where the two wolves disagree massively. Coachback would recommend Beijing curls given the fact that you can get a really solid stretch, place a lot of tension at the stretch, which you can modify with a cable height depending on your personal preference and your anthropometric characteristics. Beijing curls are an S tier bicep exercise. However, lifter pack who doesn't really enjoy setting up for the Beijing girl, although there's not much setup involved and doesn't really enjoy training biceps directly and would rather blast a lot of back work and get his bicep work done that way. Lister pack would just go for

4:40 a traditional dumbbell [Music] curl. Honestly, I can't be asked to train my biceps. I just want to grab something and lift it up and down until I cannot lift it anymore and be done with it. The dumbbells allow me to do that. I just go to the rack, sometimes run the rack, do a bunch of drop sets, lift the heaviest dumbbell for as many reps as I can, move on to the next one, and there you have it. However, as I did mention in real life, I do a lot of back training. But yeah, Beijing curl, amazing exercise. That's what I would recommend if I was to coach you. But I personally like the dumbbell inferior B, not even B, Wier exercise. Moving on to the triceps. Arguably one

5:27 of my weakest body parts. Not because I don't try or train hard enough, but genetically my triceps are not that strong and I think they're not that big as well compared to things like my chest, let's say. However, if I was to coach you, Coach Pack would recommend the overhead cable tricep [Music] extension where you set the cable pretty low and you get a top stretch and you're able to keep your elbows nice and close to your body and bang out a bunch of reps. However, lifter pack is not really a big fan of that cable variation. Not because it's not good, but because it doesn't feel very comfortable with my left shoulder. I do however like the overhead tricep cable extension where I

6:15 set the cable high, which is a bit awkward and I wouldn't recommend it to most people because you essentially have to fight the weight cuz the weight is pulling you back. Um, it's not ideal. It's not an S tier exercise on paper. And if you can place the cable much lower, I would do that or even use dumbbells um or an easy bar. But I personally like the other variation. Moving on to the side delts. Although I am an overhead press enthusiast and have been for some time. I didn't train my side delts directly up until 3 years ago or so by this stage. I've been blasting them since while eating in a slight surplus and doing my best to grow them. Here's a picture of how they look when I was leaner where you can actually see them. Now I have

7:00 the tattoos. I'm fat. You ain't getting no side delt at the moment. However, this is another exercise where coach pack and lifter pack come together and make love again because um both of them like the same exercise, the behind the back cable lateral raise. Amazing exercise. Feels very smooth because of the way the resistance curve is with the cables. Um really easy to set up. obviously doesn't need a bunch of weight and it feels much smoother on my shoulder personally uh versus the dumbbells. Dumbbells perfectly fine alternative. However, if I was a coach, I would urge you to give it a try. You can get potentially a bit more range of motion and place more

7:46 tension at the stretch. Although the current evidence that we have, the one comparison of the cable lateral raise with the dumbbell lateral raise didn't show any difference, I still think it's a good educated bet and it's overall an exercise that personally from my experience feels better. But you do you move. Speaking of delts and more specifically front delts, if I could choose one exercise for my front delts, as many of you know, lifter pack would go for the barbell overhead press. [Music] and amazing exercise in my opinion in terms of feeling. It's a cool thing to press stuff over your head and specifically press free weights versus a machine. It feels great. Obviously, your

8:33 core is involved. It's not the most quote unquote stable exercise and it does require you to learn how to become good at it. It requires technical proficiency, especially when you're grinding out reps. However, as a coach, I would recommend that you try the machine shoulder press. [Music] In this gym, in the Wolfpack gym, we have an amazing shoulder press machine that not only allows you to adjust the seat for a slight incline if you wish to, but it has different grips and allows for an amazing stretch on your front delts. Really easy to set up. No actual learning needed, no technique

9:20 involved, nothing. Just sit and press the machine up. And additionally, you are able to very efficiently work up to a working weight versus the overhead press where yes, it's not the same as a bench press where you need to load more weight, but you still need some time to set up, warm up, and then progress to your working set. So, yeah, slight disagreement there, but hey, if I was coaching you, I wouldn't recommend you overhead press if your goal was to maximize frontal development. If you love the overhead press though, the barbell overhead press specifically, go ahead and do it. That's what I do. Moving on to legs, and more specifically quads. Now, what I've done here for both quads and hamstrings is I've separated them in two. Obviously, yes, it's cool. Now we're doing the slot experiment, one

10:05 exercise, whatever. But I want to make this helpful for you. So, I've broken them down to quad compound and quad isolation detail for hamstrings. So, for the quad compound exercise, if I was coaching you, I would recommend you do a deficit Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells and a very customizable exercise in terms of range of motion and overall setup. For some people, being closer to the bench will allow them to be a bit more upright, allow for more knee flexion. Others will feel a bit more comfortable leaning slightly more forward and Oh, okay. Yeah, I hear you. It's going to bias the quads a bit less. But what I mean here, it is a bang for your buck exercise. Me personally, as a lifter, I can't be asked, bro. Look, I've squatted

10:51 near 600 lb. I've I've paid my dues. Now, I just want my legs to be big and strong. I like the leg press. I don't care what leg press. I actually do the seated leg press. Yes, the Dtier shitty leg press. That's the one I'm doing at this moment. I do about eight sets a week on it. I get a solid stretch. I push sets to failure. I know it's not the best exercise on paper, but I prefer it. It's still a solid option, and we do have some data showing that, hey, even if you don't go super low, you may get the same quad growth as if you went even lower. Although although terms and conditions apply, the leg press is the exercise in my opinion for those of you out there who don't really care about maximizing leg growth, but still want to have solid legs. Doesn't require much

11:37 learning. Easy to do. Isolate your legs well. And bonus, you do get some glute growth out of them, too, especially if you place your feet even higher on the pad. But we're talking about quads here, so ideally keep them as low as possible. Onto the quad isolation exercise. And I see Milo getting ready for a fist fight here because we fight in between takes. Nothing to do with the quad isolation exercise. But joking aside, as Pack the coach, I would recommend people give Cissy squats and reverse Nordic curls a go. One of the two. If they find them comfortable, I think those are excellent choices as your quad isolation exercise. They allow for a ton of stretch. They're very, very time efficient and weight efficient. and they could be cool to

12:24 progress. Pretty fun exercises if you're that guy and I think it's worth giving them a go if you want to absolutely maximize your rectus feorous and overall quad development. However, let's say you try them and you hate them. They bother your knees, blah blah blah. My next choice would be a leg extension where you're essentially extending your hips a bit and getting an even deeper stretch. Leg extension machines um are not the best in general. We have a great one here that allows for a ton stretch even without extending your hips. But overall, if um reverse Nordic curls and Cissy squats are not it, I would go for a hip extended 40° leg extension variation. As a lifter, as pack the lifter, I just do regular leg extensions, take those to failure, and that's where lengthened partials come

13:09 into play. The leg extension is a shortened biased exercise. And if you just stop a set at the point where you cannot do full range of motion repetitions, you may be leaving a few gains on the table. Keep in mind, we have direct data looking at the impact of the stretch on leg extension specifically. So, aside from modifying just your torso angle, pushing sets past to the point where you can literally not move the pad anymore, I think makes sense. But yeah, packed lifter does leg extensions cuz he couldn't care less. Now, if I'm maximizing my rectus femorous growth or whatever. Onto hamstrings. Yeah, baby. Um, leg curls. Yep. The two wolves are back together. This time they're just making out. They're not really making love because there is a slight discrepancy in their choices. Pack the coach will tell you,

13:56 "Hey, seated leg girl. Absolutely goated. More of a stretch. Potentially more hypertrophy. Direct evidence showing us that that is the case when compared to the lying leg girl. However, pack the lifter likes the lying one. Yes, why does he like it? It just feels more comfortable. The seated one just feels a bit awkward, but I am an exception here. I've never heard anybody complain about the seated leg curls. And if anything, most people prefer those to the line one. However, as a lifter, again, I take sets to failure, go past full failure, do lengthen partials. So, I think I'm covered. But at the end of the day, I don't care if I'm leaving a few gains on the table. In classic ADHD fashion, I did the isolation hamstring exercise first and now time for the colon. The reason I'm not changing the order here is because I've already made

14:42 the joke that I want to remake. So, the wolves meet up yet again and make out once again because they are both deadlift enthusiasts. Coach Pack will tell you, hey, do a deficit barbell Romanian deadlift with a pause at the bottom to get those long muscle lengths going, baby. goated exercise pretty much blasts your entire posterior chain, um, your hamstrings, your glutes, and your erectors. You get a solid workout, but your hamstrings specifically. However, pack the lifter just likes deadlifting. I love deadlifts. Conventional deadlifts with a slightly rounded upper back like a real person, not just a man. We're not sexist here. Um, so yeah, the deadlift is an excellent exercise overall. And as

15:28 long as you add a tiny bit of a centering control, it's not that much of a suboptimal hypertrophy exercise. But if you're the guy or gal who's looking to get the mediest hamstrings, doing a barbell deficit RDL or a dumbbell version of it, I think makes sense. More stretch, more control, less quad involvement, and overall an amazing compound exercise. Onto glutes, where just one wolf shows up, the other one is not there. Um, that's because Lifter Pack doesn't do any isolation exercise for his glutes because he does deadlifts and leg press and he's fine. However, Coach Pack would not recommend that you do no glute exercise whatsoever. Although, with the options I've given you, your glutes are getting

16:13 absolutely blasted. If you wanted to do an isolation exercise for the glutes, I would recommend either a hip thrust or a glute kickback machine. If you have access to it, I would go for the hip thrust first. It's a really solid exercise, fun, allows people to really connect with their glutes based on my coaching experience, and I know that the kickback, the machine kickback specifically, is not the most common of um pieces of equipment. Hip thrust though. All you need is a barbell, a bench, and you can set it up. Amazing exercise. Will isolate your glutes and you can totally blast them. Moving on to abs. Although a bit of a fat, so I do train my abs directly. And coach Back and Lifter Pack both like the same exercise, the cable

17:01 crunch. An excellent exercise that allows you to pretty much destroy your abs. Lets you load them as much as you want. uh allows you to go and do low rep ranges like you would for any other muscle versus doing yolo cardio sets of 20 reps for your abs and you can pretty much bang them out without having to set up or learn anything much. Grab on a cable, do the cable crunch and you're good. Absolutely goated exercise and S tier as per Milo Wolf's latest ab rating video which is the law. So it's not his opinion, it is a scientific fact. So yourself. Moving on to erectors. Now the

17:46 erectors are one of those muscle groups that can get your back looking nice and thick. Lifter pack. In this case, I'll go first with the lifter. Doesn't do any direct training for easy erectors because he deadlifts and he was squatting back in the day. Plus he does a lot of rowing. However, in this case, Coach Pack will tell you, hey, if you are looking to absolutely blast your erectors, adding a somewhat of an isolation exercise is likely a good idea. I would go for a back extension machine if you have one available at your gym. Otherwise, the hyper extension with either a plate or um a barbell ideally to load them depending on your strength level is also a great exercise bonus. You get some hamstring and glute

18:33 involvement, but you can really target your erectors and blast them without having to solely rely on the RDL for it to do all the work for you. Lastly, and arguably leastly, calves. As you know, lifter pack ain't training his calves. Who trains calves? Boring. Coach Pack though would recommend any straight leg calfs. One where you're not bending the knee. If you want to do them standing from a deficit, that's great. I would recommend you do them single leg with some form of a deficit because you barely need any weight to load them and you can get a really nice stretch. Bang out lengthen partials specifically for that exercise because the one muscle

19:20 group that we know will benefit from lengthen partials is the calves. And yeah, that's pretty much it as far as the calves go. And there you have it. If I had to do one exercise, that's what I would do. That's what I would do as a lifter and as a coach. I hope this video will make your training and overall life better. But the one thing that will definitely make your life better is buying some rascal drip and looking like an absolute human being when you're in the gym. Code drpack for 10% off. And as I've already said, my.com for all your training needs. Want to train twice a week for 45 minutes each training session and get everything in? My will do it for you. Have only 30 minutes and not 45? As I just said a

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