McCall McPhersonFounder, Modern Thyroid Clinic.

Transform Your Muscle Building: Ditch the Traditional Moves

10 Jan 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

A single-speaker YouTube talk by a physical therapist/trainer arguing that traditional canonical exercises (planks, squats, overhead presses) are not necessary to build muscle. The speaker emphasizes applying hypertrophy principles—targeting a muscle group effectively and taking exercises near failure—and advocates for programs that feel good, avoid joint pain or negative side effects, and improve resilience.

Chapters

Yeah, it really is. And I saw firsthand so many patients, clients that I worked with as a physical therapist struggle with some common movement patterns that we see everywhere. Planks, squats, overhead presses, things like that. And when I really looked at the mechanics of these movements, I realized these aren't necessary to build muscle. There are so many other movements. And if you're just applying the principles of hypertrophy, which we can talk about, which you're getting, you're picking one muscle group, you're targeting it effectively, and then you're taking that muscle or that exercise close to failure. You can build muscle and strength with a wide variety of exercises. So I think my philosophy now is let's not wedge our bodies into any exercise. Any program that doesn't feel good exercise should leave you feeling stronger, better, more resilient. It should not leave you feeling weaker, more tired, hungrier. Joint pain. None of that should be a side effect, but all of that is normalized.