Four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler knew how to find the right tool for the job. The now-retired Cutler remains physically active well into his 50s, and relies on many of the same winning bodybuilding exercises he used to build a collection of Sandow trophies back in the day.
Bodybuilders regard strength training exercises like tools in a toolbox. Each movement has a use case, and knowing which exercise works best for which muscle separates average bodybuilders from exceptional ones.
Here are Cutler’s top bodybuilding exercises for each muscle, from top to bottom:
Calves: Standing Calf Raise
Quads: Back Squat
Hamstrings: Stiff-Leg Deadlift
Back: Pull-Up
Shoulders: Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Chest: Dumbbell Bench Press
Biceps: Barbell Curl
Triceps: Dips
Forearms: Wrist Curl
Abs: Hanging Leg Raise
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Bodybuilding Exercises: How Do You Define “Best”?
In the social media era of bodybuilding, “optimal” is in vogue. But Cutler stays big on the basics, which begs the question: How do you define the best bodybuilding exercise?
Cutler and many of his contemporaries from earlier eras tend to look at bodybuilding exercise selection through a practical lens.
Large, heavy-duty compound exercises like back squats and bench presses provide a lot of bang for your buck and enable you to rely on progressive overload to drive progress. Studies tell us that applying as much mechanical tension as possible is the pathway to muscle hypertrophy. (1)
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But multiple moving parts disperse the resistance of a barbell (or dumbbell) and require you to stabilize the weight. For a bodybuilding exercise to have merit, it has to hit the target muscle effectively.
If your lower back strength hampers your posture on barbell rows, for example, you’re probably not getting a very good back workout.
Tastes have changed in bodybuilding culture with the rise of “evidence-based” lifting and, in some cases, have become extreme. Long-length partial reps are all the rage right now for their muscle-building potency. (2)
Twenty years ago, if you weren’t standing up all the way when you did squats, a bodybuilder might’ve dragged you for sandbagging your session.
Top Bodybuilding Exercises: The Bottom Line
Bodybuilding exercises are tools in service of a goal. Cutler’s preferences are, in some ways, a byproduct of his time in the sport.
You’ll often find contemporary muscle-building experts like Dr. Mike Israetel or Joe “Hypertrophy Coach” Bennett going to bat for more involved moves, but they haven’t thrown the basics in the trash, either.
Credit: Yuri A / Shutterstock
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Your solution? Do both. Incorporate bread-and-butter movements from Cutler’s list into your bodybuilding workouts, ideally at the start of the session (exercise order matters), and finish up with your favorite isolation exercises. Bodybuilders have mostly adhered to this structure for generations; it worked then, and it’ll work now.
Cutler’s favorite bodybuilding exercises are your meat and potatoes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy dessert once you’ve cleaned your plate.
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References
Schoenfeld B. J. (2010). The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(10), 2857–2872.
Pedrosa, G. F., Lima, F. V., Schoenfeld, B. J., Lacerda, L. T., Simões, M. G., Pereira, M. R., Diniz, R. C. R., & Chagas, M. H. (2022). Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths. European journal of sport science, 22(8), 1250–1260.
Featured Image: @jaycutler / Instagram
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