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Comment by humanlion87 | Hacker News Reader

May I know what you are referring to as the "classic body building" exercises. To me the classic ones are squat, bench and deadlift. I am curious why you think it's a disaster.

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Those aren’t very classic for bodybuilding, rather they are the ones for powerlifting. Bodybuilding uses a very wide variety of movements incorporating dumbbells, barbells, and machines to train every single muscle periodically (even focusing on little tiny ones no one else would care about).

Here’s a good example of a bodybuilding training routine: https://thinksteroids.com/community/threads/first-bodybuildi...

That said, I’m also curious what GP was referring to, specifically. Was he saying like “don’t do dumbbell curls”?

IIRC they were the basis of the routines in Arnold's _Education of a Body Builder_... doesn't get any more classic than that.

I'm not sure linking to a post detailing the PEDs alongside their routine is typical of the average person who does bodybuilding style training.

PEDs seem to be the most classic bodybuilding routine.

Competitively, sure. Casually, no.

Doing the traditional powerlifting lifts like you mentioned is something can can be sustained long term, and has incredible health benefits. I am a competitive strength athlete, and there are a ton of people in the community that have been lifting competitively for as much as 40-50 years and are still in great shape. Proper form and technique are critical to preventing injury, I have only seen people get injured when they are doing things unsafely or incorrectly. I have never had a major injury or issue with heavy weight training, and have been doing it for 17 years now myself. It's been life changing for me- I have so much more energy, focus, mental strength, and calm.

Competitive bodybuilding however is a totally different thing (very different lifts- mostly light weight, very high rep), and I think the extreme diet and drugs alone takes a toll on your body regardless of the workouts.

I'd add overhead presses and weighted pullups and pushups to squats and deadlifts. Bench presses are for impressing other gym rats. Overhead presses are much more beneficial for your shoulders.

If you're seriously training the basic lifts, you also need to do lots of accessory lifts to balance things out, and ideally have a professional teach form. I would argue that both overhead presses, and bench presses are valuable, and complementary for generally becoming strong. The bench press is unique in that it engages more of the upper body muscle in a single, coordinated movement than almost any other lift... some refer to it as the upper body equivalent of a squat. Overhead pressing is also valuable, but isn't a replacement for it, it's just different.

Competitive bodybuilders almost universally use anabolic steroids to achieve extremely unnatural levels of muscle, which is hard on the heart.

> To me the classic ones are squat, bench and deadlift.

IMO, those are classic powerlifting exercises. From what I can tell, the pro body builders typically do a lot more machine work and other isolated movements because it has a better stimulus:fatigue ratio than large compound movements.

We're getting confused I think, these are typical powerlifting movements now. But classically, by which I mean in the past, those compound movements were big in bodybuilding circles as well.

Those are powerlifting exercises. In fact, that's the exact order of events in most powerlifting competitions.

I competed in powerlifting in my 20s; my life revolved around squat/bench/deadlift. I enjoyed it, but yeah, he's right: training like that is very specific, like anything else, I suppose. I could squat, bench and deadlift a ton, but literally anyone could beat me walking up the stairs, or even arm-wrestling. The first time I tried CrossFit, it nearly killed me. And yeah, powerlifting tore my body to shit. Back then, the only time I wasn't in pain, was when I was lifting.

> Those are powerlifting exercises.

They are also classic bodybuilding exercises.

I know 3 types of names that from the outside look the same but mean different things within the strength circles.

* Weightlifting (Clean & Jerk, Snatch)

* Powerlifting (Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Maybe Bentover Row)

* Bodybuilding (High volume isolation exercises)

By classic I meant the typical set of isolation excercises focused on heavy load of weights. I said a disaster because I felt that continuing on that path I would have injuried myself.

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