Main Lifts – Builders
These are the exercises that build the squat, bench, or deadlift. Builders can vary between lifters, but if you lift long enough you’ll figure out what yours are. Ever notice something like, “Whenever my incline dumbbell press goes up, my bench press goes up?” That’s one of your builders. Close-grip floor presses and 2-board presses were my builders. When these were going up, I knew my bench was going up accordingly.
A “gotta train your weaknesses guy” will have builders on max effort days (for example, close-grip incline bench) or speed day (box squats).
However, even a “just train the lifts” that only use the repetition method (basic sets and reps) will notice stuff like “whenever my close-stance front squat goes up, my back squat goes up.” _
Therefore, keep in mind that builders have:
• Direct carryover to the main lift.
• Flexibility to be Max Effort, Dynamic Effort, or Repetition Method.
• Identical movement patterns as the technical movement though may have higher dynamic correspondence to actual lift.
Main lifts should rotate (somewhat) every couple weeks. Switching from wide-stance squats to close-stance squats, or from box squats to no box squats are examples. That said, even a subtle change -- like from a finger inside the ring on the bench press to a finger outside the ring -- can pay dividends.
It makes very little difference to the mechanics of the movement, but it makes a huge difference in terms of joint wear and tear. This is important, as the builder lifts are the ones that inflict the most wear and tear. If you’re using the competitive lifts as main lifts they won’t change every few weeks (except for the intensity, sets, and reps; those usually do change weekly), however, it’s worth looking into the value specialty bars can have. Two advantages are the change in total workload and movement mechanics.
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