Exercises

Bench dips are a bodyweight pushing exercise: your hands are placed on a bench behind you, while your feet rest on the floor. You bend and extend your elbows, keeping your hips close to the bench; the primary target muscle is the triceps.

The chest-supported T-bar row is performed on a machine equipped with weight plates and a padded chest support. With your torso resting against the support, you pull the handles toward your ribcage and then lower the lever, all while remaining in position between repetitions.

Hyperextensions are performed face-down on an inclined bench: the ankles are secured, the pelvis rests on a support, and the torso is lowered toward the floor before returning to a straight-line position. This movement engages the erector spinae muscles—which run along both sides of the spine—as well as the gluteus maximus and the hamstrings (the muscles crossing the hip joint on the back of the thigh), which facilitate hip extension. The specific focus depends on the technique used. If you flex not only at the hips but also in the spine while lowering, and then gradually straighten the back, the erector spinae will lift the torso in coordination with the extension at the hip joints. If, however, you keep the back rigid and flex only at the hips, the torso is lifted by the hip extensors, while the back muscles remain under load. Despite the traditional name "hyperextension," both variations conclude in a straight-line position, without arching beyond that point.

The lat pulldown is an exercise performed while seated at a cable machine, where you pull a handle from a position above your head toward the upper part of your chest. It targets the latissimus dorsi and the teres major—muscles responsible for lowering the arm and bringing it closer to the body. The biceps and posterior deltoids assist at the elbow and shoulder joints, while the trapezius and rhomboids control the movement of the shoulder blades. Grip width is a matter of personal preference; choose a grip that you can hold securely and control, and focus your efforts on the weight used and the number of repetitions.

The seated cable row is a horizontal pulling movement. You sit facing a low pulley, brace your feet, extend your arms, and pull a handle toward the middle of your torso against the resistance of the cable. The muscles responsible for pulling the upper arm back at the shoulder joint—the latissimus dorsi and teres major (which also adduct the arm toward the side), as well as the posterior deltoids—are engaged. Working alongside them are the muscles that retract the scapulae (shoulder blades) toward the spine: the middle trapezius and the rhomboids. The elbow flexors bend the arm as the handle is pulled, while the muscles of the torso (extensors) keep the body upright against the pull of the cable. The choice of handle is a matter of preference rather than a strict rule: a narrow, neutral-grip handle keeps the elbows close to the ribcage, while a wide bar positions them further out to the sides. The studies referenced below compare the resulting muscle activity, but they do not rank exercises based on their potential for muscle growth. Since any single illustration can only depict one variation, view the image as one possible option rather than as a mandatory set of instructions.