Accessory Exercises aid in strengthening smaller muscle groups, they create more stabilization around our joints, and in general help to improve our ability to lift heavier loads in the more traditional lifts like the Squat, Press, and Deadlift.
These exercises make up the majority of our training, unless you're following a program that uses the classic lifts as the main source of strength & hypertrophy training that is. But anyways, what I've noticed in my 10 years of coaching and training, and more so now that I've stepped back into a commercial gym setting, is that most people aren't using their accessory work to benefit their bigger lifts or to help them build actual muscle.
Now let me share this with you. Just the other day I stumbled across an Instagram post of a professional CrossFit Athlete preaching the importance of accessory training. He has a Back Squat of upwards to 500 lbs, yet he was doing Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats for sets of 8-10 reps with only 50 lb dumbbells. Do you think this makes sense? Do you think that his accessory work was actually working to make his Back Squat better? Will using 50 lb dumbbells in that rep range actually help him build more muscle mass? I don't think so.
So if movements like Split Squats, Biceps Curls, Single Arm Overhead Presses, and so on are put to use to help us build more muscle and increase our overall strength, why aren't we treating them with the same intensity as the traditional Back Squat, Press, and Deadlift?
How to Use Your Accessory Exercises Effectively
If we want to use our accessory work to help build muscle and increase our overall strength we need to consider two key factors:
- Weight Being Used
- Reps Being Performed
- 5-8 Repetitions/Set is ideal for building muscle if and only if the weight being used makes the last 1-2 reps really challenging (you must be close to failure). This rep range provides a ton of stimulus and almost always force physical adaptation.
- 15+ Repetitions/Set is less than ideal for building muscle mass but that doesn't mean it won't work. The same concept rings true here, the final few repetitions of a larger set like this still need to be really challenging to force physical adaptation.
Now I want you to think about the accessory work that you are doing. Are your sets bringing you close to failure? Are you using weights that challenge you or are you finishing your work set and feeling like you could bust out another 6 repetitions?
If you can't confidently answer "yes" to either of those questions there's a good chance that your accessory training isn't working for you.
The main goal with Accessory Exercises is to build muscle and help improve overall strength. Without applying the right stimulus to these exercises we miss the target. I want to challenge you to start making your accessory work harder, start pushing the intensity of these lifts. Once you do that you're going to see your numbers soar. You're going to see those "new" muscle pop up.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and following along. I hope something I mentioned above sticks with you and helps to improve your training. Now I want to further solidify the importance of training your Accessory Exercises by sharing a success story of my own. This story revolves around the use of Single Leg Exercises to improve my Back Squat 1 Rep Max. Keep in mind here as you read this story that yes, Single Leg Exercises are compound lifts, they aren't single joint movements, but they are still considered Accessory in relation to the Back Squat.
Single Leg Strength for Bigger Bilateral Lifts
I was stuck. I couldn't keep adding small amounts of weight to the bar for my Back Squat, I couldn't get beyond 395 lb, and every time I tried 400 lb, I failed. And I failed countless times. So I thought to myself, what can I do to improve this lift without failing over and over again?
This is when Accessory Exercises became extremely important to my continued progress. I needed to fix structural imbalances, strengthen smaller muscles, and even build more muscle mass. Remember, more muscle mass = ability to tolerate heavier loads.
Now instead of Back Squatting 2-3 times per week, I was Back Squatting 1 time and doing Single Leg work 2-3 times per week. I included exercises like the Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat and Front Foot Elevated Reverse Lunge, used dumbbells and kettlebells and even started getting more comfortable with really heavy loads on a barbell.
Importance of Intensity
After doing this for about 2 weeks I realized something very quickly, the work I was previously doing on these Single Leg exercises was not helping me improve my Back Squat. I wasn't pushing the intensity of these lifts, I was just content with using the 50 lb dumbbells for sets of 8 and calling it a day.
But in reality, I was capable of so much more. So I started using 70 lb dumbbells. I was hell bent on Split Squatting 225 lb for 8 reps. Everything started to fall into place.
The key here was implanting intense single leg work to force new physical adaptations. If you want to force physical adaptation then you need to apply proper stimulus to the muscle to make it get stronger. And this was exactly what I was lacking!
Reap the Rewards
After a few months of sticking to this new game plan I had new found strength. I was using 100 lb dumbbells for RFE Split Squats, my 8 Rep Max with Barbell RFE Split Squats had soared from 135 lb to 245 lb. I could Lunge with over 250 lbs.
And the best thing of all, the weights that were once "really heavy" for my Back Squat, started to feel light. 395 lb became my new 3 Rep Max. Then, all of a sudden it was time to test my 1 Rep Max again on BuildRx. Cue the incoming nervousness. 395 lb went down and up with ease. 400 lb went the same. I looked at my girlfriend and said I'm going to try 405 and she says "put 415 on you have it". So I put 415 lb on the bar, and I squatted it. You can check the video out here.
Key Takeaway
Once again, if you've made it this far in this email, thanks for sticking around and reading about my story. I'm pretty proud of it, and sharing it makes me pretty happy. But the reality of this is, it's not an opportunity for me to brag about how much I can Squat. It's an opportunity for me to share the importance of taking your Accessory Work seriously.
I want you guys to think about how you approach your uni-lateral exercises, the work you do with dumbbells/kettlebells, the exercises that aren't the Squat, Press, and Deadlift. Are you challenging yourself? Are you making those last few reps really hard? Do you even know what it feels like to make these exercises really hard?
I think it will be well worth your time to start pushing the intensity of your accessory work. It's far more important than you may think and it can lead to some seriously big gains.
Need a plan on how to make these improvements in your training? I recommend checking out BuildRx, the strength & hypertrophy training program on the TrainRx Performance Programming Platform. Click here to get started with your first 30 days FREE.
Stay strong and keep getting stronger.
Rick Gorrell
Owner - TrainRx Performance Programming