Three questions that can help you understand any exercise

I have a question for you.

Have you ever been confused about an exercise?

Yeah, me too.

I remember years ago trying to figure out how the hell to target different parts of my chest. I could always connect well with the front of my shoulder (the anterior deltoid), but never with my pecs, especially the upper portion.

Everything changed for me, though, when I realized that my pecs were never “the problem,” but rather the physics of my technique were.

Many people are stuck in confusion for years because they think there’s something inherently wrong with a muscle that they can’t feel or grow. In reality, people just need to develop the ability to find exercise setups that uniquely fit their anatomy and strength capabilities.

So maybe your confusion leads you to feel an exercise in a place you’re not supposed to. Or you get joint pain doing it. Or you have no idea what muscles are really working.

When my clients experience any of these problems, I give them three simple questions to ask in any scenario. And the answers to these questions are the beginning of actually understanding your own issues.

Question #1 — What is the main force of the exercise?

If you’re doing a bench press, it’s the barbell in your hands. If you’re doing a leg press, it’s the platform pushing your feet.

Question #2 — What is the force trying to get my body to do?

When you bench press, the barbell pushes your hands, forearms, upper arms, clavicles, and scapulae down toward the floor. This makes it so that your elbows bend and your shoulders are pulled backward.

When you leg press, the footplate pushes your feet, shins, and femurs backward into your chest. This makes it so that your ankle, knee, and hip are all bent.

The force tells you what your body has to resist.

Question #3 — What muscles perform the opposite motions of the external force?

When you bench press, your chest, front delts, and triceps counter the elbow bend and your shoulders being pulled backward.

When you leg press, your quads, glutes, adductors, and calves counter your ankles, knees, and hips being bent.

Now what?

After you’ve identified the answers to these questions, you can actually start to think through what might be going wrong with the exercise you’re doing.

For example, if you’re trying to target your traps, but you’re doing a narrow row, you won’t be involving much shoulder retraction in the motion. So automatically, the answer to emphasize a wider arm path—which requires more shoulder blade movement backward—reveals itself.

Or perhaps you’re getting joint pain in a leg extension, but you already know you’re hitting your quads. In that case, start to get curious about how these questions inform your pain.

What’s the main force? It’s the leg extension pad, and maybe right now, you can alter the position of the pad to see what changes.

Or maybe, once you’ve noticed that the force of a leg extension is also trying to pull you up and out of the seat, securing yourself more firmly downward actually makes the movement feel much better.

Beginning the process of experimentation through the three fundamental questions above is the beginning of creating your own ability to navigate any issue you have.

Big announcement — my first-ever four-week live immersion course

Most coaches and lifters have learned a lot about exercises, but still don’t feel fully confident when something happens differently than expected.

My upcoming live course, Foundations of Biomechanics, is designed to change that.

You’ll learn how to see what’s actually happening, understand the forces involved, and confidently find the next step without relying on memorized rules or someone else’s “correct” answer.

Check out the course details and sign up to join the waitlist here. Applications to enroll will open soon, and if you’re on the waitlist, you’ll know when.

View the course and join the waitlist