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Has anyboby experimented with low volume and only 3 exercises(DEADP,DIPS,SQUATS) or something else? Did deads hit the biceps enough for growth? Who has done only deads for biceps and nothing else for a while.

Even if yo use a reverse grip the Deadlift might not work the biceps enough compared to Curl or Chins (pulldown). They are a lof of guys who can deadlift big weights 400-500 but their biceps aren′t necessarly big. I believe Mike realy did a super job with the Consolidation routine, the minimum number of exercices to hit all the major muscles of the body : Chins, Dips, Dead, Squat.

I personaly do only thoses four exercises since ~1.5 years (sometimes Curl because I like it too much) and I don′t think my physique is unbalanced.

I want to add that some people might believe that frontal raises or lateral raises or triceps extension make their muscles bigger. But what happend in my opinion is that isolation exercises allow to create more metabolic work* than compounds (because you can go to muscular failure, which is not the case with compounds) and thus more sarcoplasmic growth and thus people believe that they absolutely need thoses exercices.
* but NOT necessarly more MECANICAL work (Tension), in fact like Casey Butt said most isolation exercises don′t allow to put muscle under as high tension as compounds, because the exercises don′t provide resistance in the optimal range of the muscles (relative to the optimal muscles length).

One point to remember, Mike speaks of using full range and acheiving a high intensity contraction for optimum developement. But this fact is tempered by the limitations of ones recovery. One should choose the least amount of the best exercises for full developement. If this proves to be too much for that persons recovery, then a sacrifice in the form of specific exercise for some areas must be made. This though is not the end of developement or specific exercise for these areas, just a holding period of time which lasts until a general base of size and strength is acheived. At this point, things can be arranged to include direct exercise for the lagging muscle(s) since the focus now is on balance rather than optimum total body size gains.

Az

Great responses guys. I think Vincent and Az are right. Analyzer did an excellent job at summing up the purpose of the consolidation routine.

To answer your original question Steiner_ch, I haven′t personally done a routine without pulldowns, so I can′t speak from experience. I′m of the opinion though that deadlifts DO hit the biceps, but probably not enough for one to be "happy" with the results. I have thought about this for over 1 year now, and I think I′ve come up with the ultimate consolidation routine that WOULD allow pretty much equal growth throughout the entire body. I will probably try it someday, just not yet. It is:

1) 1 set of deadlifts

rest 7 days

1) 1 set of clean & press

rest 7 days then repeat.

I think with the combination of these 2 exercises EVERY muscle in the body will be THOROUGHLY hit. Biceps will for SURE grow majorly from the clean & press. I just replaced my squats with the clean & press (high reps though) and have liked it so far (too early to tell size differences yet though).

Darrell

Thanks Darrell 🙂 I finally think I have reached the end of the road and have intertwined logic with science in a way that they fit as neatly together as possible 🙂

That is a great super consolodated routine there! I′ve never done clean and presses before, do you get any lat stimulation from them?

Az