If you could only do 10 exercises to build your physique, which 10 would you choose? Seven-time Mr. Olympia Phil Heath was recently put on the spot with that question and he rattled off 10 impromptu answers, some of which surprised us. They illuminate how he thought about creating the Olympia-stage-ready look of his physique. These are Phil Heath’s 10 “desert island” exercises in the order in which he listed them.
INCLINE PRESS
This was the first exercise that occurred to Heath. “No question about it,” he said. And he explained why he was so high on inclines. “Always want that shelf up here,” he said while emphasizing his upper chest.
SIDE LATERALS
Six-time Classic Physique Mr. Olympia Chris Bumstead also included this exercise in his top 10 list when he answered this question. For Heath, it was the second lift he thought of. Wide shoulders make the bodybuilder and side laterals make wider shoulders. Phil Heath wasn’t blessed with long clavicles, so he relied on side laterals to expand his shoulder width. He frequently did seven sets of dumbbell side laterals with minimal rest as part of the FST-7 training method.
ONE-ARM PREACHER CURL
Some might mistakenly think of this as more of a luxury when it comes to building big biceps, maybe a finishing move to finish off an arm workout. Wrong. It’s a strict, unilateral curl with more tension on the stretch than the contraction, and it’s the curl that Heath found worked best for him. He especially liked using a preacher curl machine. Don’t overthink biceps training. Heath didn’t, and he had two of the biggest guns of all-time. Your upper arms move via a simple hinge joint. Unlike more complex body parts like upper back, you don’t benefit much from a lot of curl variety. To your biceps, different types of curls have only the smallest deviations. (Emphasizing the stretch, as with a preacher curl, has been found in recent studies to be slightly superior for muscle growth.) Find the curl that works best for you and do more of it.
HACK SQUAT
The seven-time Mr. O had his choice of all leg exercises, and this is the one he selected. “I did a lot of damage on that machine,” he said with a sly smile. In regards to size, shape, and separation, “the Gift” built two of the best wheels of all time, and this was his #1 wheel-inflating tool of choice.
REAR LATERAL
Heath didn’t specify dumbbells, cables, or a machine for rear laterals. However, he especially liked the Hammer Strength machine with his body horizontal, face down, and the pads on his elbows. It’s remarkable that he only listed five exercises and this one came up already, especially because rear delts will get some work with upper back (and he has two back exercises coming up). Perhaps if he had had time to plot out a full-body workout he wouldn’t have included this, but it’s notable that when put on the spot, posterior deltoids occurred to him quickly. Rear delts were crucial to the success of his phenomenal rear double biceps pose, a major part of his seven Mr. Olympia victories, so he always emphasized these small muscles in his shoulder workouts.
TRICEPS EXTENSION
Phil Heath also didn’t elaborate on this one. Is it with an EZ-curl bar, dumbbell, a rope attached to a low cable? It really doesn’t matter. All work the triceps in the same manner and all focus more on the meaty long head (inner triceps) and less on the showy but smaller lateral head (outer triceps). We know Heath loves pushdowns, too, which better target the lateral head. Do both. But if you could only choose one triceps exercise, you’d probably gain slightly more overall arm size from extensions. Phil Heath knows arms.
BARBELL ROW
He emphasized twice that he likes to do these underhand, which brings the bar in a little lower and better targets the lower lats. When limited to 10 exercises, going underhand would have the added benefit of working the biceps more than overhand rows, serving as kind of a second biceps exercise, especially if you do the preacher curls before the rows, pre-exhausting your bis.
INCLINE DUMBBELL FLY
We were a little surprised by this one, since he had first included incline presses. But Heath said, “Gotta throw in another chest exercise.” And he chose to double up on the upper pecs with a second incline exercise. The lesson here is you can never have too much upper pec muscle relative to your lower pecs. Emphasize incline chest exercises.
PULLUP
We were glad to see Heath doubled up on back exercises and focused on two different types: one row (more back thickness) and one pullup or pulldown (more back width). Heath stated that he’d do these with an overhand, wide grip. The seven-time Mr. Olympia was the rare modern elite bodybuilder who regularly included pullups in his back workouts. (Most of his contemporaries focused exclusively on pulldowns; Heath also did pulldowns.) In the tradition of back-masters like previous Olympia winners Franco Columbu and Arnold Schwarzenegger, this is a tried-and-true, bodyweight exercise for lat width.
STEPMILL
Surprise! With only one exercise left, Phil Heath thought about his final choice. He didn’t have a direct hamstring, calf, or ab exercise? So, he chose one that can work all of his leg (and glute) muscles and burn calories to carve away body fat and better expose his abs: the stepper. Who wants to do cardio on a desert island? The seven-time Mr. Olympia does. He knows how important all those steps were to etching in his Sandow-winning details. He climbed the perpetual stairs daily (and sometimes twice daily) during contest preps. This exercise is excellent for cardiovascular health and weight management, even if you never plan to pose in public.
