Training based on anatomy or based how you feel

[Ho Ling Hin]

Just a quick question that I’ve been thinking a lot lately as I understand more about anatomy; should I be training based on anatomy of body or can I have some exercise that gives me a great pump if my goal is hypertrophy, for example dumbbell pullover for chest but dumbbell pullover isn’t a great exercise for chest since it doesn’t work along the muscle fibre on the chest but I still see a lot of people (IFBB pros included) still doing it.

[Simo Matikainen]

Definetely anatomy imo. But you should do what you enjoy too.

[Ihsaan Furlonge]

You should judge your exercise selection based upon the stimulus to fatigue ratio of that exercise for you personally. Good stimulise to fatigue ratio can be defined as an exercise that : 1) Gives you a good pump in the TARGET muscle 2) high degree of perceived TENSION in the target muscle 3) minimal joint distress 4) how easily you recover from it.

For example i have friends who love dumbell pullovers for their chest as a finisher, but for me my shoulder fuckin hurts and i get crappy pumps. I much rather do flys to train my chest in the lengthened position.

You can use anatomy to give you an educated guess as to what exercises would be more optimal for a given muscle. So let anatomy guide you but ultimately thru experience you’ll know what is best for you personally

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