You should be doing the same exercises a bodybuider does...

Did you know the exercises a bodybuilder uses to gain muscle are the same exercises you should be doing to lose weight?

They’re also the same exercises someone might use to condition for a marathon, prevent injuries, improve overall health, or correct posture.

Strange, right? How can all these people perform the same exercises but achieve such drastically different results?

It’s because, as humans, we share the same basic anatomy. For the most part.

To put it simply, muscles are like ropes that pull on bones to create movement. Whether your goal is aesthetics, running, posture, health, or injury prevention, you’re essentially training those muscles to do the same thing: pull more effectively.

How many ways are there to pull a rope?

Sure, you can leg press, hack squat, or goblet squat, but fundamentally, these are just different variations of the same movement—using your leg muscles.

Muscles have one primary function: contraction. That’s it.

Let’s compare bodybuilding and marathon running, for example.

Both athletes want stronger muscles. The bodybuilder wants bigger, more defined muscles for aesthetics and heavier lifts, while the runner wants their muscles to handle greater impact and endure longer distances.

Yet, in the gym, both could be doing the same exercises, and it would still be effective.

So what creates the difference?

Food, how the exercises are performed, and the rest of their training.

A bodybuilder typically eats in a calorie surplus to fuel muscle growth. Meanwhile, a marathon runner, despite eating a lot due to the sheer volume of their training, burns off most of those calories during their runs. Without the extra energy surplus, the runner’s body won’t prioritize muscle growth in the same way.

Additionally, bodybuilders prioritize recovery to maximize growth, often taking longer rest periods between workouts. Runners, on the other hand, spend much of their time racking up miles, leaving less recovery time for muscle repair.

Makes sense, right?

Of course, other factors matter too.

A bodybuilder might train closer to failure than someone recovering from an injury, or spend more days in the gym compared to someone training for general health or posture correction.

But the key takeaway is this: there’s no massive difference in exercise selection—the difference lies in how you approach the exercises.

• Want a bigger butt? Stop doing weird banded lunges and focus on heavy hip thrusts.

• Want stronger quads and hamstrings for running? Hit the leg extension and leg curl and push those muscles to fatigue.

• Want to alleviate back pain? Learn to squat with proper form and use Romanian deadlifts to stretch and strengthen your posterior chain.

To put it simply: exercises are designed to train your body through a range of motion—not for one specific purpose like building bigger pecs or glutes. How you apply those exercises defines the results you achieve.