---
title: 'The 6 Exercises That Grow Every Muscle (All You Need)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=r7J5k2p5obk'
video_id: 'r7J5k2p5obk'
date: 2026-07-22
duration_sec: 1007
channel: 'Jeremy Ethier'
---

# The 6 Exercises That Grow Every Muscle (All You Need)

> Source: [The 6 Exercises That Grow Every Muscle (All You Need)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=r7J5k2p5obk)

## Summary

This video features fitness expert Dr. Mike Israetel demonstrating six compound exercises that target all major muscle groups efficiently. The exercises are designed to maximize muscle growth by hitting multiple muscles simultaneously, making them ideal for full-body workouts.

### Key Points

- **Six Exercises for Full Body** [00:02] — Dr. Mike Israetel presents six exercises that can grow every muscle in the body, focusing on compound movements that target multiple muscle groups at once.
- **Close Grip Incline Bench Press** [00:18] — This exercise hits upper pecs, front delts, and triceps. Key cues: keep shoulders back, chest up, elbows tucked, and touch bar to clavicles.
- **Underhand Pull-Up** [02:45] — Targets lats, rear delts, and biceps. Emphasize full stretch at dead hang and control on the way down.
- **Cambered Bar Chest Press** [04:33] — Provides deep stretch for chest growth. Cue: lift chest to meet the bar, pause at bottom. Alternatives: dumbbells, barbell, machines.
- **Barbell Row + Stiff-Legged Deadlift Combo** [07:05] — Combines rowing and stiff-legged deadlift to hit hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and upper back. Cues: chest up, knees back, row to belly button.
- **High Bar Squat** [10:38] — Targets quads, adductors, glutes, and core. High bar position keeps torso upright, emphasizing quads. Cues: butt back, chest up, knees over toes.
- **Dumbbell Upright Row** [13:25] — Hits side delts, traps, and forearm flexors. Cue: drive elbows up as high as possible, control descent. Alternative: lateral raises if uncomfortable.
- **Programming Recommendation** [15:15] — Perform all six exercises twice per week: one heavy day (5-10 reps) and one lighter day (10-15 reps) for variety and reduced injury risk.

### Conclusion

With just these six compound exercises performed twice a week, you can build a well-rounded physique efficiently. The key is to focus on proper form and progressive overload.

## Transcript

just these six, you can grow every single muscle. The last exercise, it's one I've never seen in my 10year fitness career, yet can completely change the me? Because I got the answers from the brightest head in the world. Mr. Mike
brightest head in the world. Mr. Mike Israel. I get to be relevant today. Yay. There are eight muscle groups in the human body. Now, we have six exercises. I'm looking for exercises fundamentally that take care of multiple muscle groups
at the same time. So the close grip incline bench allows us to hit our upper pecs. Think girls like them or something. The front delts and then the triceps. Traditionally, if we would just do a normal incline bench, then it would
delts really well, and the triceps kind of like meh. But close grip incline same ratio. So we're getting some good pec work, front delt work, and tricep work. Typically, the way you would set this up is in a regular incline bench
notice something real quick. This is a very high incline. You don't have to go on a high incline. It can be high. It could be average like 45°. It could be just dealer's choice at that point. >> Yeah. And that's a good point, too.
Unless I was really, really careful with my elbow tuck, like this would be all >> Here's a big big detail. Close grip is super individual. If you're gigantic, close grips out here. If you're teenytiny, close grip is over here. The
only way to catalog if you're doing it right is can you get the bar to touch that's probably the best way to do this. You see, my shoulders are back, my chest is up, my elbows are tucked in. Gently touch every time. Press up and back. You
forward cuz that's going to cancel to lever over and feel weird. So, you start at your clavicles and end up over your eyes or just your upper part of your to auto stabilize. So, one thing I I do notice, your wrists are directly over
your elbows. I'm not sure if you care much about that with the close grip rather than imagine if you were like this. If you want to press as much as possible and be as strong as you can be and use your chest a ton, wrists over
elbows is a very good cue for close gripping. A lot of time your wrists are that's not a problem. That's actually how you generate a lever arm for the triceps and get them involved. >> Exactly. So, this incline, as I said,
>> I see. >> Wo, you lowered it that much. >> That was only one one. >> That's going to be a problem, bro. >> Wow. Dr. Mike is literally the best trainer partner. He just compliments
>> You could always do better, brother. You're always a failure in your father's >> Literally my childhood PTSD. >> And that's just one of six exercises that hit multiple muscles. Now, the next one might be something you're already
doing, but with a tiny adjustment, it can completely change your growth. Next is our next upper body move, which is the underhand pull-up. Any kind of six exercises and a whole lot more muscle groups. So, we need to get the
than normal, which is where the Underhand position, you want full stretch with a dead hang, bringing your over to hang and then come back down. It's going to hit almost the entire
muscles that pull vertically. It's going to hit the rear delts. It's going to hit the biceps. That's three muscle groups checked off. That's a big deal. And you guys will notice he's not rushing anything. He's got plenty of power on
under smooth control for that big deep stretch. And one thing uh that I with my back involvement is that dead hang position, right? Like letting your shoulders actually like shrug up towards
your lats, but reversing that uh on the way up, right? Like literally shrugging down like that. Whereas before I was just kind of, you know, stay within. >> You can do more pull-ups like that, but
about how big your back is. With arguably Bill, no one gives a [ __ ] about >> Yes. >> What do we got next? is why this video won't be super boring and have all the exercises everyone is
already doing, but also why this video might not be the most useful unless you hear us explain it, because you probably don't have access to a bar like that. don't mean like, oh, you probably train at a normal gym and not a specialty gym.
really clearly. I'm phenomenally wealthy and extra privileged. have it, I'm looking down on you because you're poor than me. And I honestly just >> he's not lying. I saw all the Lamborghinis in the front yard.
press. The reason I have the camber bar here is because it's been shown time and again now that the deep stretch and pushing a lot of tension through that deep stretch really just does grow more muscle. And then as the bar descends,
you want to lift your chest to meet the bar. Yes. >> Yeah. Right. That is a deep stretch. >> 1 second pause at the bottom and then >> Yeah. Now, one thing I'm noticing with this is that you really have to focus on
keeping that chest up and reaching your chest towards the bar. Otherwise, if you compromise usually just with your shoulders. Yes. that's no good for your chest. >> And I think the same applies even just
>> Cuz I think a lot of people, they don't even have the range of motion to get a So, I really like that Q of shoulders back, but also reaching your chest up >> Yes. Thank you so much. That reach Q is something we've been doing at RP for a
works with every chest exercise. It works with flies. When you do flies, It's going to [ __ ] work great. >> I'm a fan, man. Can I take this home? day, so I don't care. >> If somebody doesn't have access to the
dumbbells, for example? >> Yeah, you can get a factory job. You can go begging on the street. Dumbbells work incredibly well for this. When you do chest. You don't just touch the dumbbells to your nipples. You want to
deep stretch. Regular barbell works phenomenal. And machines work great. If you have a flat chest press machine, control deep stretch for a second, come all the way back up. This works totally fine. And so when I'm traveling and need
press, if I'm traveling and it's all whatever, I do whatever exercise I want. I go to, I'm going to be using it. If straight bar. If there's not, I'll use dumbbells. If there's not, I use a
machine. And if not, I just put some pads on the ground and do deficit really, really have to be in a bind workout equipment wise to not be able to do some kind of horizontal press. We've already hit multiple muscle groups in
just three exercises, but it only gets better from here. Especially the last one. I've never seen anything like it. >> Okay, exercise number four. So, we still Glutes. Another one is quads and adductors and stuff. And then the third
one is side delts because you notice we've done pushing front delts, pulling rear delts, but like what is your physique if you have small side delts? So, this next exercise, number four, addresses two of those problems right up
front. This is a combo movement that does rowing and it does the stiff-legged deadlift at the same time. It's kind of cheating, you guys. We are going to take traditional overhand grip on a barbell. We are combining the barbell bent over
row and the stiff-legged deadlift. We're going to keep a nice tight lordic lower back. I'm going to lower down like this all the way, my tummy out, knees back so
that we have hamstring tension. So, at the very bottom here, I'm totally loose in my upper back. I'm totally tight in my hamstrings, totally tight in my lower back. I basically bent over. And then here I'm getting a hamstring stimulus
and a glute stimulus and a lower back stimulus. And then as I come back up, I also row to my tummy. Come down. Stifflegged deadlift. Row. Stifflegged
Stifflegged deadlift. Row. Stifflegged deadlift. Row. Stifflegged deadlift. annoying. Really painful for the hams. And then row. And as you notice, as I advantage. So the weight that we use for stifflegged deadlifts can still be
something we can row for enough reps to really benefit. Because if I did the this for the row, Jesus, I'm never going to provide enough challenge for the >> Knees back and then >> and then row. Yes. But spend a long time
real deep. >> Oh, I >> Oh, I boom. Two cues for you. One is chest up and the other is knees back. And are you aiming for like the belly button area?
>> Whatever is natural, whatever fits. Keep your chest up at all times, including at the bottom. Yeah. And keep those knees back to get nasty hamstring tension. >> Oo, I feel that for sure. >> Yeah, it knocks out basically like I
don't know three muscle groups sort of at the same time, maybe four if you it does lower back, it does upper back rowing, it does glutes, it does hamstrings. The thing I like about uh your choice of hand placement too is
that you went overhand a little bit wider. So it'll hit, you know, a little bit more of the rear delts and the mid-upper back compared to the underhand >> which is going to buy us a little bit more of the lat. So it's like very
something that you would do if you were not just limited to six exercises? >> So there's two questions baked in there. One is if you had more exercises. The other is if you had more time. >> More exercises. I could do this, but I
[ __ ] would do it. >> And that's why I think a lot of people bash exercises that are less specific to a muscle, world and what's actually practical for the average person. It's like, I'm
getting four exercises in one here. Maybe it's not hitting each of those muscles at 100%. But maybe each of them are hit at 70%. That's an amazing use of >> Exactly. I couldn't agree more. >> Let's say don't have access to a barbell
dumbbells. Is this possible with dumbbells as well? actually demo it for you really quick. What we want to do is change the queuing >> and take the dumbbells and we're going to kind of tuck them into our hips at
the top. So, same as normal, bend all the way deep, knees back, chest up, tension on the hands, and when you come up, put the dumbbells in your pocket. Stretch the dumbbells out in front of you. Real hamstring pain. Bring the
advantage. Makes it easier for your back, tougher for your hamstrings. Your hamstrings are stronger than your back, so that's good. What's missing? Nobody >> Too much more chest. >> Yeah, come on. So, we need something
The stiff-legged deadlift is so good for the hamstrings, we just don't need any and adductors. We need to take care of the front side of the leg. And we're going to do the high bar squat. This is my favorite leg exercise of all time. It
hits quads, adductors, glutes, even lower back, even a little mid back for stability. It does target your abs at heavier loads substantially. This is an boxes for us and leave us just one exercise away from a real whole body
back. High bar squat sits right above the traps, just where the neck ends. The low bar squat sits just below the traps and intersects your rear delt. High bar there. The main reason there is again just to bias it a little bit more
>> Yes, high bar squats are going to let you stay more upright with your torso. They really hit the quads a lot more. If you want low bar, you can lift more. It's more uh intense for your back, more intense for your glutes, but kind of
deadlift row combo. So, this is going to be a really good thing for us. So, shoulder blades back, perfect high bar position. You're going to want your toes at roughly shoulder width, pointed out a little bit so that you can really sit
down in a natural way. The first thing you're going to do is push your butt there. You're going to keep your chest up the entire time, though. So, you to stay completely upright. So, butt back, but chest up. And then bend your
knees and let your knees do the rest. All the way over your toes with the knees. Full stop at the bottom and come back up. Beautiful. Big chest the whole time. Look forward and then knees go way over your toes.
>> All right, Dr. Mike. So, we are five exercises deep. We're on to the last little concerned because there's one muscle group that we have yet to hit and address it. >> The side delts.
>> The side delts >> have been rated by scientists as the single most sexually attractive muscle in the male physique. Side delts are these guys right here. And the bigger they get, the more manly you can look. I
>> actually did a study on like the shoulder to waist ratio, the ideal ratio. And they surveyed a bunch of females from different countries. The females from different countries. The number apparently is 1.6. And that just
gets girls like crazy. If you thought the side were important, they are ultra walking around with a tape measure. Oh, what's up? You seem cool. Oh, hold on. Yeah. And ooh, you know, this is like a lunch coffee date. Dinner date would be
like a little bit wider. We could do some laterals. Those are great. And they're great. However, we haven't had a chance to do biceps. We've got some how can we involve more of the forearm flexor muscles while also hitting side
which you've hit a little bit with stiff leg deadlifts, but not a ton? The answer is the dumbbell upright row. we've got something special because if we just do this, it's uh the side delts and it's also
going to be your traps, which is cool. But by doing the dumbbell upright row, bring it up nice and high, slowly control, what we're going to be able to do is do some forearm flexor work as well as your side delt work as well as
getting sort of three muscle groups here, which is awesome because we only which I'll coach you through in a second, is to imagine that the only purpose of the exercise is to get your elbows as sky high as humanly possible.
That's your cue number one. So, all the way up, big elbows, and then all the way a little bit at the top, connect with his shoulders, and then all the way back down. This right here, this little guy, this elbow, I want it right here. That's
it. And the same for that side. Boom. And notice you're coming up in front of your body. That's not wrong at all. That's totally cool. If you want more involvement of the forearm flexors, the biceps, etc., keep it closer to your
body, even closer. Still, try to get the dumbbells to almost drag up your chest. dumbbells to almost drag up your chest. Yes. And something you guys will get to see in the B-roll is the angle of pull in
this exact technique is like all side delts. It's one of the best side delt exercises ever. And as soon as you get up to the top, Jeremy, control the want to tear that down. You're going to want to control it and the control comes
from this side delt muscle. Flawless, man. This is excellent technique. Now, uncomfortable on the shoulder joint and traps. So, feel free to switch these out for normal lateral raises instead. So, we have the six exercises. Let's say
somebody can commit to two, maybe three full body workouts per week. How would into their routine? >> I would have one of two options. Day one is all of these six exercises, but in the 5 to 10 rep range, pretty heavy. Day
two, halfway through the week, the same exercises, but sets of 10 to 15. Lighter, higher reps, a little bit of variation, not as bad for like tendons and stuff like that. Injury probability goes down. The novelty psychologically
goes up cuz the same pounding ass weights all the time. That's no fun. Lower reps, higher reps is awesome. >> Do you think people can build a pretty good physique with just these? >> Two days a week of training an hour. In
each one of those hours, you do these exercises for a few sets. I think you can establish a wonderful physique. I've also made PDFs of the full body workouts that you can download completely free over at builtwithscience.com/only6.
for more personalized guidance, scan this QR code to try my Built with Science Plus app for two weeks free, where we help thousands of members >> All right, so we're about to head into Dr. Mike's Lamborghini. Go for a rip. Is
viewers to where they can catch up to you, learn some more stuff? >> We have a YouTube channel, RP Strength. You'll see my giant face on it. Click on the jokes on here are very restrained compared to what we say on the channel.
Lambo. >> I love it. Rich people time. This is >> I love it. Rich people time. This is much better than a Lamborghini.