Exercise Comparisons

Every (seemingly) subtle tweak made to the execution of an exercise has an outsized effect on the outcome.

That is to say, small variations in how you perform a movement can be the difference between Exercise A and Exercise B.

So understanding which execution tweaks lead to divergence in intent — as well as when/how to lean into this effect — is of the highest importance when selecting exercises.

There are also other differences between variations that can lead to confusion when comparing across like-movements: modality, body position, joint torque, strength curves, and open-vs-closed-chain (just to name a few).

It’s specifically these exercises — ones that are similar enough to be confusing — that are worth a closer examination…