Stop Searching For Magic Exercises

They Exist, But You’ve Already Found Them

The teardrop of the quad. The long head of the biceps. The upper chest. The “upper lat”. The medial head of the triceps. The rhomboids.

All very important muscles. All of them can be preferentially targeted with certain movements.

But should you?

The biceps has two heads.

Both act on the elbow to flex it, and also assist in raising the arm overhead by acting on the shoulder. You can get slightly more activation of one or the other by manipulating your arm position or even the load, such as holding a dumbbell off-center.

But should you try to emphasize one head of the biceps or the other?

No. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

If you want bigger biceps, just work the entire damn thing.

Same thing with quads.

You can attempt to work the “teardrop” or vastus medialis a bit more by turning the toes a certain way when doing squats or leg extensions. But the amount of increased growth that you’re going to get compared to just doing normal exercises in a normal way is…generally pretty meaningless.