understanding assistance exercises

[sdds]

Hi Mark,

First let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your books, starting strength and practical programming.

I am interested in both strength and aesthetic goals but after bashing around for a good 2 years have started working with the starting strength model.

My question is how assistance / ancillary exercises tie in for say a bodybuilder. I mean looking at the average trainee split it;s mainly just a bunch of assistance exercises rammed together with the exception of bench..

A bodybuilder needs the 'main lifts' I guess because this is what drives the progression. The assistance exercises complement by adding workload/strengthening - fixing a week point for a lifter / refining a bodypart for the bber. So for someone like me adding assistance work is pointless because everything is weak and I need general training.

Also from a general strength training perspective what makes a complet lift? eg. why is the barbell row an assistance exercise and the bench press a complete exercise?

thanks for all the great info it's very much appreciated, learning so much here lol.

all the best

simon

[Mark Rippetoe]

The word "bodybuilding" immediately makes me stop paying attention to most questions, but your question about rows vs. bench is interesting. The BB row is an assistance exercise because it doesn't train anything that can't be done with other exercises, while the bench press trains upper body strength in a way that no other exercise does, and makes a significant contribution to upper body strength.