The 7 Core Weight Lifting Exercises and Their Substitutions

You should always include the 7 core weight lifting exercises within your workout program.

It doesn't matter what type of weight lifting program you are using or which style of weight training you are using.

You should always include some variation of the 7 core exercises.

This page will tell you which 7 weightlifting exercises you should be doing and the exercises you may substitute to switch things up.

Sometimes it really pays off to switch exercises if you've reached a strength plateau on that exercise and haven't made progress for some time.

Every Weight Lifting Program in the WLC Workouts Manual is Focused on These Exercises…

The weight lifting workout programs that you'll find throughout the WLC Workouts Manual will always include some form of each of the 7 core exercises we're going to talk about here today.

You will always include some form of these 7 exercises.

You'll work on getting stronger on these 7 exercises. These are THE most important exercises.

You can take any of the weight lifting exercise substitutions for each of the 7 core exercises listed in this section and change your workout programs as needed.

For example, you can substitute any of the exercises listed under Squats in any of our workout programs.

Box squats can take the place of squats, or zercher squats can take the place of squats.

The exercise substitutions listed will help you get stronger on the other exercises listed for each core exercise. For example, getting stronger on box squats will really help your low bar squat and vice versa.

Substitute any exercises within this section in any of the workout programs to work on weaknesses in your physique, work around injuries, or work around lack of equipment.

Here are the 7 core weight lifting exercises that will form the basis of every good weight lifting program and the exercises you can substitute for each:

1. SQUAT

Low Bar Squat
High Bar Squat
Zercher Squat
Hip Belt Squat
Barbell Hack Squat
Bulgarian Squat
Split Squat
Sumo Squat
Wide Stance Squat
Narrow Stance Squat
Front Squat
Forward Lunge
Reverse Lunge
Goblet Squat
Jefferson Squat
Pistol Squat
Box Squat
Manta Ray Squat
Step Up
Leg Press
Machine Hack Squat
Safety Bar Squat
Cossack Squats

2. BENCH PRESS

Decline Bench Press
Flat Bench Press
Incline Bench Press
Wide Grip Bench Press
Close Grip Bench Press
Reverse Grip Bench Press
Parallel Grip Bench Press
Push Ups

3. ROW

Power Cleans
Pendlay Rows
Bent Over Rows
One Arm Rows
Inverted Rows
Seated Rows
Lying Rows
Face Pulls

4. OVERHEAD PRESS

Standing Overhead Press
Seated Overhead Press
Parallel Grip Overhead Press
Push Press
One Arm Overhead Press
High Incline Bench Press

5. DEADLIFT

Barbell Deadlift
Trap Bar Deadlift
Rack Deadlift
One Arm Deadlift
Snatch
Stiff Legged Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Pull Thru
Good Morning
Back Extension
Sumo Deadlift

6. CHIN UP

Various Grip Style Chin Ups
Various Grip Width Chin Ups
Rack Chin Ups
Kipping Chin Ups
Pullovers
Side to Side Chin Ups
One Arm Chin Ups
Mixed Grip Chin Ups
Band Assisted Chin Ups
Jump-Up Chin Ups
Lat Pull Downs
One Arm Pull Downs

7. DIP

Parallel Grip Dip
Forward Leaning Dip
No Lean Dip
Bench / Chair Dip
Push Ups
Push Downs