Why We Use Accessory Exercises: The Work After the Main Lift Matters
The squat, deadlift, or bench press might get the attention—but it isn’t the entire workout.
BMF Training
When people think about strength training, they usually think about the big lifts.
Squats.
Deadlifts.
Bench presses.
Pull-ups.
Heavy rows.
Those movements are important. They allow us to train a lot of muscle at once, practice producing force, and progressively build strength over time.
But at BMF, the main lift is rarely the entire training session.
After the big movement comes what we often call accessory work.
You might see:
Split squats
Romanian deadlifts
Rows
Dumbbell presses
Hamstring curls
Triceps work
Calf raises
Carries
Core exercises
Single-leg work
Band exercises
Sometimes members look at the main lift as the “important” part and everything afterward as extra.
It isn’t.
Accessory exercises are part of the plan.
They help us build muscle, accumulate useful training volume, train movements or muscles that the main lift may not fully address, and personalize the session to the person doing it.
The main lift may provide the foundation.
Accessory work helps us build around it.
What Is an Accessory Exercise?
The term can make these exercises sound optional.
They aren’t necessarily.
An accessory exercise is usually a movement selected to support the larger goal of the training session or program.
For example, if our primary movement is a squat, accessory work might include:
Romanian deadlifts to add posterior-chain work.
Split squats to train each leg independently.
Rows or presses because we use full-body programming.
Calf work to build lower-leg capacity.
Core training to improve the ability to create and maintain position.
The exact exercises depend on what we are trying to develop.
That is the important part:
Accessories should have a reason for being there.
They aren’t just exercises we add because there are 20 minutes left in class.
1. The Main Lift Cannot Do Everything
We love compound exercises.
A squat trains a lot.
So does a deadlift.
So does a bench press.
But no single exercise perfectly develops every muscle, movement pattern, joint position, or physical quality we care about.
Take a squat.
It provides a great stimulus for the legs and allows us to progressively develop strength.
But that doesn’t mean we no longer need:
Hamstring work
Single-leg training
Calf training
Upper-body pulling
Trunk training
Other movement patterns
The same is true for bench pressing.
A bench press can help build pressing strength and upper-body muscle.
But we may still benefit from rows, pull-ups, direct triceps work, shoulder work, or other pressing variations.
A good program is bigger than one exercise.
2. Accessory Work Helps Us Build Muscle
One major role of accessory training is simply helping us accumulate enough quality resistance-training volume to build and maintain muscle.
That matters whether your goal is:
Getting stronger
Improving athletic performance
Changing body composition
Staying capable as you age
Building resilience
Looking more muscular
A 2026 American College of Sports Medicine position stand synthesized 137 systematic reviews involving more than 30,000 participants and concluded that progressive resistance training improves strength, muscle size, power, balance, endurance, and physical function. For hypertrophy specifically, higher weekly training volume generally produced greater muscle growth, although more is not infinitely better.
Another recent meta-analysis also found a positive relationship between weekly set volume and both muscle growth and strength, while showing diminishing returns as volume continues to increase.
This is where accessory exercises become useful.
Imagine trying to create all of your weekly leg-training volume using only heavy squats.
Technically, you could do more and more squat sets.
But eventually the fatigue, technique demands, and overall stress may make that a poor way to add more training.
Instead, we can squat hard and then use exercises like:
Split squats.
RDLs.
Hip thrusts.
Hamstring curls.
Step-ups.
to continue training the muscles we want without needing every exercise to be maximally heavy.
The goal isn’t maximum fatigue. It’s enough productive work to create adaptation.
3. Accessories Let Us Train Muscles More Directly
Compound exercises train a lot of muscles simultaneously.
That is one reason they are so useful.
But sometimes we want to place more emphasis on a particular area.
Maybe we want additional:
Hamstring development.
So we add a leg curl or RDL.
Maybe we want more:
Upper-back strength and muscle.
We add rows or pull-downs.
Maybe we want more:
Triceps volume.
We add extensions or pushdowns.
Maybe someone needs additional:
Calf capacity.
We train the calves.
This does not mean isolation exercises are somehow more important than compound movements.
It means they are another tool.
Research generally supports using different resistance-training approaches rather than assuming one type of exercise is always superior. For example, evidence examining glute development shows that both single-joint and multi-joint exercises can contribute to hypertrophy.
Sometimes the best answer is not:
“Which exercise is better?”
It is:
“What combination makes sense for the goal?”
4. Accessory Work Gives Us More Opportunities for Single-Leg and Single-Arm Training
Most of life and sport does not happen with both feet perfectly symmetrical and both arms moving together.
We walk.
Run.
Step.
Reach.
Throw.
Carry things on one side.
Change direction.
Catch ourselves when we lose balance.
That is one reason we regularly include unilateral exercises such as:
Split squats
Step-ups
Single-leg RDLs
Lunges
Single-arm rows
Single-arm presses
Suitcase carries
This does not mean unilateral training is automatically superior to bilateral training.
It depends on what we are trying to improve.
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that unilateral training tended to produce greater improvements in unilateral strength, while bilateral training had an advantage for bilateral strength—a good example of the principle of specificity.
So again, we don't have to choose one forever.
Squat AND split squat.
Bench AND single-arm press.
Deadlift AND single-leg hinge.
Different exercises give us different opportunities to develop the body.
5. Accessories Give Us Another Way to Progress
Progressive overload does not mean every exercise needs to become a one-rep-max competition.
You can progress accessory work in several ways:
Add weight
Perform more reps
Improve range of motion
Improve technique
Add a set when appropriate
Improve control
Use a more challenging variation
Perform the same work with better quality
That matters because strength training should have somewhere to go.
Maybe your Bulgarian split squat starts with:
20-pound dumbbells × 8
Eventually it becomes:
25 × 8
Then:
30 × 8
Maybe you keep the load the same but progress from six good reps to ten.
That is still progression.
Research on progressive overload also reminds us that simply chasing more and more total workload does not guarantee proportional muscle growth. The training stimulus still needs to be appropriate and recoverable.
More work is not automatically better work.
6. Accessory Work Helps Us Personalize Group Training
This is a big one for BMF.
Two people can be doing the same general training session without needing every exercise to look identical.
Imagine the main movement is a squat.
One member may perform:
Safety Bar Squat
Another:
Goblet Box Squat
Another:
Front Squat
Another:
Supported squat variation
They may all be training the same general pattern at a level that makes sense for them.
Accessory work gives us even more opportunities to personalize.
Someone trying to build muscle may need more volume.
Someone returning from an injury may need a different movement.
Someone training for a sport may benefit from additional unilateral or explosive work.
Someone new to training may need more practice with basic movement patterns.
Someone with years of experience may need a more challenging variation.
Same training goal. Different person.
That is one of the reasons good group training should never mean forcing everyone into the exact same exercise.
7. Accessory Exercises Should NOT Be Random
This might be the most important point.
Accessory work can easily turn into:
“What haven't we done yet?”
or:
“What exercise will make everyone really sore?”
That isn't programming.
Just because an exercise is difficult does not mean it belongs in the workout.
When we select accessory exercises, we want to ask:
What is the goal of the training block?
What did the primary movement already train?
What still needs attention?
What can this person recover from?
Does this movement help move us toward the goal?
For example, if the main lift is already extremely demanding on the lower back, we probably don't need to follow it with three more exercises that heavily fatigue the same area simply because they're hard.
The accessory work should complement the main work—not compete with it.
8. How Hard Should Accessory Exercises Be?
Not every accessory movement needs the same intensity.
For many muscle-building accessory exercises, we want the final few repetitions to feel challenging while maintaining good technique.
That might mean finishing most sets knowing you could perform approximately 1–3 more good repetitions if you absolutely had to.
Some movements can be pushed closer to failure.
Others should stay farther away.
A lateral raise is very different from a heavy Romanian deadlift.
We don't need to treat them the same way.
The exercise, goal, experience level, and fatigue cost all matter.
This is something we covered in more depth in our article on how heavy you should lift.
The big idea is simple:
Challenge the muscle without sacrificing the purpose of the movement.
9. What Might a BMF Strength Session Look Like?
Here is a simple example.
Imagine the primary goal for the day is lower-body strength.
Power Primer
Box Jump — 3 × 3
Low-volume explosive work while we're fresh.
Main Lift
Safety Bar Squat — 4 × 5
This is where we place the biggest emphasis on force production, technique, and progressive strength.
Accessory 1
Romanian Deadlift — 3 × 8
Additional posterior-chain work.
Accessory 2
Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat — 3 × 8/side
Single-leg strength and additional lower-body volume.
Upper-Body Work
DB Bench Press — 3 × 10
1-Arm Row — 3 × 10/side
Because we often train with a full-body approach.
Trunk / Carry
Suitcase Carry — 3 rounds
Now look at the entire session.
The squat was important.
But if we removed everything after it, we would lose a significant amount of useful training.
The accessories weren't random.
Each one had a job.
10. The “Boring” Work Is Often Where a Lot of Progress Happens
There is something exciting about hitting a heavy squat or deadlift.
Accessory work doesn't always have the same excitement.
Nobody usually gathers around to watch someone hit a personal record on hamstring curls.
But that doesn't make those exercises unimportant.
Over months and years, consistently performing the basic work matters.
Rows.
Split squats.
RDLs.
Push-ups.
Pull-downs.
Carries.
Core work.
Hamstring curls.
Calf raises.
You don't need every workout to contain a brand-new exercise.
You need exercises that make sense, performed consistently enough that you can actually improve at them.
Simple does not mean ineffective.
Main Lifts Build the Foundation. Accessories Fill the Gaps.
If you only remember one thing from this article, remember this:
The main exercise is not the entire program.
The primary lift may be where we place the greatest emphasis that day.
Accessory work helps us:
Build muscle.
Add useful training volume.
Train additional movement patterns.
Strengthen areas that need more attention.
Include unilateral work.
Individualize the program.
Continue progressing without making every exercise maximally heavy.
Good accessory work should never feel like random exercises thrown onto the end of a workout.
It should help answer the question:
“What else does this person need to become stronger, healthier, and more capable?”
That's the purpose.
The Takeaway
Good strength training is more than finding one big exercise and doing it as hard as possible.
A complete program uses different exercises for different jobs.
The heavy work matters.
The explosive work matters.
The muscle-building work matters.
The unilateral work matters.
The smaller movements matter.
And over time, all of those pieces work together.
At BMF, we aren't trying to make every part of the workout look impressive.
We're trying to make every part of the workout useful.
Because the goal isn't simply to have a hard workout today.
The goal is to keep building a stronger, more capable body for the future.
Want to Train With a Plan?
At BMF Training, our strength-and-conditioning programs are built around purposeful progression—not random workouts.
We use the main lifts, accessory exercises, power training, conditioning, and individual coaching together to help you become stronger, move better, and stay athletic.
If you're not sure where to start, schedule a free 30 minute consultation.
We'll talk about your goals, training history, schedule, and what you want your training to help you accomplish.
BMF Training | Huntington Beach
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