Walk into almost any gym and you’ll see the same handful of exercises done over and over: hip thrusts, back squats, bench press, crunches. Some of them deserve the hype. Some of them are better replaced. At Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby, our coaches ranked the most popular gym exercises from S tier down to F tier, based on what actually builds strength safely and what tends to cause problems, especially for beginners. Here’s the full breakdown.
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S Tier: The Most Underrated Exercises at the Gym
The Nordic curl and the Bulgarian split squat top the list, and both get there for the same reason: they train movement patterns most people skip entirely. The Nordic curl trains your hamstrings by bending at the knee while keeping your hip straight, which is a completely different demand than a seated hamstring curl, where you’re bent at both the hip and the knee. Hamstrings trained this way are seriously undertrained across the board.
The Bulgarian split squat earns its spot for a different reason: it’s simple, it’s hard to mess up, and it trains your legs unilaterally, one leg at a time, exactly how your body actually moves when you’re walking or running. Most machine-based leg exercises train both legs at once, which isn’t how you move through the real world.
Vertical pulling movements, pull-ups and pull-downs, also land near the top of this list. You need some kind of vertical overhead pulling pattern in your training, and this is one of the best ways to target your lats while demanding real shoulder mobility. Keep this movement in your program as you age and you’ll hold onto upper body strength most people lose.
A Tier: Great Exercises With One Catch
Hip thrusts, deadlifts, and lunges all land in A tier: excellent exercises that fall just short of the top spot for one specific reason each. Hip thrusts train the glutes, a muscle group that’s commonly undertrained in both men and women, and the carryover to squats, deadlifts, and even standing up out of a chair at 70 years old is real. It’s not S tier only because there are other ways to train glutes just as effectively.
Deadlifts build strength across your hamstrings, upper back, lower back, and core all in one movement, whether you’re using a barbell, a kettlebell, or a hex bar. The reason it’s not S tier is simple: beginners mess up the technique more often than any other lift on this list, and that’s where injuries happen.
Lunges work the same unilateral pattern as Bulgarian split squats and double as solid cardio, since you’re covering real distance while doing them. They land in A tier instead of S tier because they demand more balance and stability than most people have starting out, which is exactly why a Bulgarian split squat is often the better starting point.
B Tier: Solid, But Not for Everyone
The barbell back squat is the one exercise on this list where Kraken’s ranking goes against what most of the fitness industry says. Most gyms treat the back squat as an automatic S tier movement. In reality, most people struggle with it: getting the bar positioned correctly on their back, hitting proper depth, even finding a comfortable hand position on the barbell.
If you’re a mobile person who moves well in this position, there’s nothing wrong with barbell back squats. You can train them for the rest of your life and get great results. But if you’re one of the many people who genuinely struggle with the position, it’s not a mandatory movement. There are other ways to build the same leg strength without fighting a position your body isn’t ready for yet.
This is exactly the kind of call a coach should be making with you, not a program template. Whether a back squat belongs in your training depends on how your specific body moves in that position, not on what’s popular on the gym floor.
C Tier: You Have Better Options
Leg extensions and bench press both land in C tier for a similar reason: better alternatives exist that do the job with less downside. The leg extension is an isolation movement, and while it’s not useless, relying on it as your main quad exercise means missing out on the carryover you’d get from compound movements. It’s also a common source of knee irritation for a lot of people, so the machine may simply not be built for your joints.
Bench press has a real limitation most people don’t think about: it’s a limited range of motion exercise. The bar can only travel down as far as your chest, even though your arms are capable of moving further. Dumbbells solve this problem directly. On top of that, a lot of people are already overtrained through their anterior delts and chest from daily posture and other pressing work, and piling more bench press on top of that can make posture worse, not better.
Neither exercise is banned. They’re just not the best tool available for what most people are trying to accomplish.
F Tier: Proceed With Caution
Crunches and barbell good mornings both land in F tier, and for different reasons. Crunches are one of the most common causes of gym injuries, especially for beginners who aren’t doing them with good technique. That doesn’t make the movement worthless. Training your core in a contracted position has real value. The problem is that crunches are wildly overdone and overplayed relative to the benefit they actually deliver.
Barbell good mornings are a different kind of risk. As the weight gets heavier, the bar tends to roll toward the neck, putting real load directly on the cervical spine. Keeping the bar locked against your traps takes real skill, and even trained athletes struggle to hold that position consistently. A safer alternative, like a seated good morning, trains the same position without that risk.
Neither of these exercises needs to be permanently banned from your program. They just need more caution, better coaching, or a safer substitute than most gym floors provide.
Building a Program: Why There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Exercise
Every exercise on this list has a purpose. Ranking them from S tier to F tier isn’t about declaring winners and losers, it’s about being honest with beginners about which movements give you the most benefit for the least risk while you’re still learning. If you’re new to the gym, the S and A tier exercises on this list are the ones worth building your program around first.
The C and F tier exercises aren’t off limits forever. Some of them are worth adding once you’ve built a base of strength and better body awareness. Others are worth replacing with a safer version of the same movement pattern. What matters is having someone who can look at how your specific body moves and tell you which category you’re in, rather than copying whatever’s trending on social media.
That’s the coaching decision Kraken makes with every client in North Burnaby, whether you’re training in the gym or through our online coaching.
FAQ
Is the barbell back squat a bad exercise?
No. It’s an excellent exercise for people who move well in that position. It ranks lower than expected here because most people, especially beginners, genuinely struggle with bar placement, depth, and hand position, which makes it a riskier default choice than it gets credit for.
Why are crunches ranked so low?
Crunches are one of the most common causes of gym injuries, especially among beginners with poor technique, and the exercise is heavily overdone relative to its benefit. Training your core in a contracted position has value, it’s just not worth building a program around.
What makes the Bulgarian split squat an S tier exercise?
It’s simple, hard to mess up, and trains your legs unilaterally, one leg at a time, matching how your body naturally moves when walking or running. That combination of low risk and high carryover is rare among leg exercises.
Is bench press worse than dumbbell pressing?
Bench press has a limited range of motion since the bar stops at your chest, while dumbbells allow a deeper stretch. Many people are also already overtrained in their chest and anterior delts, so leaning less on barbell bench press can help posture.
Are barbell good mornings safe to do?
They can be, but the bar tends to roll toward the neck as weight increases, putting load directly on the cervical spine. Even trained athletes struggle to keep proper bar position, which is why a seated good morning is often a safer alternative.
Ready to Start?
Ranking exercises is easy. Knowing which ones are actually right for your body is the harder part, and that’s the job a coach is supposed to do. If you’ve been stuck doing the same routine you saw online without knowing whether it fits you, Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby builds that decision into every program, in the gym or through online coaching.
About the Author
Josko is the Founder & CEO of Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby and host of the Kraken Power Podcast. He coaches everyday people through strength training and spends a lot of time helping beginners figure out which popular gym exercises are actually worth their time.
Brandon is Co-Owner & COO of Kraken Fitness and co-host of the Kraken Power Podcast, bringing the kinesiology background behind Kraken’s coaching methodology.
In this video, I’m going to be rating the most popular exercises that you see at gyms on a regular basis. And it all starts with the most popular exercise amongst women, which is the hip thrust. The hip thrust, we’re actually going to be putting it on a tier. And one of the reasons why is because the glutes are actually a very commonly undertrained muscle group for both men and women. So, it’s important for everybody to be training their glutes. Hip thrusts also transfer really well into other movements like for example your squats, your deadlifts, and even all the way into old age when you’re trying to stand up out of a chair when you’re 70 years old. The reason why I haven’t put it on S tier is because you can be doing other movements to be able to target your glutes as well. The next exercise is actually a pull down or pull up. And the reason why we rate it so highly is because you need to be training some sort of vertical overhead movement. One of the best ways to target your lats is going to be doing some sort of pull down or pull up. And it’s also a very mobility demanding exercise. You need to be able to reach above your head to be able to perform the exercise. And if you continue doing this throughout old age, you’re going to be able to be very strong when you’re older. Now, the next exercise is a leg extension. and we’re going to be putting it on C tier. Now, the reason why we’re putting it on C tier is because there are plenty other ways to train your quads and you don’t want to just stick to an isolation movement like the leg extension. Also, many people actually develop knee problems from doing the leg extension machine. So, it may not even be built for you. The next exercise is a barbell back squat, and we’re going to be putting it on B tier. And one of the main reasons we’re putting it on B tier instead of much higher, whereas the rest of the fitness community would put it at S tier, is because the reality is that most people struggle doing a barbell squat. They struggle placing it on top of their back where it’s supposed to be. They struggle getting down low enough. They struggle even with their hand position on the barbell. So that’s why it’s not going to be the best exercise that you can do. Now, if you are a mobile person and you want to do barbell squats, there’s nothing wrong with them. You can do them till you’re 70 years old and it’s going to be great for you. But if you struggle in this position where a lot of people do, it may not be a necessary movement for you to do. The next exercise is a Nordic curl and it’s going to go all the way into S tier. The reason why it’s going to go all the way into S tier is because it’s actually a very underrated exercise and undertrained way of training your hamstrings. So the re the difference is that you’re bending at the knee and you’re keeping your hip straight while training your hamstring versus the seated hamstring curl where you’re bent at the hip and also bent at the knee. The next exercise is a crunch and we’re putting this all the way into F tier. Now the reason why is because this exercise actually is one of the biggest reasons why people get injured at the gym, especially beginners, because they’re not doing it properly. Now, I’m not going to say that this exercise is just bad for you or that it’s completely worthless. It is a good idea for you to train in a contracted position. Uh you train your core in a contracted position. But the thing is though, this is overdone, overplayed, and it’s not giving you the benefits that you think it is. The next exercise is a deadlift. It can be any deadlift that you want to do. For example, you could do a kettle bell deadlift. You can do a hexar deadlift. But training your back is such an excellent way to build muscle across your entire body and to build general strength as well. So building strength in your hamstring, your upper back, your lower back, which trains your core as well. So this is going to be an A tier. Now the reason why it’s not an S tier is because so many people, especially beginners, end up messing up the movement and hurting themselves. The next exercise is a Bulgarian split squat, and that’s going to go all the way into S tier. The reason why it’s an S tier is because it’s such a simple exercise to do. It’s really hard to mess up. It trains your legs really, really well. And it also trains your legs unilaterally, meaning that you’re training one leg at a time, exactly how your body naturally moves when you’re walking, when you’re running. It’s all unilateral. So that’s why it’s going to be in S tier. The next exercise is bench press, and we’re going to put this at C tier. Now, the reason why it’s going all the way into C tier is because the bench press is actually a limited range of motion exercise. You can only go down as far as once the barbell touches your chest. And whereas your arms can potentially go even further than that. So using like for example dumbbells is going to be much better. But also many people are already overtrained in their anterior delts in their chest and that causes people to have bad posture. if you continuously keep overtraining them. So that’s why you can do many other things that’s going to be able to build your chest as opposed to doing a bench press. So that’s why it’s all the way in C tier. The next exercise is a barbell good morning. And this is going to actually go all the way down into F tier. And I know that there’s many people that swear by barbell good mornings. The only problem that we find, especially with beginners with barbell good mornings, is that the bar tends to roll on the person’s neck, which is completely fine when you’re doing lighter weights, as soon as you start going heavier, that becomes really dangerous. You’re putting a heavy barbell on top of your C-spine. So, this means that you in order for you to be able to do this exercise properly, you have to train yourself to keep the barbell connected to your traps. However, just a lot of people struggle with this. Even trained athletes struggle doing this exercise properly. So that’s why it’s going all the way into F tier. There are many other ways that you can train the exact same position much safer. So for example, doing seated good mornings. The next exercise is lunges and it’s going to go all the way into a tier. Now lunges are great. They’re actually going to work your cardiovascular system quite a bit because they’re going to be really hard to do and you’re going to be walking long distances. So they’re great for just cardio, but they’re also great because just like Bulgarian split squats, they’re training your body unilaterally and how your body naturally moves. So it’s one of the best exercises to build general strength and to get your body moving the way that it’s intended to. Now, the reason why we put it on a tier is because this exercise is going to demand a lot of stability and balance from a lot of people as they’re doing it. So that’s why it would be better for you to stick to something like a Bulgarian split squat as opposed to walking lunges. So this is our exercise tier list. And I just wanted to say that there is no good or bad exercise. There’s no such thing as a good or bad exercise. You can find a purpose for every single one of these exercises. So I’m not here to demonize them. I’m just letting you know like if you’re a beginner, these are the top exercises that you should be kind of focusing on. And these are the ones that maybe are gonna you you have to find a good reason to do them or just wait until you’re a little bit more advanced. By the way, we do online coaching. It’s not what you think. It’s not a PDF. It’s not a little booklet. Your coach writes your program, does your nutrition, checks in with you on video every single week. And it’s the same system we use in the gym. Link below in the description if you want in.