Let’s see, they’re the easiest exercises to progress on.

Squats hit pretty much the entire lower body, as well as low back and some mid back. I just add extra calf and hamstring work.

Bench hits chest and triceps better than anything else, is incredibly fun, and has good carryover to other upper body presses.

Deadlifting, though done not as often, hits traps, back thickness, glutes and hams really well.

They’re a great base to any training program and if you’re not doing them, you’re just going to be doing very similar exercises to hit the same body parts. If you’re not squatting you may be leg pressing or front squatting, if you’re not benching you may be hitting inclines, and if you’re not deadlifting you may be doing rack pulls or rdls.

Just variations of the big 3, really. That’s why we do them.