Muscle Building Exercises
If you want to build muscle, you must train for strength. That should be an inarguable fact. Yet, so many people continue to lift weights for “definition”, “toning” or “to firm up”. All of those goals mean only one thing: Build Muscle.
In order to build muscle you must stimulate its growth through progressive resistance work. Any type of resistance that you apply to a muscle will activate the fibres to accommodate the amount of load you place upon it. Thus, you can build muscle with any type of exercise.
However, the best exercises to build muscle are the ones that produce the greatest strength output. These are basic, compound exercises which recruit different muscle groups to execute the lift.
The more muscle fibres you use, the more weight you can lift and the stronger you will get. A stronger muscle is a bigger muscle.
These are the best muscle building exercises per body part:
1. Legs:
• Squats – Back Squat, Front Squat, Hack Squat• Leg Press
• Romanian Deadlift
• Barbell Calf Raise
2. Back:
• Deadlift – Conventional, Sumo Deadlift, Rack• Barbell Row
• T-Bar Row
• Pull Ups
3. Chest:
• Bench Press – Flat, Incline Bench Press, Decline Bench Press• Dumbbell Bench Press – Flat, Incline Dumbbell Press
• Dips
4. Shoulders:
• Military Press• Push Press
• Power Clean
• Seated Dumbbell Press
5. Arms:
• Close Grip Bench Press• Lying Tricep Extension
• Barbell Curl
• Hammer Curls
The key to getting stronger is to progressively increase the amount of resistance or load being lifted. These exercises are the lifts that will allow you to move the greatest amount of weight.
But of these exercises, the cornerstones of every muscle building program should be:
• Squats
• Bench Press
• Deadlift
• Military Press
The people you see doing isolation exercise such as Leg Extensions, Cable Cross Overs, Lat Pulldowns and Side Laterals will not get bigger or stronger than those training on the four core lifts.
Isolation exercises focus only on specific muscle groups and will not allow you to lift progressively heavier and maintain good form.
Training the four core lifts is very challenging but it will allow you to keep your newly found muscle mass longer. This is because even your bones, muscle fibres, tendons and supporting ligaments will get stronger.
