Exercises to Build Muscle

Best Around Exercises to Build Muscle!

Everyone has a different body shape and according to your shape you can choose exercises that are best suited to you. The best exercises to build muscle should fit you and your stamina and without any side effects. Over working muscles can cause some damage to these muscles. You should have the workouts separately for each part. You may work the chest area one day and do bench press types exercises. The next day you might do exercises for the back such as dead lifts, bend over rows and lateral pull downs.

You can also combine different muscle group exercises, say one day you work on biceps doing barbell curls and hammer curls, and then workout the legs with as squats, calf raises and leg press helps you to build your leg muscles. The next day you might combine the chest, back and triceps it is totally up to you. Below we have put together the main muscle build groups and the best exercises to build muscle for those areas to help you on your way. You don’t just develop muscle overnight, it takes time, consistency and pushing beyond your own boundaries.

Basic Exercises to Build Muscle

Chest

Bench Press: This is one of the most popular exercises to build muscle. If you’ve been in any gym, you’ll notice the bench press area is the most crowded. This exercise is performed lying on a bench. While lying on the bench, you lower a loaded barbell to your chest and press the weight back up to the starting position. This exercise hits the chest, front delts, and triceps. The main problem with the barbell bench press is that some people develop shoulder problems, due to poor technique, and are forced to find alternative chest exercises.

Bench Press

Henry Author: aquilize

Incline bench press: The incline bench press is similar to the bench press except the bench is fixed in an incline position. The incline usually ranges from 20-45 degrees. This exercise targets the upper chest, delts, and triceps. Depending on your benching style, you may have less chance of developing shoulder issues compared to using a flat bench.

Dips: Dips are one of most underrated exercises to build muscle. It seems too simple to build a lot of muscle. Most gyms have a dip station where you can perform dips. You can add weight by tying a dipping belt around your waist and attaching plates or you can hold dumbbells in between your feet.

Other chest movements: decline bench press, dumbbell variations of all bench presses, machine (Hammer Strength) bench, cable crossovers, pec deck flyes, dumbbell flyes, floor presses, and board presses

Back

Deadlifts: If squats are the king of exercises to build muscle, deadlifts are a close second. This is primarily a back movement but it builds your traps, lower back, hamstrings, and calves. Many people avoid deadlifts due to fear of injury. However, like most exercises, they are safe if you utilize good form.

Deadlift

IMG_3964 Author: alizinha/CrossFitNYC

Bent Over Rows: Bent over rows hit your lats and upper back. These are performed by bending over with a barbell and pulling the weight to your abdomen or sternum. The lower back must stay tight to avoid injury. These are call horizontal rowing movements because they are pulled perpendicular to your body. Horizontal movements promote back thickness.

Other horizontal rowing movements: dumbbell rows, machine rows, T-bar rows, cable rows

Pulldowns: Pulldowns also hit you lats. Unlike the horizontal pulling exercises, pulldowns focuses on lat width. Because you are pulling the weight parallel to your body, this is considered a vertical pulling movement.

Chin ups/Pull ups: This is another vertical pulling exercise where you are pulling yourself up to a bar above your head. This is a very effective exercise but the main disadvantage is that not too many people are strong enough to perform the repetitions needed to stimulate muscle growth.

Other vertical pulling movements: any machine variation of pulldowns.

Traps

Shrugs: Your traps get hit to some degree with heavy deadlifts but in order work your traps directly, shrugs should be part of your arsenal. This exercise is very simple but effective. Hold a barbell in front of you at arm’s length and shrug your shoulders up towards your ears. You can also perform these with dumbbells.

Biceps

Barbell Curl: This is a very basic movement that targets the main head of the biceps. While standing, grab a barbell while your arms are fully extended and curl it up to your shoulders.

Hammer Curls: These are performed with cables or dumbbells. Instead of curling the weight up in a straight line, the weight is curled to the opposite shoulder. This movement hits the brachialis which is the muscle near your elbow joint.

Hammer Curl start

Lock elbows into the side of the body and bend around the elbow joint. Keep palms facing together and pull hands up in line with shoulders. Focus on the front of the upper arms.

Author: SmoothFitness

Hammer Curl finish

Lock elbows into the side of the body and bend around the elbow joint. Keep palms facing together and pull hands up in line with shoulders. Focus on the front of the upper arms.
Other biceps movements: dumbbell curls, preacher curls, cable curls, any machine variation of curing exercises,

Author: SmoothFitness

Triceps

Close Grip Bench Press: This is one of the best exercises to build muscle on your triceps. You can overload your triceps with more weight than other triceps movements. This is similar to a bench press except that your grip is closer together on the bar. The space between your hands should be 12-24 inches to activate the triceps.

Skull Crushers: a.k.a. nose breakers and French press. This is performed with a shorter bar, usually an EZ curl bar. You start by lying on a bench with the loaded bar extended at arm’s length above your head. Begin the movement by bending your arm at the elbow until the weight is right above your head and reverse the movement until the bar is extended over your head again, hence the name skull crusher.

Pushdowns: This triceps movement is performed at a cable pulley machine. There are many attachments available that you could use. You just grab the handle on the attachment with your elbows close to your side. Push the handle downward until your arms are fully extended.

Other triceps movements: dumbbell kickbacks, overhead dumbbell/EZ bar extensions

Overhead Dumbbell

IMG_0952 Author: thebuffmother

Shoulders

Military Press: The military press is one of the primary exercises to build muscle in the shoulders. These can be performed either sitting or standing. You grab a barbell, hold it in front of you at shoulder level, and press it over your head. These can be performed with a barbell or dumbbells.

Military Press

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Shoulders- Military Press 2

Inhale and slowly move your arms back to tabletop position. Be sure to control your movement. The slower you can go, the more muscle fibers you are recruiting. Try for 4 counts up, and 4 counts down.

www.goaz360.com Author: az360fitness

Lateral Raises: The deltoid muscle has three heads: lateral, front, and rear. The lateral raise is performed by holding a dumbbell at your side and raising it until your arms are parallel to the floor. These can also be performed with cables.

Front Raises: These are similar to the lateral raise except that the dumbbell is raised in front of you as opposed to your side. These can also be performed with cables.

Rear Flyes: This exercise hits your rear deltoid. In order to perform these with a dumbbell, you need to be in a bent over position. You can either be standing and bent over; or seated on a bench and bent over. While in this position, you raise the dumbbell until your arm is parallel to the floor. You elbow will be moving towards your back. These can be performed with cables also. Rear delts can be trained by performing a reverse pec deck fly.

Legs

Squats: This is often called the king of all exercises to build muscle and for good reason. Although squats are a leg exercise, they build muscle from head to toe. If you are serious about packing on muscle and don’t have a bad back or sore knees, squats should be a part of every lifters program.

Variations: front squats, box squats, close stance squats, power squats

Leg Press: Leg presses are a good exercise to build your quadriceps. The learning curve is short due to the fact you don’t need great coordination and balance to perform this movement. There are many leg press machines and they are all built differently. 500 lbs on one machine may feel heavier or lighter on a different machine due to leverages.

Leg Press

Leg Press Author: Langley Avenue

Other quadriceps exercises: lunges, step ups

Stiff Legged Deadlifts: This is a variation of the deadlift that really hits your hamstrings. These are performed by holding a barbell in front of your body and bending at the waist until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. The weight you can handle might be limited by your grip strength so you might need to invest in a pair of lifting straps.

Other hamstring exercises: good mornings, lying leg curls, seated leg curls

Calf Raises: Calf raises are fairly simple. Most gyms will have a machine for seated or standing calf raises. Calves usually respond better to higher reps.

These exercises to build muscle will give you a starting point and will depend on your effort and determination to develop your muscles. You will need to consider proper nutrition diet and rest to let your muscles heel after a workout, along with these exercises to have the best results.

Building muscles is not a 1 day process; you have to continue working at it to build muscle strength and size. Basically you have to work hard to get bigger muscles. There are three key points to achieving this correctly – Proper nutrition, Good and regular exercise routine and Rest to recover. The rest part is very important because while your muscles are resting, with the right nutrition this will help to build and repair your muscles. Following these exercises to build muscle properly, as a basis will assist you to get bigger and stronger.

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