The Four Best and Most Productive Weight-Lifting Exercises to Gain Muscle
There are hundreds of different variations of strength-training exercises, and you are likely to get confused as a weightlifting newbie. Most exercises look effective and worthwhile through demonstrations by a trainer but chances are that you can't spend a lot of time in the gym doing each of them. You have to pick out the exercises that give you the most bang for your buck. If you're wondering what the best exercises are for building strength and muscle, recognize that you have to incorporate the top four must-do movements: barbell squats, deadlifts, dips, and chin-ups. It is recommended to take some pre JYM pre-workout before high end gym. These are all free weight compound lifts that utilizes the major muscle groups of the body for each repetition of work. You'll get a full body workout with just these four exercises. Let's take a look at each one and its effectiveness:
1) Barbell Squats - I would say squats are probably the single most effective exercise for a bodybuilding program. Squats target primarily the largest muscle groups of the body. They include the glutes, buttocks, quadriceps, hamstrings, traps muscles, and the abdominal/lower back/general core area. You perform the squat movement while standing so the underlying stabilizer muscles are also worked to a greater extent. This results in stronger joints, tendons, ligaments, and all the connective tissues of the musculoskeletal system.
2) Deadlifts - This is the number one pulling exercise in which you involve the same muscles as the squat. Deadlifts complement squats very well. Squats are a quad dominant movement while deadlifts are a hip dominant lift. The former is a pushing exercise and the latter is a pulling movement.
3) Dips - This is the number one pushing movement involving the upper body. To start off, you may use just your body weight for each repetition. Additional resistance by attaching a weighted dip/chin-up belt allows for a greater progression for attaining upper body pushing strength. If you can dip with lots of weight strapped on your waist, you'll undoubtedly be strong.
4) Chin-ups - These complement dips as a vertical pulling exercise. Like dips, you may also attach additional resistance to a belt for greater mass and strength.
These four exercises allow you to move the most amount of weight in a given session. If you focus on progressive overload and improving your strength through these four movements, you'll gain much muscle mass. You'll pound your muscles much more effectively and efficiently.
Implementing them into your schedule is not hard either. You can form a full body routine around just these four lifts and working them three times a week. Follow a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule with a 3x5 (sets x reps) or a 5x5 scheme. If that's too much, drop it to two sessions per week or three sessions every nine days. You don't have to structure full body workouts into a weekly schedule. Go with a biweekly schedule if you must. Another option would be to periodize these four movements with a different volume approach. For example, start with a 3x10 set/rep structure using lighter weights for the first few weeks. Increase the poundage your use gradually and switch to a 5x5 or 3x3 scheme during the fifth or sixth week of your training cycle. The options are numerous. Train with these four exercises. Train intensely.
