The best muscle building exercises are going to help you bulk up and gain muscle mass in a short amount of time.
With hundreds of possible exercises out there, the key is to focus on muscle building exercises that use more than one muscle group, utilize your stabilizer muscles, and give you challenging workout in the process.
Putting on muscle mass can be a daunting task, especially if you’re a skinny person. I used to always have trouble in high school and college putting on extra body mass. I would work out for hours at a time with little to no results. The problem was I was doing too many muscle isolation exercises such as bicep curls and leg extensions and not enough muscle mass building exercises.
Little did I know, I needed to concentrate on performing exercises that stressed compound movements rather than isolation movements. Compound movements are going to challenge multiple muscle groups to complete a certain exercise.
There are literally hundreds of exercises that focus on compound lifts. I’ve compiled a list of the most basic and necessary lifts for any serious exerciser focusing on mass gain, muscle building exercises.
A list the 10 Best Muscle Mass Building Exercises are:
1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. Bench Press
4. Row
5. Pull Up
6. Pike to Rollout
7. Lunge
8. Hamstring Curl
9. Bicep Curl to Shoulder Press
10. Clean and Jerk
If you stick to this list of muscle mass building exercises, you’re going to have excellent fitness success at any level. Once you master these lifts, it’s vital that you start adding variations to the exercises. Try split squats, push-up jacks, power cleans and sumo squats.
You not only have to add compound lifts to your exercise regimen, you have to do several other things to put on muscle mass. Make sure you are adding these 4 things and your additional muscle mass will follow suit:
- Consume at least half your weight in protein. Consume whey protein along with lean meat, fish, eggs, nuts, legumes and dairy to get your daily intake of protein. Protein is necessary to build and grow lean muscle.
- Lift to fatigue. If you’re not lifting to fatigue, you’re not challenging your muscles enough to break them down so they can rebuild and hypertrophy. 3 sets of 8 only works if you can barely get your last rep up at rep 8.
- Eat often. In order for you to get your daily intake of protein in, you’re going to have to eat a lot of food throughout the day. Eat 6 meals throughout the day, 2 to 3 of which should be in liquid form. Grab a protein smoothie or a nutrient filled green drink to keep you going.
- Hydrate and recover. Drink plenty of water, eat foods like bananas and cherries, get a full body massage, and get plenty of sleep. The only way your muscles are going to develop is if you allow your body to rest and recover. Many new exercisers tend to skip this step.
Check out my article: 6 Basic Rules for Building Muscle Mass for a complete guide to building muscle mass.
Eating, lifting and recovering correctly are going to be the main reasons your muscles are going to be able to mature. Now let’s look at the:
The 10 Best Muscle Building Exercises (Mass Gain)
#1 Squat
One of the best muscle building exercises for legs is the squat. The squat is one of the most functional movements a person can do. The thing is, the squat is one of the last exercises I see most exercisers doing in the gym. People are focused on getting great looking biceps and abs and completely neglect their legs in their workouts. I see guys with great upper bodies, and lower bodies that look like they are walking on a pair of stilts.
Little do they understand that squatting does so many things for the body. Squatting challenges almost every muscle in the body at the same time. Squatting increases leg and core strength, flexibility, mobility, posture, balance and keeps bones strong. Squatting gives you a great pair of legs and a strong back. It forces you to generate a great amount of power in your quads and glutes. The squat should be the number one muscle mass building exercise in your exercise repertoire.
#2 Deadlift
Like the squat, the deadlift is one of the best muscle building exercises for legs and glutes. The deadlift is not only great for your back, your hamstrings, quads, glutes, and core muscles. The deadlift is great for improving your posture and makes lifting a bag of groceries a piece of cake. Your entire body is going to feel stronger and more stable when you start adding the deadlift into your exercise routine.
What I love most about the deadlift is it one of the best lifts for your posterior chain. The posterior chain is crucial for power, posture, injury prevention and a balanced, great looking body. People tend to work exclusively on the front of the body like the chest and abs. The posterior chain is going to pull your body back into its natural state and keep your body properly aligned.
#3 Bench Press
The bench press is one of the best muscle building exercises for the upper body. The bench press is a great exercise for the pec major, pec minor, triceps, delts, serratus anterior, and is a great predictor for upper body strength. One study showed how the bench press could be used as an effective method to predict the loads for other upper body assistance exercises.
Build upper body power and bone density with the bench press. Your pushup efficiency will improve along with your shoulder strength. Just make sure you are using good form to avoid rotator cuff issues and imbalances. Make sure you are doing proper shoulder cuff exercises to keep your shoulders in good health. If you do have weak or injury prone shoulders, I suggest you switch to dumbbell bench press to free your joints of the joint restricting barbell.
#4 Row
One of the best muscle building exercises with dumbbells is the row. Rows are great for the back, the lats, the rhomboids, biceps and the rear delts. Rows also challenge your erector spinae to keep your spinal column in proper alignment. There are many variations of the row including the upright row, low row, high row, and seated row. Vary the angle of your row to get the best results.
Combine the pushup and dumbbell row to create the renegade row. You can get multiple exercises done at one time and challenge your body to keep in stable form. Not only does this mass building exercise work the muscles that a push up and row work, you also get great work in for your abs and obliques.
#5 Pull Up
A perfect muscle building exercise without weights is the pull up. Pull ups can be done wherever and whenever. All you need is a bar to grab on to. Biceps promote great lats, biceps, rhomboids, and forearm strength. Try underhand, overhand, wide and narrow grip pull ups to get the most out of them.
If you can’t quite do a pull up, there are a number of ways to circumvent that obstacle. Try the lat pull down or the assisted pull up. There is usually a machine at the gym you can kneel on to assist you in doing the pull up. It lessens the weight you are pulling and allows you to work your way up to doing a full pull up on your own.
#6 Pike to Rollout
The #1 way to strengthen and challenge your abs, comes from a 2010 study in the Journal of Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy. Just do a pike to rollout. By doing this exercise, you challenge your core to stay engaged in the entire exercise. The rollout challenges the entirety of the abdominal region. Add some oblique twists into the exercise and you’ve got yourself a complete ab exercise in a couple motions.
I love this exercise so much that I incorporate it into almost every other workout. There are so many variations you can add to this exercise. You can throw in a pushup, some mountain climbers, or even a renegade row after your pike flattens out to a plank.
#7 Lunge
Lunges are an absolute must for complete leg strength. Lunges blast inner thighs, outer thighs, glutes, quads, and hamstrings. My legs feel much more stable, flexible and mobile when I add lunges to my workout routines. They make doing things like walking, climbing stairs, and hiking a breeze.
Try forward lunges, backward lunges, side lunges, curtsy lunges, split squats, steps ups, walking lunges and jump lunges. The variations you can and should do with lunges are endless. If I were to give you the most complete mass building exercise for the legs, I would tell you to do a lunge.
#8 Hamstring Curl
The hamstrings are a tricky muscle to completely challenge without isolating that muscle. They are usually used as an accessory muscle with most lifts. In order to really hit the hamstring, you need to do a hamstring curl. You can vary the curl a little bit by doing double and single leg curls.
I like to mix in hamstring curls on the facedown hamstring curl machine or on the stability ball. Don’t neglect your hamstrings if you want to avoid imbalances in your legs. If you do all quad exercises with no hamstring curls, you’re bound to have joint issues.
#9 Bicep Curl to Shoulder Press
One of the best muscle building exercises for biceps is the bicep curl. Instead of doing a bicep curl and shoulder press separately, save yourself some time and put the two exercises together. Work your biceps, delts, and forearms all in one powerful motion. You’re going to challenge your body more and burn more calories than if you were to do the exercises separately.
You could also put something together like a standing row and a triceps extension. The lesson is to get the most bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time.
#10 Clean and Jerk
Olympic lifts are challenging, multi-joint exercises and should only be done with supervision and correct form. The clean and jerk combines the deadlift, high pull, squat and shoulder press into one powerful exercise. A correctly done clean and jerk requires a powerful hip thrust and explosive shoulder press.
The clean and jerk requires great joint flexibility and mobility. If you have a stiff body, this lift will be taxing on the joints. The explosive movement of a clean and jerk requires an exerciser to be in top athletic form.
Summary: Muscle Mass Building Exercises for Mass Gain
A winning workout routine is going to include great fundamental exercises. Make sure you’re incorporating these muscle mass building exercises into your workouts for the best results. Not only that, pay attention to what you eat, how you lift, and how you recover. The best exercisers are going to have consistently challenging routines, followed by nutrient rich eating plans. The best workout plans for beginners up to advanced exercisers are going to include these lifts in one form or another.
Are you using these exercises in your weekly workouts? Let me know below!