The 3 Core Muscle Building Exercises You Should
Be Doing
When it comes to building muscle I like to keep
things simple. It's easy to get caught up in the
hype of hot new products and exercises that promise
to be the next best thing in muscle building.
Theses fancy exercises and products use long “scientific
like words and explanations to show you they work
to build the most muscle.In this article I am
going to get back to basics. I am going to show
your three muscle building exercises you can’t
afford not to do and why you should be doing them.
These three exercises are the grass roots of building
muscle and are essential for any serious training
program.
You might find it hard to believe, but with these
three exercises alone you can pack on a serious
amount of muscle. I refer to these exercises as
the coreâ to any good program. When I start planning
I muscle building program for a client I always
start with these three basic exercises and build
the program around them.3 core muscle building
exercises:SquatThe squat is the biggest exercise
for packing on serious poundage. Thereâs no argument
about it. The squat is primarily a leg building
exercise.
You start the exercise with a barbell
resting across your shoulders standing straight
up. Then bending at the knees and hips you lower
the barbell down until your thighs are almost
parallel to the floor. And then push the barbell
back to the starting position.The main muscle
groups pulled into action for the squat are your
quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. Secondary muscle
groups include the lower back, adductors and to
a certain extent your shoulder muscles.
As you can see many muscle groups are recruited
for this exercise making it the biggest exercise
and biggest potential muscle builder.Like all
the core muscle building exercises, you should
make the squat the first exercise you do on your
leg training day. Because it’s the biggest exercise
you want your legs to be fresh and ready. If muscle
building is your goal, aim for about 8-12 reps
on the squat.
Because you’ll be lifting heavy
weights a good warm up is vital. Squatting is
very stressful for the lower body, especially
the knees, so 5-10 minutes on the treadmill and
some lights squats first up are recommended.Bench
PressThe bench pres is the king of upper body
building exercises. For years the bench press
has been used to measure a lifter strength. How
many times have you been asked “how much do
you bench?I bet you’ve never been asked how
much do you squat or how many chin ups can you
do.The bench is a simple yet extremely powerful
exercise that targets the entire chest (pectorals),
front shoulders (deltoids) and triceps.
To perform a bench press you must lie on your
back on a flat bench, grip the barbell at slightly
wider than shoulder grip and press the bar straight
down to your chest.The bench press is the biggest
upper body builder because it allows you to move
the most amount of weight possible. This is its
advantage over the dumbbell press. With the help
of a spotter you can also push yourself to lift
heavier weights. There are also other advanced
bench press techniques like board presses, bench
press negatives and chain presses. See our link
at the bottom for more details.
Wide grip Chin
UpIf you were only going to do one exercise to
work your back this would be it. The wide grip
chin up is the ultimate test of a lifters power
to weight ratio. This muscle building exercise
is very demanding on the body.The wide grip chin
up primarily hits the lats, but also targets the
entire upper back, biceps and forearms. To execute
this exercise you need a chin up bar or assisted
chin up machine. Hold the bar in a wide grip (greater
than shoulder width) with your palms facing away
from your body.
Start in a œhanging position with
your arms fully extended. Pull yourself up until
your can get your chin over the bar and lower
back to starting position.Most people will not
be able to do wide grip chin ups without some
lat/back training first. You can use the assisted
chin up machine or lat pull down machine to strengthen
your lats before attempting wide grip chin ups.
This is the most demanding back exercise you can
do so it must be the first exercise in your session.
When you should be doing these exercisesLike
I mentioned previously in this article, these
exercises are the biggest muscle builders and
also the most taxing on your body so they must
be done at the beginning of your workout to get
the maximum benefits. I recommend that you do
up to 5 sets on each exercise and vary the way
you perform these sets each week. For example,
the first week you do pyramid up sets, the second
week you pyramid down and the third week you do
straight sets. This keeps your muscles from getting
accustomed to your routine. Good luck packing
on some serious pounds!
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