Muscle Building Exercises

Being consistent, eating well, getting plenty of rest and an effective muscle building routine are

the basic essentials for a well-rounded approach to bodybuilding. If you want to increase your muscle mass, lose fat and increase your overall strength then you must follow these guidelines.

The focus of this article will be to match your individual needs with specific muscle building exercises while focusing on the beginner weight lifter. We all have different needs based on different body types and genetics. It is your goal to identify your specific needs and develop an approach that best suits you.

Why do some people use a specific muscle building exercise and get incredible results while others will get little to no results from the same weight lifting routine?

We have all seen the ads in the bodybuilding magazines that glorify the “next best muscle building program” only to find out that after all your hard work and effort you still look the same. No noticeable increase in muscle mass only a lot of wasted time and effort.
The reason is we are all different. Our genetic makeup is different and our bodies respond differently to different stimulus.

You need to use a muscle building routine that is designed for your specific body type. The way to do this is to experiment with different muscle building exercises and find which works best for you. If you aren’t comfortable with the exercise then you need to find something you are comfortable with. What’s the point of doing something you hate? You will only get discouraged and give up. That would be a lot of wasted time and effort for nothing.

Your first 8 weeks of training is where you will begin to build the foundation, which the rest of your training will be based upon. We need to find which of your muscle groups respond best and what they respond too. Once you can figure this out you can begin to tailor your routine to include only those muscle building exercises that work best for you.

The muscle building program we are going to introduce is a 3 day on 2 day off routine. Simply put you will workout for three consecutive days then take the next two days off. However, the two days that you are off one of them will be spent doing cardio. Cardio is one of the most hated and avoided part of our muscle building routine but if you don’t include cardio you are only hurting yourself. There is not one pro bodybuilder in the world that doesn’t do cardio on a regular basis. They will even do cardio during their bulk up phases. Don’t limit yourself, do the cardio.

Sample muscle building routine

Below is a sample of some muscle building exercises to get you started. As you progress you will learn which exercises work for you and which ones don’t. This is a matter of preference but make sure you are truly being objective and evaluate your progress truthfully. The basis of this muscle building training will be the use of compound exercises. Compound exercises are the most efficient way to build an overall muscular physique in the shortest time possible. Increase the weight as you see fit and reap the benefits of this workout program.

All of the following exercises will follow a set scheme of 5 sets for each exercise and a rep scheme of 20,15,12,10 and 8. Cardio will start with 20 minutes. As you progress increase your cardio up to 45 minutes.

Monday:
Legs – Squats, Stiff Legged Dead Lifts

Tuesday:
Chest – Bench Press, Dips (weighted)

Wednesday:
Back - Dead Lifts, Front Lat Pulldowns

Thursday:
Cardio – Stationary Bike, Elliptical Machine

You may have noticed that I have not included a weight lifting program for your arms. The reason is that with these compound exercises there is no need to workout your arms at this stage of your development. The arms get enough of a workout by doing all these compound exercises. Click here for an introduction to getting massive arms.

I have gotten great results from these muscle building exercises and I think you will also. If you don’t feel that you are getting the results you need then you aren’t using enough weight. Increase the weight on each exercise so that the last rep is the last rep you can possibly do. This is called going to failure and if you don’t do this you will be going to failure and not in a good way.
Lift hard lift strong and you will see results.