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Favourite lifts for building muscle


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Here's a topic.. pick ONE, and only ONE exercise for each body part which is your number one for BUILDING MUSCLE in the target area (not strength). Here are mine..

 

working up the body;

 

calves - smith machine standing calf raises

quads - back squats

hamstrings - lying leg curls

glutes - Bulgarian split squats 

back - this is a hard one... lat pull downs for width and barbell rows for thickness

chest - low incline DB flys

delts - seated barbell press

triceps - straight bar push downs 

biceps - incline alternating db curls

traps - BB shrugs

 

Lets hear it

 

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calves - walking or running up steep hill on the road (not stairs)

back - pull ups

chest - Db bench

delts - wide ish grip ohp

triceps - dips

biceps - all pretty much exactly the same lol

 

Rest of stuff is just bullshit anyway. And if you're going to have just "back" maybe you should have just "legs" and just "arms"?

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Calves - seated calf raise, hits both heads

back.   - t-bar rows

chest   - cable crossover /barrel hug

delts.    - side lateral raise

triceps. - one arm overhead extension 

biceps.  - curl in the squat rack...(joke) hammer curls 

quads.  - squat

traps.    - seated bb shrug

Abs.       - roman sit ups

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Calves-who cares

Quads-high bar or front squats

Hammies- RDLs

Glutes- Walking lunges

Back- Deadlift

Chest- incline bench

Delts-seated ohp

Triceps-close grip

 

Problem with your thory, is that strength and building muscle are kind of intertwined, if your stronger, you have more ability to lift more therefore creating more stimulus for growth. 

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same as all the ones yous do,but for the traps i do lots of farmer walks haha i love them when i went to jetts i use to farmer walks around the gym weaving in and out of the machines hahah heaps of old grannys use to stare at me like i was a fucken rapist lol.that was in palmy,one of the guys that run the place was a fella could tom a fucken good man.But i left jetts not my kind of gym.nothing against it,but i could not be my normal self there lol.So yeah farmers walks are sick.Love watch strong man comps.

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1 hour ago, Bigken1985 said:

Calves-who cares

Quads-high bar or front squats

Hammies- RDLs

Glutes- Walking lunges

Back- Deadlift

Chest- incline bench

Delts-seated ohp

Triceps-close grip

 

Problem with your thory, is that strength and building muscle are kind of intertwined, if your stronger, you have more ability to lift more therefore creating more stimulus for growth. 

Yes but I'm talking purely exercise selection for building muscle. Most people can flat barbell press more than they can incline press but Imo the incline will build more muscle even with a lighter weight cause weight is relative to the exercise. If that makes sense lol

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On 2/11/2017 at 7:48 PM, Bigken1985 said:

Calves-who cares

Quads-high bar or front squats

Hammies- RDLs

Glutes- Walking lunges

Back- Deadlift

Chest- incline bench

Delts-seated ohp

Triceps-close grip

 

Problem with your thory, is that strength and building muscle are kind of intertwined, if your stronger, you have more ability to lift more therefore creating more stimulus for growth. 

 

Well sort of but not completley. While I personally think that getting stronger is very important for bodybuilding especially when people first start out. Building a strong base to advance from is only a good thing. However it's not the most important thing and tends to somewhat happen on its own provided the person is actually bodybuilding properly in and out of the gym. Optimal Stimulus for growth comes from training the muscle over training the movement. Having resistance on the muscle and moving it through its full range of motion multiple times for a set will most of the time result in better growth than moving a weight from point a to b without any other thought other than getting it from start to finish. For example the deadlift everyone says it's the king of back exercises but a good bent over barbell row would be my choice from a bodybuilding perspective any day over a conventional deadlift. I'm not saying big heavy compound lifts aren't useful for building muscle because I really think they are. Moving weights through space still builds muscle but it isn't the best or smartest way

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calves - rode bmx/mountain bike til I was 27

quads - leg press because I fail at squatting

hamstrings - maybe dead lifts hard to tell I have fat legs

glutes - deads/lunges

back - definitely deads by a super mile ( for me anyway )

chest - wide grip flat bench

delts - not sure specifically but used to hit seated DB's all the time

triceps - bench and push down ( old machine we have at Les Mills Extreme )

biceps - any kind of curls

traps - shrugs did nothing for me probably did them wrong, started dead lifting and they exploded

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Calves - genetics (sorry guys!)

Quads - squats

Hammies - GHRs

Abs - dragon flags, or weighted cable crunches

Chest - dumbell press

Back - never thought I'd say this, but deadlifts are awesome!

Delts - this is a tricky one, because I've found it takes everything to get my delts to grow. So OHP+side raises+upright rows.

 

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I'm surprised so many saying deads for back.

 

i would have thought deads would be more popular for hamstrings growth, and rack pulls for back.  The rack pulls are isolating your back and traps a lot more, and you can use a heavier weight.

 

though weighted pull ups and proper bent over barbell rows are probably my fav back exercises for growth.  Obviously one is for thickness, other is for lats.

 

cant comment on calves, as nothing has worked for my 12 year old girl calves.

 

not much less love for hip thrusts for glutes! There's a reason you see so many chicks doing them.

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2 hours ago, HarryB said:

Abs - pies 

How many sets/reps do you recommend?

 

28 minutes ago, hamdanz said:

i would have thought deads would be more popular for hamstrings growth, and rack pulls for back.  The rack pulls are isolating your back and traps a lot more, and you can use a heavier weight.

I can't comment on the rack pulls, as I haven't done them much. But it was only when I started doing deadlifts that my rhomboids and traps really took off. Dunno why they didn't respond so well to barbell rows, but they didn't.

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for me (building muscle, not building strength)

 

Quads - high rep leg press

Hams - stiff leg deadlfit

Abs - wheel rollouts, 15 rep sets

Chest - high rep bench press with barbell (prob better with dumbell but i never do them)

Back - my back is growing heaps atm from doing heaps of cable rows, maybe because i have just introduced them though.

Delts - lateral raise

Biceps - slow af controlled db curl on preacher bench

Triceps - high rep pressdowns

 

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18 minutes ago, maccaz said:

for me (building muscle, not building strength)

 

Quads - high rep leg press

Hams - stiff leg deadlfit

Abs - wheel rollouts, 15 rep sets

Chest - high rep bench press with barbell (prob better with dumbell but i never do them)

Back - my back is growing heaps atm from doing heaps of cable rows, maybe because i have just introduced them though.

Delts - lateral raise

Biceps - slow af controlled db curl on preacher bench

Triceps - high rep pressdowns

 


Just quick question, would you say the slow controlled DB curls helped heaps compared to say standing dumbell curls / barbell curls? I have awful weak biceps and I managed to make them grow a little bit by hammering them and getting a good burn with some standing curls etc but it plateaued pretty quick, so looking to try something different

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7 minutes ago, ratz99 said:


Just quick question, would you say the slow controlled DB curls helped heaps compared to say standing dumbell curls / barbell curls? I have awful weak biceps and I managed to make them grow a little bit by hammering them and getting a good burn with some standing curls etc but it plateaued pretty quick, so looking to try something different

yes 100%.

i dont do ugly swinging standing curls regardless, but i am noticing hectic doms (and growth as well, i know doms doesnt necessarily mean growth) from doing them overly controlled and slow with a good stretch at bottom and hard squeeze at top. also i consciously dont squeeze the db too hard

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Agree with Maccas. So How bad your doms is isn't a measure of growth as you say. But it is a good indicator that you are working the specific muscle unless it has adapted to the work you are throwing at it then you are less likley to get doms. But if you have just started doing biceps and they not sore then you probably could improve the way you are doing it

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17 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

How many sets/reps do you recommend?

 

I can't comment on the rack pulls, as I haven't done them much. But it was only when I started doing deadlifts that my rhomboids and traps really took off. Dunno why they didn't respond so well to barbell rows, but they didn't.

 

It's the stretch that really helps the traps grow, not the contraction.  So people doing slow shrugs holding at the top are basically wasting their time.  Overload the stretch with rack pulls from quite high above the knee.  Range of motion doesn't matter on this particular muscle group.  Someone else mentioned farmer carries which is correct, also very good.  And if you want to do shrugs, use a heavier weight and use momentum to get them up.  Again, it's the stretch and not the contraction at the top.

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By contracting I meant the hold at the top the shrug.  Maybe this is the incorrect term for this movement, because you're right, retracting the scapula is also contracting the lower traps.

 

Explained really well in this video.  And just look at the size of Alex's traps, for a natty, pretty damn impressive.

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, hamdanz said:

 

It's the stretch that really helps the traps grow, not the contraction.  So people doing slow shrugs holding at the top are basically wasting their time.  Overload the stretch with rack pulls from quite high above the knee.  Range of motion doesn't matter on this particular muscle group.  Someone else mentioned farmer carries which is correct, also very good.  And if you want to do shrugs, use a heavier weight and use momentum to get them up.  Again, it's the stretch and not the contraction at the top.

If you're saying here that the stretch is what helps the growth and mention stretch with a rack pull but then consider a dead lift is a fuller range of motion there for engaging the stretch for a longer period of time it's curious to me as to why you were suprised people said dead lift for back. If you add that logic to a deficit dead lift then which we do a lot of then even more so.

 

I agree with Hugh on the contraction part as you're lifting the weight and get to the top/lock out you're definitely making contractions in a lot of muscles - unless you're weak and can't lock out the weight you're lifting haha

 

My back went from flat and shit to looking pretty good when I started powerlifting / deads - I do however now do a lot of rows based on programming from coach but yeah. Deads for me - as I said personally, same with traps~ I even won a 100 dollar voucher on here for my back progress, yay deads!

 

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