Those of you that train with weights know the importance of doing the proper lifts to hit the muscles and make them grow. This is equally true for beginners, although many beginners may not be aware of the lifts they need to be doing to make the fastest progress. These are the core lifts that stimulate your entire body to get stronger and grow and they should be part of every lifters routine.
To build strength and size the core exercises you need to be doing are squats, presses, rows and deadlifts. These are the lifts that will help you pack on muscle and boost your strength as quickly as possible.
For overall muscular development, squats are the undisputed king of lifts. Yes, they are primarily a leg exercise and they will increase your leg power amazingly, but what many people don’t realize is that squats build your entire body and will also boost your testosterone levels. When you squat all of the other muscles in your torso come into play as stabilizers and since you can handle your largest weights when doing squats, even the stabilizers get hit hard. In fact, squats could do more for your abdominal strength than even crunches.
Pressing movements will also work more than just the target muscles. Most people think of the bench press when pressing is mentioned, but the military press is just as valuable. Military presses should be done standing and you’ll soon see how this power movement incorporates all of the torso muscles and builds your upper body strength and power.
Rowing movements such as the T-bar row and barbell rows are the mainstay for adding power, thickness and strength across your back. While pulldowns and pull-ups will help widen your back, there is nothing that builds thickness like rowing movements with heavy weights.
The final power movement you want to include in your routine is deadlifts. These are great for your legs, lower and upper back and even your abs and shoulders. It’s another full body movement that will help you strengthen and bulk up all over.
You’ll probably notice that no mention has been made about movements for the biceps and triceps. You can do some direct work for these muscles, but honestly they won’t get near the amount of work that they receive from the compound exercises. Presses will destroy your triceps and rows will crush your biceps and you won’t really need much more.
As long as you keep these exercises as the core of your workout routine you should continue to increase in strength for a very long time. Use these at the beginning of a workout, after a proper warm up and save the isolation stuff for later. Isolation work is good for creating details in your muscles, but if you want to get big and strong you’ll need to stick with these basics.
By: Steven Walters
About the Author:
To build strength and size the core exercises you need to be doing are squats, presses, rows and deadlifts. These are the lifts that will help you pack on muscle and boost your strength as quickly as possible.
For overall muscular development, squats are the undisputed king of lifts. Yes, they are primarily a leg exercise and they will increase your leg power amazingly, but what many people don’t realize is that squats build your entire body and will also boost your testosterone levels. When you squat all of the other muscles in your torso come into play as stabilizers and since you can handle your largest weights when doing squats, even the stabilizers get hit hard. In fact, squats could do more for your abdominal strength than even crunches.
Pressing movements will also work more than just the target muscles. Most people think of the bench press when pressing is mentioned, but the military press is just as valuable. Military presses should be done standing and you’ll soon see how this power movement incorporates all of the torso muscles and builds your upper body strength and power.
Rowing movements such as the T-bar row and barbell rows are the mainstay for adding power, thickness and strength across your back. While pulldowns and pull-ups will help widen your back, there is nothing that builds thickness like rowing movements with heavy weights.
The final power movement you want to include in your routine is deadlifts. These are great for your legs, lower and upper back and even your abs and shoulders. It’s another full body movement that will help you strengthen and bulk up all over.
You’ll probably notice that no mention has been made about movements for the biceps and triceps. You can do some direct work for these muscles, but honestly they won’t get near the amount of work that they receive from the compound exercises. Presses will destroy your triceps and rows will crush your biceps and you won’t really need much more.
As long as you keep these exercises as the core of your workout routine you should continue to increase in strength for a very long time. Use these at the beginning of a workout, after a proper warm up and save the isolation stuff for later. Isolation work is good for creating details in your muscles, but if you want to get big and strong you’ll need to stick with these basics.
By: Steven Walters
About the Author:
To learn more about basic training lifting and how to best use anabolic supplements please visit the authors website.
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