Want BIGGER Muscles in Less Time?
When you think about great muscle-building exercises, what are the first exercises that come to mind? Is it the bench press? Curls? Military press? Lat pull downs? These are all great exercises for building muscle, and a lot will have to do with how many sets and reps you do as well as how much rest you get, but there are two exercises that will give you better strength gains than any of the exercises listed above.
Muscle Building Tips
This has been proven over and over again. For some reason, gym rats and fitness freaks just don’t seem to believe it. You can use this to your advantage and make the biggest gains in the fastest period of time.
If you really know fitness training, then you know what’s coming. If not, you might be surprised. Enough suspense. The answers you have been looking for your entire weight training career are squats and deadlifts. These two exercises work such large areas that when you perform them your body is releasing hormones throughout your body.
These hormones – testosterone in particular – help you build more muscle the next time you workout. The best Olympians in the world always say that their secret is squats and deadlifts. If you’re not familiar with how to do squats and deadlifts, don’t worry, we’re about to give you a general overview.
How to Do Squats
For squats, which is the more important of the two exercises, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and place an Olympic barbell on your shoulders behind your head. It’s easiest to use a barbell placed on a rack so you can just duck under it. Also, make sure you start with a light weight. You can always increase the weight as you get used to the exercise.
Once you’re in position, bend down until you’re sitting on an invisible chair, then use your heels to thrust yourself back to an upright position. Many trainers will say you should not let your knees go over your toes, but this is nearly impossible. Your body will tell you if you go down too far.
Editor’s note: Also make sure to keep your head above your knees, chest up, and avoid tilting your head down since this will place added strain on your back.
How to Do Deadlifts
A deadlift is similar. For a deadlift, start with the Olympic barbell on the floor. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and place your hands on the grooves of the barbell. Keep your back straight, your head up, and lift the barbell while thrusting to an upright position. Once again, use your heels.
These two exercises are the ultimate in fitness training. If you’re primarily focused on muscle-building, you will see results in a short period of time. You will be very happy to see your bench press increase by at least 10% within just a few weeks.
For now I’m focusing on military presses because for what I have known military presses can build muscles faster and maybe I should add squats and deadlifts over to ensure that my workouts are really effective. Thanks for such a useful recommendation.
This is truly a good post. These two power moves are great for building all round muscles of the body. Mastering the technique is significant to enhancing muscle growth.
I usually do my squats before my workout routines so my legs are still fresher.
I usually made squats before i do my workout routines when my legs were still fresher. But some prefer it rather at the end of their workouts.
Thanks for this valuable information, these two exercises were always overlooked by me. I considered these as boring and doesn’t do much benefits. But this has opened up my mind :)
Thanks a lot for your help. But this position sort of does not really work out the quads much. Yet quite comfortable for the knees.
I tend to have a clicking sound at my knees when I try to do squats. Being an orthoped myself I can clearly understand that something is wrongly being grazed against. Is it something to do with the way I stand or can something be done about it.
The squat involves flexion at the ankle, knee & hip.
If you want to reduce strain on your knees, you can alter your squat motion from a bodybuilding style squat to a powerlifting style of squat.
In the power squat, you shove you butt backwards creating a more acute angle at the hip, minimizing load on the knees & ankles
More complete description here
Keep in mind that this will also shift the load from quads to hams, glutes & lower back. If this is a problem, I suggest you play around and try to create your own hybrid version of squat that eases the stress on your knees without taking all of that load off your quads
I’m not really into the whole muscle building thing myself, but I hear this same advice from my husband over and over again. He’s a fitness instructor and personal trainer for professional athletes. Did you guys know that many female sprinters can squat more weight than your average training buddy?
I have worked with a woman who could squat 400 lbs…without looking like a guy
Lol are u serious.. haha but ya I used to ignore squats but am actively doing it now! Great exercise
Hey Steve, sound like a pretty good routine. I’ve been doing weight routines for years, but I still have plenty to learn. I keep thinking about asking Doug for a training program, but I’ve never gotten around to asking him.
Great post! Squats and deads are the foundation of all great exercise routines.
Add pull ups, overhead press, and bench press; tell the client to do 5 sets of 5 reps for each exercise, 3 times a week; now you’ve got yourself a perfectly good 5×5 routine for newbies.
Or split the exercises up like:
day 1 – squats, bent over rows, overhead press; add 3 sets of 8 reps of dips and abs
day 2 – deads, bench press, pull ups; add 3 sets of 8 reps of curls, calves and abs
Now you’ve got a cookie cutter routine for the advanced newbie. Just my $.02
Andrew, thanks for your first guest post here! I’m a big fan of leg squats and dead lifts myself.