Best bodybuilding exercises

If your goal is to select the best muscle building exercises from the thousands of different body building exercises that are popular these days, it can be a hard task to narrow the list down to a reasonable number of only the most effective muscle building exercises. What you find with most of the exercises that are making the rounds in the gyms these days, is that each and every movement is either a derivative of one of the basic free weight exercises or a unique exercise designed to target an individual body part. If your goals include building muscle mass naturally, then it's critical that you record a short and manageable list of the muscle building exercises that have been proven to help your muscles get stronger and grow.

While it's true that any weight training exercise will kick-start muscle growth up to a certain point, there is one style of weight training in particular that has managed to stick around for a long time, basic free weight compound exercises. While certainly not jaw dropping compound movements are the most basic free weight exercises around and are very effective at helping you build muscle mass fast and increase your strength at the same time.

The best part of free weight compound exercises lies in the fact that they allow you to train through a complete range of motion with a very heavy weight that typically works multiple muscle groups and multiple joints. This allows you to induce muscle growth in more than one body part by performing only one exercise. If you stick with these types of bodybuilding exercises you're all but guaranteed to get the most out of your time in the gym.

That being said, there are a ton of free weight compound exercises and variations of those exercises, so which exercises are the best for inducing muscle growth? As with anything in the fitness realm, the specific exercises that you choose to slide into your workouts will be based completely upon your preferences and goals. What works well for you may not work at all for me, so take the time to select the best muscle building exercises for your needs!

Listed below is my go-to list of the most effective body building exercises. These are the exercises that make up about 98% of all of my weight training\muscle building workouts. While basic, focusing on these muscle building exercises most of the time allows me to continue to progress in a steady fashion over time, rather than peaking right away and stalling out.

My Favorite Muscle Building Exercises

* Barbell Squat
* Lying Triceps Press
* Overhead Triceps Extensions
* Lunges (Barbell or Dumbbell)
* Weighted Step Ups
* Barbell Curls
* Alternating Dumbbell Curls
* Dead lift
* Stiff Legged Dead lift
* Barbell Rows
* Dumbbell Rows
* Seated DB Shoulder Press
* Barbell Shrugs
* Pull-ups
* Bench Press (Barbell or Dumbbell)
* Incline Press (Barbell or Dumbbell)
* Standing Barbell Shoulder Press



You probably noticed that a few of these exercises are technically not compound movements. In order to target certain muscle groups (like your biceps and triceps), you will need to mix in some isolation movements. Whenever I need to work any isolation exercises into my workouts, I always try to choose the ones that allow me to train with the heaviest possible weight. Any movement that restricts my movement too much will not allow me to train heavy enough.

Stop loading up your workouts with less effective isolation exercises and start getting more out of your time in the weight room. If you incorporate these basic yet effective muscle building exercises into your workouts and put a lot of effort into training hard and heavy, you'll begin to gain strength and muscle mass faster than you ever thought possible.