Forgotten Lean Muscle Mass Building Exercises That Work!

There are hundreds of different exercises you can do with free weights and resistance machines or with just your body weight to build muscle mass. You should include mainly multi-joint compound exercises in your workout as they build muscle fastest. The time proven classic mass builders are: bench press, pull ups, dead lifts, squats, shoulder presses and rows.

Whilst they are very effective your body needs to be constantly challenged in new and different ways if your goal is building lean muscle mass. For some reason theses following exercises are often overlooked which is surprising as they are real mass builders. Try and include them in your workouts now and again for variety. Variety provides new stimulus for your muscles to grow and prevents you from getting bored.

For calf muscles try running on the sand, skipping or donkey raises. Running on the sand is very taxing and the bouncing motion in skipping will provide a real burn. because the muscles in your calves are normally made use of in activities that are largely endurance based such as walking they often grow more when stimulated using higher rep ranges. donkey raises involves placing your feet on the edge of a block of wood, weights disc or step bending over at the waist to 90 degrees and resting your hands on a solid surface for support. A training partner or two then jump on to your back and you raise your body up and down by flexing your calf muscles. This exercise makes you use muscles surrounding the calves as stabilisers too making it more difficult than using a machine to train them.

For the chest muscles when was the last time you did some dips? A classic mass builder for the chest muscle is dips which are an awesome workout for triceps too. Some of the older gyms have parallel bars installed in them for this precise exercise. Often a v shape is formed which provides scope for different grips. This enables you to train a specific part of your chest muscle or tricep muscle really well.

What about doing stiff legged deadlifts to really punish your hamstrings. This exercise is used very little which is surprising being as it is so effective. Simply do deadlifts but you legs have to remain straight throughout meaning you bend at the waist and keep a straight back to lift the barbell or dumbbell. Keep control of the weight by ensuring that it is close to your legs whilst raising it and be warned that this exercise can make your hamstrings very sore for the following day.

Try hammer curls if you want big arms! These are the same as regular dumb bell curls only you keep the palm of your hand facing in towards the body throughout. This directs much stress on to an inner bicep muscle giving it both thickness and size throughout and is named the brachialis muscle, the exercise also hits the main bicep muscle too. Stand with your back straight and flat against the corner of a wall to prevent yourself from using moment to assist the movement for a real burn.

When was the last time you saw anyone do lunges in the gym? These are particularly good for giving your quads mass and shape. With a dumb bell in either hand take a good stride straight ahead and then bend both knees down to around 90 degress, step backwards returning to the start position and repeat on the other side. A great option if you do not want to squat.

For creating muscle definition and for a superb aerobic workout why not try boxing padwork it is very effective for the hitting the entire upper body or do uphill sprints to shred your leg muscles or even get on an exercise bike for uphill intervals immediately following a leg workout. Thats is a real beauty of a muscle maker!

With those few exercises in mind go ahead and mix your program up a bit for more muscle mass.