Do the Right Weight Training Exercises to Build Muscle Size and Strength

If you follow a weight training routine it's very important to do the right exercises to increase overall muscle mass and strength. This is especially true for novice weight trainers. Doing too many isolation exercises at the expense of the major compound exercises won't help you build the muscle size and strengthyou're looking for. Even if you've been weight training for some time there are certain exercises you should always keep in your routine.

The best weight training exercises for overall muscular development are squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pull-ups and pulldowns, military and dumbbell presses, curls, triceps extensions, and calf raises. Doing these exercises, or various forms of them, will help you build muscle size and strength throughout the entire body.

Squats are the best weight training exercise for leg development and possibly the best weight training exercise overall. Not only will you build your quadricep and hamstring muscles with squats, but you'll also get a testosterone boost that will help you gain more overall muscle size.

The best exercise for lower back workouts is the deadlift. Deadlifting will give your entire lower body and even your upper back a lot of work when you perform them.

Bench presses are the undisputed king of chest exercises. You'll build your pecs quickly if you bench press properly and also get some secondary work for the front deltoids and triceps.

For overall muscular development in the upper back you'll need to train for both width and thickness. The best weight training exercises to add upper back width are pull-ups and pulldowns. Pull-ups are better than pulldowns, but it can be hard to get enough pull-ups for a good set if you haven't built enough strength in your upper back or you weigh too much. To add more upper back thickness you need to do rows. Rows can be done a variety of ways - with barbells, dumbbells, cables, or on various machines.

Military presses are great for building the shoulder muscles, though you may want to do dumbbell presses instead to target the side head of the deltoid more. If you do military presses you should lower the weight to in front of your neck instead of behind it. You're way more likely to hurt your shoulders if you lower the weight behind your neck.

The best exercise for the biceps are curls. Of course, pretty much every bicep exercise involves curling and you do them many different ways.

Triceps extensions are another exercise that can be done a variety of ways. You can do them while standing, seated, or lying on a bench to hit the triceps from many different angles.

The best exercise for the calves is the calf raise. You can do them standing or seated (for the best results you should do both) or on a leg press machine for a change of pace.

Always keep these exercises, or the different forms of them, as the main exercises in your weight training routine. Start your workouts with these compound exercises and save the isolation exercises for the end of your workouts. Flyes, leg extensions, tricep kickbacks, and other popular isolation exercises have their place for getting a nice burn in the muscles, but the major exercises will help you build the real muscle mass and strength.