The ONLY 7 Exercises Men Need To Build Muscle
These are the 7 best exercises for men to build muscle fast. Whether you're a beginner, a skinny guy struggling to get bigger, or even if you're advanced these exercises will help you gain muscle mass faster. You should be incorporating a couple of these everyday obviously leaving enough time for recovery. You can also combine these exercises into full body muscle building workouts that provide the best results.
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TIMESTAMPS:
#1-Barbell row 1:04
#2- Barbell and dumbbell chest presses 2:48
#3- Barbell squats 4:33
#4- The pull up 7:12
#5 -Deadlift 8:51
#6- Shoulder press 10:15
#7- Power clean 11:51
If you're looking for the simplest solution to build muscle in a fast and efficient way, the bottom line so to speak, I gotta say it doesn't get much simpler than this. Because after spending years building muscle naturally I've learned that there are certain useless exercises that you should avoid entirely other exercises that you might want to consider incorporating and then there are the exercises that you just cant go without. Exercises that by themselves have the power to transform your physique. I've narrowed this list down to just seven of the most important exercises that you absolutely should have as a staple part of your routine to efficiently build the most muscle in the shortest amount of time. By mastering these 7 key compound exercises you'll see incredible results even if you're not doing any other exercises in the gym. And I made this video specifically for men not because women can't benefit from these exercises as well but because the ideal attractive body type for men is a V shape whereas for women it's more of an hourglass figure. So even though a lot of the exercises do crossover for both men women this video is specifically to help you develop the best manly physique with the least amount of exercises possible. I'm going to list off these exercises in no particular order, so Let's start first with a very important upper body exercise the bent over barbell Row. With this exercise you'll be working the rhomboids which are the muscles that connect your shoulder blades together so your upper back muscles and you'll also be working the back of your shoulder and your biceps. This is one of the most important pulling movements that you can do. Because you're working multiple muscle groups responsible for Pulling you're able to lift a lot more weight with this compound exercise then if you were to isolate any one of these muscles individually. By strengthening your rhomboids and your posterior deltoid you'll be tightening up your upper back which will help you hold yourself straight up and maintain a better more attractive upright posture. Since you can lift heavy weight with this exercise your biceps are also going to get a lot of stimulation because you'll be lifting a weight that would be impossible to lift with an isolated movement like bicep curls. A basic bent over row is done by grabbing a barbell with your hands a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Stick your butt out and stick your chest out before beginning the movement. Then bend down by about 60 degrees so you're a little higher than being fully parallel to the ground and you want let the weight hang straight down, do not flex your shoulders. While keeping your chest out pull the barbell inward towards your stomach and aim to touch your belly button with the bar. Then bring it back down to that hanging position and repeat this motion for reps. The great thing about rows is that you can do it with a barbell or you can do it with dumbbells, but a general rule of thumb to remember is that you'll be able to lift more weight and typically you'll be able to build more mass with barbells over dumbbells. Also by changing the angles at which you bend during a bent over row you can Target different parts of your back. A fully bent-over position where you're at a 90 degree angle will Target more of your lats and the middle of your back whereas standing more upright will Target more of your traps and upper back. Let's move on to another staple exercise that you should be doing, barbell and dumbbell chest presses. While the rows will help you develop the posterior or the back part of your upper body the chest presses are there to help you develop the anterior or the front part of your upper body. It'll hit your chest, the front head of your shoulders as well as your triceps. With chest presses you want to spend the majority of your time doing them at two different angles flat and incline. If your weakness is your upper chest you want to spend more of your time doing incline presses.if your upper chest…
Before accepting the comments about the proper neck position for deadlifts as fact do a google search. Whether you should keep your head up or pack your neck is a highly debated topic. So the answer is not quite as cut and dry as some comments are making it seem. In fact there are many reasons to keep your head up during the deadlift. Don’t get me wrong keeping your neck packed or in a “double chin” position is a perfectly acceptable way to perform the deadlift, but here are a couple arguments for why some of you may want to keep your chin up:
1. A big problem that people have is they allow their hips to rise too soon. Their hips wind up rising faster than they extend their back. By keeping your head up it’ll help you complete the lift in one motion.
2. You’ll prevent yourself from falling forward. If you look at the floor a couple feet in front of you it may cause you to come up off of your heels and up onto your toes.
3. Almost all the strongest power lifters will have their chin up when dead lifting. Just go through some strongman/power lifting footage and you’ll see this.
4. Keeping your head down with eyes on the floor can cause a lot of people to arch the back once the weight is pulling their upper back downward. This is an especially common problem for beginners. A completely neutral spine before starting many times will turn into a forward flexed spine once the weight load is added and it’s pulling you down. This is especially true if the weight load is heavy. On the other hand slight hyper extension before starting will turn into a neutral spine once the heavy weight is pulling you down.
5. Olympic weight lifters almost never maintain a neutral head position during the pulling portion of a snatch or a clean. That pulling portion in the beginning is very similar to a dead lift.
6. Most people have rounded shoulders from sitting at a desk all day long. Having the head up can help keep their overstretched/weakened upper back tight. From my experience beginners tend to have better form with deadlifts when told to keep the chin up rather than packing the chin.
There are many more reasons and much better arguments that you can find just by simply doing a search on google. With all that said both positions can work. Neck position is highly about personal preference and what allows you to lift heavier weight. If keeping your head up bothers your neck then packing the chin would obviously be a much better option for you. For neck position I’ve included two videos by two of my trainers from my gyms in New Jersey; John and Sal. John keeps his neck very packed during deadlfits and Sal keeps his more neutral.
John chin packed really tight: https://vimeo.com/215326343/499da70c53
Sal more neutral: https://vimeo.com/240249857/b73b649083
Finally I’d like to address some other form critiques in the comments. First I have to mention that at the end of the deadlift I do slightly hyperextend my back. This was a mistake caused by the fact that the weight I was lifting was really light and I was trying to really emphasize that this is a hip hinging movement. In the process I accidentally hinged my hips a tiny bit too far. You want to stop when you’re standing straight up and not go any further back into hyperextension. I’ll also admit my clean form wasn’t the best and normally is better. I sent my editor probably close to 50 – 100 reps of cleans and he used only a rep and a half in the video. He is not an expert at weight lifting, so it’s understandable how he selected 2 reps that were not perfect.
With the fully bent over barbell row at the 90 degree angle the form is not incorrect. A variation of this would be pendlay rows, which is done fully bent over. I’ve included an example below, performed with kettlebells rather than a barbell.
Pendlay Rows by John, Again John prefers chin tucked but you can have your head up as well:
https://vimeo.com/244567570/abc25d7329
With all that aside, none of this changes the point of the video which was to discuss these 7 key exercises. If you want perfect form I recommend viewing a couple different videos from a couple different perspectives on the proper form for each exercise so you can create a path of motion that’s ideal for your body. As for the hardcore “form police” that would love nothing more than to write me off as a bro scientist. I encourage you to do a quick google search for my gyms “gravity training zone” and you’ll find hundreds of 5 star reviews for my 3 brick and mortar locations in NJ. Hope everyone enjoyed the video, and I truly hope it helped. Sorry about the cleans and the hyper extension at the end of the deads.
Good point regarding multiple reps of cleans and the editor choosing just a few which happened not to be perfect. Nobody has perfect clean reps 100% of the time. Good video which has got me thinking.
You’re real!
Can you also make a video on exercise men only need without weight. Pretty please
Can you give me a list and/or make a video of best exercises ladies can do at the gym? I love your channel too.
Thanks for this post. Nonetheless it is important to remember that a lot of novice will watch your form so it is necessary that such forms are correct even if this is not a tutorial for each exercise. Morover I’d say that your overhead press is in fact a incline bench press and that it is not necessary true that you can lift more weight if seated. Furthermore I’d like to say that: power clean is not adapt for everyone and that it is arguable that an explosive and tecnical difficult movement is really necessary to build muscles; you cannot strengthen your central nervous system but only make it adapt; the increase in testosterone and GH by making squat and deadlift is only temporary and (for a scientific prospective) cannot by itself build muscles.
In any case I approved the general point of this video.
TIMESTAMPS:
#1-Barbell row 1:04
#2- Barbell and dumbbell chest presses 2:48
#3- Barbell squats 4:33
#4- The pull up 7:12
#5 -Deadlift 8:51
#6- Shoulder press 10:15
#7- Power clean 11:51
Jasdeep Singh sir you deserve way more likes. **hat off**
He just copied the exact thing frombthe description
Plus Dips and WALKING LUNGES
Thanks
I have barbell and pair of dumbbell and flat bench can anyone suggest full home body workout
this video is practically perfect for anyone looking to get into weight training. Well done!
no
The Last Knicks Fan why
Can i do all this exercise daily????
@Warriors Fan Since 2020 lol yes
Pudgems would you explain more easily
Love this. Exactly what I’ve been looking for because I hate long drawn out workouts with too much isolation. Compound exercises totally my way to go to keep things simple and most overall beneficial to my goals. Thanks for the breakdown!
I appreciate how you don’t just mention the exercise and show it, but you’re going into fine details about what to do. It’s actually more detail I’ve gotten than even working with a trainer.
Change trainer.
For real man change trainer. I have a personal trainer, and he’s fantastic. Goes through all the little details, explains all the variations, all the benefits, shows proper movement, focuses mostly on my weaknesses. It’s how they should be. If your personal trainer is out-done by a youtube video, then you definitely need a new one.
Anybody is a trainer nowadays
Yea seriously change trainers at the gym I’m a member at a trainer there saw that my form for chest compressions was hella wrong he literally took 10 minutes to show me the general stuff about the machine and proper form here’s the kicker he was already with a client whose paying him
@jacob butler Experience is something you cannot buy. Props to your guy, man
#1 – Barbell row 1:04
#2 – Barbell and dumbbell chest presses 2:48
#3 – Barbell squats 4:33
#4 – The pull up 7:12
#5 – Deadlift 8:51
#6 – Shoulder press 10:15
#7 – Power clean 11:50
Thanks
Thank you
Thanks mate
Thanks❤️
Thank you mate.
Great video! I do a few of these already and im gonna incorporate the rest of them into my routine. Thanks for the detailed explanations
Man, I love this channel! I’ve been learning so much and can’t wait to start ripping reps! I got into the habit of doing lighter weights and lots of reps so I’m excited to see the gains when I go heavier and add these compound movements into the workout!! You’re awesome, man! thanks!
@Mike Hawk you just made him depressed about not doing this 🙃
Awesome video. Love the walkthroughs. Thank you so much for taking the time to give such great advice.
*Personal Use*
– Basic Barbell Row: 1:55 – 2:26
– Basic/Incline Bench Press: 3:39 – 4:11
– Squats: 5:27 – 6:37
– Pull ups: 7:32 – 7:49
– Deadlifts: 9:31 – 10:01
– Shoulder press (Military press): 10:49 – 11:15
U are the man
How’s it after a year, fam?
Great vid thanks! Reassuring that 6 out of 7 of these are already in my 4 day (chest, back, shoulders, legs) split routine. I’m just missing the power clean.
This video was surprisingly motivating for me. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of obscure specific exercises being suggested on fitness YouTube, and here’s one that more or less sticks to the first exercises I ever learned when my rowing group started doing weights back when I was 14. Thanks for reminding me that I can be confident working out with what I know and I don’t have to feel insecure about my lack of knowledge about exercises.
Oh yea it’s only about diet and efficient, consistent training for good results. For training all you really need starting out are these compound movements and progressively overloading them via increase in weight/sets/reps.
the most important things in life to succeed always seem to end up being the fundamentals of a given discipline
i totally hear you dude. i feel like people invent the craziest stuff to stay sexy, new, catch attention on social media, show how much they learned in PT school, etc. Like if someone goes to PT school they’re not just going to tell you – just do these 7 basic exercises – even if that’s the best thing – cuz they need something to fill up all those courses and certifications etc. anyway, i hear you and feel the same way. best of luck on your fitness journey.
Completely feel the same. So I have a spread sheet of all my exercises (a few per rough muscle group) with my most recent weights recorded with them. I stopped lifting for half a year or so and I’ve literally hated the idea of going back just cos of all this specific stuff I need to relearn. Truth is, if you’re a regular guy looking to be strong with a good body.. you just need compounds!
So well put together , great guideline to help anyone trying to get a better body (myself ) thank you !
Sticking to the basics is by far the safest and most effective method of exercise known to mankind. Before launching my career in the fitness industry as a trainer and nutritionist, my back was falling apart during my college years – That was eons ago!! Given the fact I had crippling back spasms, sticking to safe core workouts and simple push / pull routines, helped me strengthen my back and build the physique I have today at 50!! Keying in on nutrition and making sure that’s on point coupled w/ safe, simple consistent exercises can go a long way!! Satay STRONG, my dear amigos!!
As someone who has done these exercises for years but never really knew why, this is solid advice. Thank god there are channels that exist that aren’t trying to sell you something, and aren’t selling lies. Subscribed! I hope others find these workouts and do them, they really have changed my life over the years.
Well he is trying to sell you his program. But the stuff he speaks in his videos are grounded in science. So I respect his Hussle because he respects his audience.
Great stuff, especially when time constraints prevent me from doing an extensive workout.
This one saves me a lot of time.
I also found out that using the right technique, each exercise becomes much easier and lowers the risk of injury.
In general, back straight, butt out, chest out…
And how it’s shown in this video helps a lot.
I guess abs require some exercise too though…
Hey man, I love your channel and your videos. No BS, just good solid advice. Like this one. I tell people all the time that everyone over complicates fitness and big compound exercises like these are really all you need. Thanks again!
I keep coming back to this video – really great for a quick day workout or to incorporate in your daily routine! You also train your stabilizer muscles, which help with other exercises!
it works so well, I try to hit as many of these exercises as I can every workout, it just works so well, gaining mass everywhere, did bro splits for years and saw just arm gains mostly.
Hey if your reading this that probably means your working to better yourself and be the best version of yourself and I’m here to say I’m proud of you bro, don’t give up, keep pushing 💪🤙
Thanks man. Needed that.
Thanks Man !!!!!
*you’re
*you’re
Keep learning English bro, you can do it.
Thanx, although i can’t do any pull ups yet, how do i get there??
4 years late, just wanted to share something from personal experience. The stuff about growth hormones and testosterone in relation to squats and deadlifts, I think it’s pretty significant. Don’t ditch them. I had been working out for roughly 9 months with good progress, as an amateur beginner to weightlifting and fitness. But I didn’t train squats or deadlifts. However – when I did start doing them. My overall strength, power and progression on ALL exercises increased drastically. Just 2 months in after having added squats and deadlifts: bench, shoulderpress, arms, just… everything felt supercharged. Never juiced, never will. I trained consistently and ate proper. However I was stagnating after 9 months, adding squats and deadlifts didn’t just improve what those target. It improved EVERYTHING.