What Exercises Provide The Most Sense For Strength Training?

There is a plethora of options in the exercise world, but the real question is what is truly most effective and how is it effective?

With the assortment of protocols that are out there many are not necessarily getting people true results due to the focus of machine guidance rather than fluid movements and light weight bearing exercises.

In order to really get the most out of your workouts you need to increase your intensity levels while present at the gym. More importantly you also need to focus on functional exercises that you can do using the proper form and technique.

When performing exercises it is highly critical to master the movement and to alternate exercises each day. Make sure to switch and cycle exercises up as you go through a program, in order to avoid becoming complacent with the same comfortable workouts.

Part of performing better in the gym comes down to having the proper lifting exercises. Below I have listed some commonly known primary and secondary exercises to implement as part of a successful strength regimen:

• Overhead Press – This exercise is a good primary one to implement in order to build upper body strength and specifically target the shoulders and the anterior deltoid muscles.

• Squat – This primary exercise is excellent for core stability, strengthening the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps muscles in the legs. It can also assist with bicep strength while gripping and balancing the bar. Overall you will find HUGE gains in leg strength as well as stability with this essential exercise.

• Bench Press – This primary exercise is critical to incorporate on a weekly basis. It will strengthen the pectoral muscles in the chest and give you definite upper body size. This exercise also incorporates part of the triceps brachii, deltoids, and abdominal core muscles.

• Deadlift – Although I don’t really do this exercise often, deadlift is one of the best primary exercises that there is if you get the form down properly. A deadlift will incorporate the lower and upper body. It will include the hamstrings, glutes, pectoral muscles, latissimus dorsi, trapezius, and quadriceps. Overall you will find significant gains in musculature with just this one exercise consistently included as a part of your program.

• Kettle-bell Renegade Row – This secondary exercise will provide you with a chiseled back. It is an easy exercise to modify and include as part of a circuit training regimen. You have to lift up the kettlebells up to your chest from the ground and return it to the floor by maintaining stability like a plank position. This will definitely strengthen your core muscles, latissimus dorsi, and trapezius muscle.

• Dip – This secondary exercise is excellent for developing the triceps brachii, and the pectoral major and minor. It will take time to increase repetitions, but the key is to start getting the form down with a machine that off sets and lowers your body weight. Once you are comfortable begin to transition to your own body weight and focus on not going beyond 90 degrees as you lower down.

• Pull-Up – Part of doing the pull is advancing your upper body strength and in particular your biceps, brachioradialis, deltoids, trapezius, and lattisimus dorsi muscles. If you do pull ups on a regular basis at the gym or at home you will develop significant body weight strength from this calisthenic exercise. There are ways to modify this secondary exercise as well in order to make it harder or easier depending upon where you’re at with your strength progress.

• Push-Up – This secondary exercise will help with core stability, pectoral chest strength, and triceps brachii strength. It is rather simple, yet very effective and easy to do at the gym or at home. It can help with muscle building as well as stability training. Overall it is easy to modify to make it harder or easier based off raising the feet up to an elevated position or using a bosu ball to trick your body with uneven stability.

• Leg Press – This secondary exercise will test your hamstrings, glutes, and quadriceps muscles for an excellent leg strengthening routine. Make sure not to bend your knees too far as you come down with the weight plates and also keep your knees bent rather then locking them at the top when full pressing the weight above your body.

• Leg Extension – This secondary exercise will provide a lot of excellent definition for the quadricep muscle in particular. It is fairly easy and natural as a motion. Essentially it is like a seated leg lift with a upward kick-like motion. It can be included on any leg day and will definitely help with strength training.

• Leg Curl – This secondary exercise will help considerably with activating the glute muscles as well as the hamstring muscles in the lower body. This can be included on any leg day and will also help with building stronger legs just like walking up and down a steep hill would activate the hamstring muscles.

• Lateral Dumbbell Raise – This secondary exercise will help build the deltoid muscles and help with the range of motion of your shoulders.

• Frontal Dumbbell Raise – This secondary exercise will help build the deltoid muscles and help with the range of motion of your shoulders.

• Triceps Push-down – This secondary exercise will help to build more definition with your triceps brachii. It will offer a good strengthening and toning movement that can assist with long-term size and building tricep muscle.

• Biceps Dumbbell Curl – This secondary exercise can give your biceps a real good burn and help give them more size and strength. Overall the biceps dumbbell curl has different techniques for the motion. You can twist your wrist as you come up with the curl motion in order to work more brachioradialis or you can keep your arms more in a supine position as you curl up and flex your biceps muscle. You will notice that with exercising over time your ability to increase the dumbbell weight will elevate as you become stronger and more familiar with the motion. Like most exercises you will get stronger through repetition and increasing your muscle familiarity. You can do this exercise standing or seated with a bench bent to a 90 degree angle.

• Biceps Barbell Curl – This secondary exercise can give your biceps a real good burn and help give them more size and strength. Overall the barbell curl has different options with gripping as well as barbell types. Whether you want a straight bar, curved barbell, narrow grip, or wide grip you can work different parts of the biceps brachii and get stronger through repetition.

Overall I have mentioned some of the key exercises to include as part of a strength training regimen in order to help build more definition and size. You will build a lot of strength with these exercises that are included above and notice progress like you wouldn’t believe if you stick with the gym at least three to five days a week!

Remember also that there is a lot of information out there, but not everything is going to get you the results that you desire.

There is something to be said about having the right nutrition, adequate sleep, and proper training intensity. Be sure to build your awareness about what needs to be done while going through a training regimen. In addition, don’t waste your time while at the gym.

Have a plan set up and go through your exercises at a pace that will get you real results and keep you healthy in the long-term.