Awesome Exercises For Building Lean Muscle Mass

by Tim Ryan

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 most popular and effective of these are: dead lifts, squats, bench press, pull ups, 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. Here are a few awesome exercises that are often overlooked yet work really well. From time to time try and include these exercises in your workouts. Variety prevents boredom setting in and provides new reasons for your muscles to grow.

Try running on the sand, donkey raises or a jump rope for getting big calves. Running on the sand is very taxing and the bouncing motion in skipping will provide a real burn. as your calf muscles are generally used to endurance activities like walking all day they tend to respond better to longer endurance type exercises when seeking muscle growth. Donkey raises are when you place your toes on the edge of a 3-4 inch high block bend over to 90 degrees at the waist and rest your hands on a bard or bench at that height. have a training buddy jump on to your back so that you can pump your calve muscles up and down shifting two lots of body weight. stabiliser muscles all around the calve have to be used in order to perform these correctly making them more difficult.

Can you remember the last time you performed dips to hit your chest muscles? A great mass builder for the chest muscle is dips which are great for triceps also. Many older gyms have two long bars that run parallel to each other for exactly this. Often a v shape is formed which provides scope for different grips. This means you can really hit different areas of the chest and triceps effectively.

Try performing stiff legged deadlifts to nail your hamstrings. These are an awesome hamstring exercise seen very infrequently. 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. Maintain control of the weight by keeping it close to your legs whilst raising it and be warned that this exercise can leave your hamstrings very sore the next day.

Try hammer curls if you want big arms! The pal of your hand is kept facing in towards your body at all times, this is the only difference from regular curls. This places great stress on the inner bicep muscle that gives it thickness and size throughout called the brachialis muscle whilst also still developing the main bicep 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.

How long is it since you saw someone do lunges at the fitness centre? These are awesome for your quads providing both mass and shape. With a pair of dumb bells in your hands take a decent stride forwardsand bend both knees down to 90 degress step backwards and repeat with the other leg. A superb workout alternative to squats.

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. That is a real killer!

With those group of classic exercises in your thoughts change your routine around a bit to gain more lean muscle mass.

Original Source: http://goarticles.com/article/Awesome-Exercises-For-Building-Lean-Muscle-Mass/1773720/

How to build arm muscles

The human arm has a lot of muscles and in this article we will focus on two of them: Biceps brachii and Triceps brachii. A common mistake in fitness training is to work too much with biceps brachii and not giving enough attention to triceps branchii.

Biceps brachii, commonly referred to simply as biceps, is a muscle found on the upper arm. As the name suggests, it has two heads. Both heads arise on the shoulder-blade. The main functions of the biceps is to flex the elbow and supinate the forearm. Many different exercises exist for strengthening the biceps, including the famous biceps curl.

Triceps brachii is a large muscle located at the back of the upper arm. As the name implies, it has three heads. Triceps brachii is used for extending the elbow joint, i.e. to straighten the arm. Exercises intended to strengthen the triceps brachii can be divided into two categories: isolation exercises that focuses on the triceps only and compound elbow extensions movements. Cable pushdowns is an example of the former, while pushups and bench press are examples of the latter.

Concentration Curls

This exercise requires one dumbbell. It will chiefly target your biceps, but your forearms will also benefit. Suitable for beginners:

1. Sit down a flat bench.
2. Place a dumbbell in front of you between your feet.
3. Spread your legs. Your feet should be resting on the floor and your legs should be bent, not straight.
4. Pick up the dumbbell with your right hand.
5. Place the back of your upper right arm on top of your inner right thigh. Extend your arm.
6. Rotate your right hand until your palm (still holding on to the dumbbell) is facing forward (i.e. away from your thigh). This is the starting position for this exercise.
7. While exhaling, curl the dumbbell forward while contracting your right biceps. It’s important not to move the upper part of your arm, only the lower part should be moving. Continue the curl and exhale until you have a fully contracted biceps. Your dumbbell will now be positioned at shoulder level, and the little finger on your right hand should be higher than the thumb.
8. Remain in contracted position for 1 second while squeezing the biceps.
9. Slowly and gradually move the dumbbell down again while exhaling. It’s very important not to swing. Lower the dumbbell until you’re back to the starting position.
10. Repeat.

Once you’re finished with your right arm, proceed to do the exercise with your left arm.

Alternate Hammer Curl

The alternate hammer curl will primarily target your biceps, but the forearm will also be involved. You need a dumbbell for this exercise. Suitable for beginners.

1. Stand up.
2. Pick up a dumbbell in each hand.
3. Check that your torso is upright.
4. Hold the dumbbells at arms length (near you hips) with both elbows near your torso. Also, the palms of you hands should be facing your torso. This is the starting position for this exercise.
5. While you exhale, curl the dumbbell in your right hand forward while contracting the biceps. It’s important that you keep your upper arm still; only the lower arm should move. Continue curling until you have a fully contracted biceps. The dumbbell will now be at shoulder level.
6. Remain in contracted position for one second while squeezing the biceps.
7. Slowly and gradually move the dumbbell back down while breathing in. Continue until you’re back in starting position.
8. Repeat point 5-7 but with your left arm.
9. Continue alternating between right hand and left hand exercise.

Pushups in Close Triceps Position

This exercise will target your triceps, but your chest and shoulders will also be active. It doesn’t require any equipment. Not recommended for beginners.

1. Position yourself lying on the floor face down.
2. Place your hands on the floor, closer to each other than shoulder width.
3. Lift your torso at arms length, balancing your body on your hands and on the toes of your feet. This is the starting position for this exercise.
4. While breathing in, slowly lower your torso by bending your arms. Keep lowering your torso until your chest nearly touches the floor.
5. While breathing out, use your triceps and some of your pectoral muscles to press your upper body back to starting position. Squeeze your chest.
6. Remain contracted for a second.
7. Repeat.

Reference: http://www.bodymusclegain.com/how-to-build-arm-muscles/