Now that we've gone through the most basic exercises, the ones that isolate each muscle and work the strongest portion of the strength curve for each muscle, we now need to look into exercises that can give you a boost into building muscle. These exercises that I'm about to show you can, and should be used for beginners and experts as they provide a solid foundation for strength and systemic growth. These exercises are the Bench Press, Barbell Squat, and Deadlift.
Some of you have probably seen workout programs that tell you to start with these exercises because they are the hardest exercises and require the most energy. However, the trainers that prescribe these exercises never tell you WHY you need to be doing these exercises at the beginning of your workout, or why you should be doing them at all. They don't even tell you how it benefits your body. I don't know about you, but if I have to do something really hard without knowing what the benefits are, I don't want to do it! I'm about to give you a new perspective and tell you WHY you should be doing these exercises.
The reason you want to do these exercises is that they work multiple muscles at once, but now you're probably wondering "why do I need to work these muscles all at once when I already know how to work each muscle individually?" Fair question, and here's the answer. When you work multiple muscles at once to move heavy loads, you get a massive anabolic signal that goes off in your body due to a rise in testosterone and growth hormone, two hormones that play a big role in building muscle. Thus, doing these exercises at the beginning of your workout will give you better muscle-building potential when you go to do the isolated exercises afterward. Along with that, your nervous system will fire up due to the heavy amount of weight you use with those exercises (think 3-6 reps).
Now, some will say you should solely do these exercises and nothing else when you first go to the gym. That's really not the best idea, for a couple of reasons. One, each of these exercises takes a big toll on your body. If you do deadlift correctly, do you really think you'll have the capability to do squat afterward, or even bench? I doubt it. Not to mention each of these exercises takes a hit on your nervous system, which means your output will likely be zero when you do the last 2 exercises no matter what order you do them in. Second, the tension from the heavy load in these exercises is spread out among different muscle groups. When you're trying to build muscle, you need to isolate them in order to maximize tension in each muscle group. That's what forces muscles to grow.
Therefore I don't recommend you start incorporating any one of these exercises until you get to the point where your basic, one exercise per muscle group style of workout isn't building you muscle or burning fat like it used to. Once you hit your first plateau, add in ONE of these exercises at the beginning of your workout. I recommend the deadlift because it's the most anabolic lift. Plus, it's a simple way of progressing.
SIDE NOTE: Only add one or two tools at a time to a training session when you plateau in order to initiate growth. You want to do the least amount of work to get the highest amount of growth. This should be your mentality when you're in the gym. Doing too much too soon will require you to do even more down the road when you plateau, and that's not a place you want to be in. When you're playing a videogame, you don't throw all of your grenades out to the enemies at once, right? You use one or two at a time so that you can be ready for another roadblock later on. Keep that mentality when you run into plateaus. And we'll talk way more about plateau-breaking later on.
Another reason I recommend the deadlift for the first anabolic exercise is that you MUST keep your spine straight while doing the deadlift, and that requires the lower back to contract for long periods of time. If there's any muscle that should be worked a little bit harder on your body, it's your lower back as it's one of your more important stabilizers when it comes to weight training. Plus, if your lower back is weak and is unable to help you stabilize, you risk rounding the back during the exercise and getting injured.
Deadlift
Stand in front of the bar and get your feet into a comfortable position, preferably shoulder-width apart
As you bend down to grip the bar, keep your back straight and contract your lower back
Once you get down, roll the bar as close as you can to your shins without actually touching them
this will spread tension between your legs and lower back when lifting the weight, giving you that anabolic effect
Grab the bar with an overhand grip (However, once you get stronger with your deadlift and are able to lift more weight, you'll have to switch to an overhand-underhand grip)
Make sure your back is around a 45-degree angle with the bar close to your shins before you pull it up
Then, flex your lower back and drive your feet into the floor at the same time, and lift the weight
At the top of the rep, stand up tall! You'll want to keep your lower back tight as to not bend your back and cause injury
SLOWLY lower the weight back down to the ground while keeping your lower back tight
There are people that drop the weight or do nothing to fight the negative on the way down. DON'T DO THIS
Driving the heavy amount of tension through your lower back and legs is part of that anabolic effect, and that includes tension going through those muscles during the negative!
With this exercise, you'll want to be careful as your lower back gets tired because once that happens your back has a chance of bending
I recommend stopping and waiting until the next set once you start to feel your lower back go
You'll feel winded after these if you do them correctly, and because of that you'll want to rest for a little longer than with most exercises
So there you have it! Once you hit your first plateau after working each muscle group individually with one exercise each, all you need to do is add in the deadlift and you'll be set. It'll give you a great anabolic effect and also help you build lots of strength. In the next part of this series, we'll talk about working different portions of the strength curve for each of your muscles. We'll also talk about the heavy squats and bench press at the end of this series.
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