5 Best Muscle Building Exercises for Big Muscles

Muscle building exercises must find a spot in your workout routine. These exercises can enable you to work on your bigger muscles, activate them, and ensure that you’re able to develop them.

Coming to big muscles such as the chest, back, and legs, you need to incorporate compound movements into your workout routine to ensure you’re activating the bigger and smaller muscles of the group.

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Muscle Building Exercises for Big Muscles

The following are five of the muscle building exercises that can allow you to work on defining and toning your muscles.

1) Barbell Squat

Barbell squats are for the legs, especially the quads. There are variations of barbell squats, but you must start with barbell squats or dumbbell squats to understand the form, muscle engagement, and other aspects of the exercise.

To do the exercise, set the barbell on the power rack to your shoulder height. Stand underneath the barbell, and take it off the rack after placing it behind your neck, using your shoulders for support.

After unracking it, step away from the power rack, and keep your legs slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower yourself to do a squat by bending from the knees and keeping a straight back. When you move back up, push through with your heels so that the pressure comes on the quads.

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2) Bench press

Another popular muscle building exercise is the bench press. It works on the pectoral muscles, and there's a dumbbell variation for the same.

The bench press is a compound movement that works on the chest (primary) and triceps and shoulders (secondary). It’s important to maintain a strong muscle-mind connection to ensure that the triceps do not take over, and the pressure remains on the chest.

You can find a guide for doing bench press here.

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3) Barbell row

The big muscles include the lats as well, and barbell rows are a significantly important exercise for the lats.

To do barbell rows, set up a barbell either on the power rack at your hip or slightly lower, or keep the barbell on the floor. Stack the barbell with weights (the amount you can lift), and grab the barbell at shoulder-width.

Lift the barbell while keeping your back straight, and slightly bend forward to take position. Pull the barbell towards your torso with your back straight, and squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the motion.

Try to control the negative when lowering the weight to activate the muscles in the group.

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4) Deadlift

Deadlifts can improve your strength, muscle definition, and are excellent for burning calories.

It’s an excellent muscle building exercise, but it’s not something you need to do from the very first day. Deadlifts work on the lower back and lower body, and the variations work out one of the two parts.

If you wish to, you can start with dumbbell deadlifts and understand the form for each variation. Of course, a muscle-mind connection is of extreme importance in such exercises.

Find a guide for doing deadlifts here.

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5) Overhead press

An overhead press is primarily for the shoulders, but interestingly, it works on the core muscles and triceps too.

To do an overhead press, set up the barbell on the power rack at shoulder-height. Stack the barbell with moderate weights, and grab the barbell at shoulder-width.

Unrack the barbell, and find your balance. Engage your core muscles for better balance and stability, and once you’ve found that, push the barbell overhead. You should use your shoulders for the movement and not your triceps. Steadily bring the weight back till your shoulders before the next rep.

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Bottom Line

Muscle building exercises not only define the muscles, but they’re utilized for burning excess calories as well.

Regardless of whether your goal is to build muscle or lose weight, you should add muscle building exercises to your routine at least thrice a week. These exercises can help you become fitter, stronger, and improve your daily life.