Ok you will hear a lot of chatter around the gym about what it takes to build a massively muscled body.
Some will say steroids, others will claim protein, and others some new supplement.
However if you ask the guys that have already added substantial mass to their frame you will find a curios pattern.
The biggest bodies in the gym were built with heavy and intense weight training exercises.
Bottom line you cannot build muscle unless you shock your body into growth with hardcore exercises.
Keep It Multi Joint So what are the exercises that shock the most? They are multi joint exercises, often called compound lifts.
This type of movement involves more than one joint at a time, therefore they also involve more than one muscle group at a time as well.
These exercises are effective because they recruit more muscle fibers per lift than any other, and the more muscle fibers you recruit the more muscle fibers you will gain.
So lets look at the list of winners.
Second Runner Up Is...
This bench press - This lift gets lots of attention, and reasonably so.
When it comes to upper body lifts this bad-boy is the champ.
It recruits the pecs to build a commanding chest.
Plus it recruits the front deltoids to help build those shoulders, and last but not least it builds triceps.
This lift should be the cornerstone to your upper body workout for pressing movements.
Keep it as the center piece and build some other pressing movements around it to fill out your arm, shoulder and chest routine.
The First Runner Up Is...
The Squat - The exercise everyone loves to avoid.
It is sad too because this is a gem of a lift.
Obviously the squat works the quad muscles in the upper thigh.
But it also works the glutes, calves and adductors.
Because this lift uses such a large muscle group it causes your body to rush a hormonal cascade of mass building hormones -like testosterone - into your blood stream.
So even though it directly builds a strong set of wheels it also helps to indirectly build those biceps as well...
Nice.
The Winner Is...
The Deadlift - Pound for pound no other exercise delivers more muscle fiber recruitment than the Deadlift.
Sadly most beginners have never even heard of this lift.
That is too bad, because this lift has been the secret formula to massive bodies for decades.
This lift is where you lift a barbell off of the ground from dead bottom - hence the dead lift.
This is a serious lift that needs a little more guidance than I can provide here.
But let me tell you it is the grand daddy off them all.
Aside from using the same muscles as the squat, the deadlift adds to the list, arms shoulders and upper and the back - talk about hormonal surge.
The added benefit of this lift is that it is a show stopper.
Loading up a bar with a few wheels and lifting it from the ground will get the gym looking at you.
It is absolutely beautiful - in a barbaric way.