Why We Need Simple Exercises And Strong Physical Foundation
One of the common question for bodybuilding enthusiasts is what exercises should i train to have bigger chest, arms, shoulders, calves, etc....
But in order to have better look or bigger size of a muscle, you need to perform certain movements for that muscles with a correct form and resistance, and in order to do that you need to have an over all balance of strength within your body parts.
What Are The Basic Movements I Need To Master
Below exercises are not only for beginners, but also performed by elite athletes and some of them used as a benchmark to measure physical strength and progress over time. There are two categories here:
| Body Weight Exercises |
These are very beneficial for core strength and preventing most of injuries. The stability and balance needed to perform these movements forces your whole body parts to work. It also plays a role in correcting posture as well as many other aspects related to your daily life style.
1- Push ups
Although push ups are used primarily to train chest and triceps, they are also beneficial for your posture through the tension happening in your abs and back muscles, which is responsible of holding your abdomen from touch the ground. Mastering push ups are also essential to do some blanks and fat burning exercises like burpees. Push ups has many variations which makes enjoyable and challenging in the same time.
2- Pull ups
Pull ups are mistaken to be an only back exercise, while the reality is if you are trying to build good looking arms and forearms, then you need do a lot of pull movements including pull ups, chin ups, climbing rope and others. The resistance generated from holding your grip around the bar while doing pull ups has a tremendous benefit for strengthening the forearm muscles. The positioning of body parts while doing body weight pull ups is different from doing the same movement using lat pull down machine or even the assisted pull ups machine. This is because classic pull ups or chin ups forces you to tighten your abdomen and other body parts prevent the swing. Mastering pull ups will also reward you with wider looking chest and shoulders even if you have a narrow shoulders by genetics.
3- Air Squat
Before starting weighted squats, make sure to try bodyweight squat which are also called air squats exercise. Why I need to master air squats ? Air squats exercise is a powerful movement for burning more calories compared to other bodyweight exercise like pushups. On the other hand, air squats exercise is a compound movement that works not only legs, but also your abs and lower back muscles which makes it very beneficial for the functionality for these muscles. Air squats can be performed anywhere at any time and it is very necessary for legs to build strength and muscle mass needed for performing explosive movements like jumping and sprinting.
4- Box Jumps
This explosive movement might be hard for over weight individuals. However, you need to master air squats before proceeding to jumping movements in general. depending on the box height, box jumps forces you to use lower abs and hip flexors muscles especially if combined with burpees.
5- Rope Skips
Another jump movement but lower intensity than box jumps. Rope skips can be hard for beginners, but do not worry, you can master it in short time as it requires technique more than power. like air squats and box jumps, rope skips burn more calories than other body weight exercises because it works large muscle groups like legs and core.
6- Reverse Crunches
If you ever encounter a weakness or pain in glutes or lower back, revers crunches considered a great exercise treat this weakness and you can try it easily at home. There are a variety of exercises that mimic the movement of reverse crunches, and it all focuses on glutes, lower back and hamstrings.
7- Hanging Leg Raises
As expalined previously, one of the main reasons that prevent the progress of forearms and biceps muscles is that people often neglect the compound movement that works these muscles. Hanging leg raises is a smart choice for working your lower abs, hip flexor, your grip strength, forearms and biceps muscles. Another benefit that this 5 in 1 exercise (hanging leg raises) is great for preventing hernia and other similar injuries in the abdominal area.
8- Planks
There are several types of plank exercises that all can be used as warm up routines. For example, you can use the straight arm plank as a warm up for chest workout, or you can use side planks before a back workout. Planks are great because strengthen your core muscles without the need to move your spine which is the case in abdominal crunches.
| Weight Lifting |
Weight lifting is not meant to replace body weight exercises. Instead, it actually strengthens certain muscle group through focusing the resistance on that area , like chest for example. As a result, weight lifting can be used for beginners in case they are not capable of performing body weight exercises like pull ups, and also can be used to load extra resistance in case you are not satisfied with the resistance of your body weight alone. In other words, Weight lifting is more flexible in terms of resistance applied to a certain muscle, while body weight exercises uses a fixed resistance that is mostly applied on several muscle groups in the same time.
1- Deadlift
Deadlift is the most important exercise for your everyday physical functionality. The deadlift movement focuses on your lower back and legs. However, deadlift also great for strengthening your hand grip. Also, the correct form of deadlift requires certain support from your lats muscles and shoulder blades.
2- Squat
The amount of weight you can squat is often used as a benchmark for lower body strength. When compared to deadlift, squats focuses more on quads, hamstrings and lower back. However, if you do not have the time to do both exercises, consider combining the both in to one called power clean - front squat.
3- Bench press
Like squats, bench press is also a benchmark for your upper body push movement progress. Bench press is not meant to replace pushups, but it is a fundamental movement that you need to master before doing flies and presses on machines.
4- Shoulder Press
Often called military press or overhead press, and all are done in standing position. Like other barbell strength exercises, the amount of weight you can shoulder press is also a benchmark for your shoulders strength and progress. Note that you can not safely progress in shoulder press unless you are also progressing in deadlift and squats, this is because of the standing position of military/ shoulder press that requires certain strength and stability in core and legs muscles. Your core and legs strength is also important in standing shoulder press in order to prevent spinal injuries.
5- Pull Exercises | Lat Pull Down Machine & Dumbbell Row |
If correcting your upper body posture is your priority, make sure to progress in pull exercises. Compared to bodyweight pull ups, using lat pull down machine and dumbbell row will allow you to focus more on latissimus dorsi and other back muscles, while reducing the engagement of arms and core muscles. These exercises will get you the V shape much faster compared to pull ups alone and will make your upper body looks much wider.
6- Arms Exercises | Biceps and Triceps |
When it comes to arms, there is no specific exercises that are perfect for everyone. Instead, what you need to do is to include two positions for your elbows for each muscle. Example: For biceps, consider chin ups and barbell curl exercises. Chin ups are great for building forearms and biceps, but you need to include another different position for elbows which is the case in barbell curl exercise where your elbows are positioned near your hips opposite to the chin ups position where your elbows are positioned up near your head. The same rule is applied for triceps. Consider one extension exercise like triceps barbell or cable extension, and another position where your elbow are positioned down like triceps bench dips.