The 10 Best Exercises to Build Muscle and Strength

In this article, you’ll find what we consider the 10 best exercises to build muscle—exercises that belong in every workout routine and for everyone looking for the fast track to muscle growth.

From essentials like the squat and the bench press to bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and push-ups, these exercises give you the most bang for your workout buck and leave no muscle groups behind.

Click here to jump directly to the exercises!

What Makes an Exercise Good for Building Muscle?

All exercises are not created equally.

To qualify on a list of the best exercises to build muscle, they must fulfill specific criteria. Not necessarily all of them, but at least some.

1. Stability and Safety

Exercises you can perform with enough stability for your strength and muscle force, not balance and coordination, to be the limiting factor, are generally better for building muscle mass. You can focus on muscle contraction and doing the movement with the correct form instead of keeping track of your flailing limbs.

For example, when you lie on a sturdy bench with your feet firmly planted on the floor and doing bench presses with a stable bar, your muscle force, not your balance, makes or breaks the lift. You place maximum stress and load on the muscles you want to train: your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

But, if you do kettlebell presses while lying on a balance ball, so many other muscles have to jump in to keep you on the ball that overloading your chest muscles becomes far more challenging. It might be good for something, but not muscle hypertrophy.

2. Progressive Overload

The best exercises for building muscle allow for the easy application of progressive overload. That means you can continually increase the resistance or load over time to challenge your muscles, the number one factor for strength and muscle gain.

3. Range of Motion

Exercises that allow for a full range of motion tend to be more effective in promoting muscle growth. A full stretch and contraction of the muscle fibers during a set can lead to more significant muscle damage, which, during recovery, results in muscle growth.¹

Not all research comes to the same conclusion, and some muscles respond better to a full range of motion than others, but in general, the best exercises for building muscles are those where you can use an extended range of motion.

4. Compound Movements

While isolation exercises are helpful when you want to target individual muscles and add muscle size to a specific body part, compound exercises that simultaneously engage multiple major muscle groups are your best bet for packing on the muscle.

They allow you to lift heavier weights, save time by working several large muscle groups at the same time, and produce more anabolic hormones like testosterone and growth hormone.

5. Scalability and Adaptability

The best exercises for building muscle can be scaled or adapted to continue challenging your muscles as they grow stronger. We’re talking about variations in grip, stance, or angle to target the muscle differently, for example.

That means they can be easy for beginners and progressively harder for more advanced trainees. The result is continual muscle growth through all the stages of your strength training career.

6. Technique and Form

While some complex movements can be effective for muscle growth, the best exercises are often those with a lower risk of technical error.

Exercises you learn and perform correctly, using heavy loads with good form and minimal risk of form breakdown as the weight increases make for a great way to optimize your muscle-building potential. And you minimize the risk of injury at the same time.

7. Eccentric Phase Emphasis

Exercises that allow for a focus on the eccentric (lowering) phase can lead to greater muscle hypertrophy. The eccentric phase causes stronger growth signals and boosts muscle protein synthesis more.²

Both the concentric (lifting) and eccentric phases of an exercise are important for the best results, but focusing on the eccentric is likely a good idea if you want your efforts to result in even more new muscle tissue.

The 10 Best Exercises to Build Muscle

Here we go! These are our top picks when it comes to muscle growth. Implement them in your workouts (more on that later), and get ready to add pounds of lean mass to your frame.

Squat

If you’re looking for the best exercise to build muscle in the lower body, the barbell back squat would be at the top of most lists.

Often called the king of all exercises, the squat is unsurpassed for adding muscle strength and lean body mass.

• It primarly targets your quadriceps (the group of four muscles at the front of your thighs), glutes (your butt), adductors (muscles on the inside of your thigh), and your lower back.
• It also demands effort from your core to stabilize your body, and if you’re using a barbell, your upper body, including your upper back, gets in on the action too, working to keep the weight steady.

Squatting with a barbell allows you to load up on weight, which is key for muscle building. The more you stress your muscles (in a good way), the stronger and bigger they’ll grow.

And with squats, that weight progression is easy. Unless you are already an advanced high-level athlete, you can almost always do one more rep than last time or slap a pair of small weight plates to the bar.

In addition to the muscle-building boons, squats improve your balance, mobility, and real-life strength, which is awesome for doing stuff outside the gym. They also booost your athletic performance, increase your metabolism, and enhance your bone density.

In short, if the gym were a kingdom, the barbell squat would be sitting comfortably on the throne, not just because it’s one of the best exercsies to build muscle, but also for its myriad of benefits that contribute to your overall health and fitness.

How to Squat

1. Place the bar on your upper back with your shoulders blades squeezed together. Inhale and brace your core slightly, and unrack the bar.
2. Take two steps back, and adjust your foot position.
3. Squat as deep as possible with proper form.
4. With control, stop and reverse the movement, extending your hips and legs again.
5. Exhale on the way up or exchange air in the top position.
6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions.

Alternative Exercises

The barbell back squat is not the only squat in town. These great alternatives are also some of the top exercises to build muscle you can find.

Goblet squats have you holding a kettlebell or dumbbell close to your chest. It’s fantastic for beginners or those looking to improve their squat form.

Dumbbell squats are perfect if you don’t have access to a barbell but still want to get those gains. They make your muscles work harder than in a bodyweight squat and don’t require a squat rack since you can drop the dumbbells when you get tired.

Front squats put more emphasis on your quads than back squats and demand solid core engagement to keep you from tipping over. They also make it easier for some people to hit proper squat depth.

Leg Press

The leg press is a fantastic alternative to the barbell back squat, where you train using a dedicated machine instead of free weights.

Compared to squats, the leg press is more focused, allowing you to target your quads, adductors, and glutes without as much involvement from the upper body. You can also involve your hamstrings more depending on where you place your feet on the plate.

It’s excellent for muscle hypertrophy (that’s science for “getting those legs swole”) because you can load up the weight without worrying about balancing it.

Mixing squats and leg presses into your routine might give you the best of both worlds: the strength and athleticism from squats and the targeted muscle building from the leg press.

How to Leg Press

1. Adjust the machine so that you only need to extend your legs slightly to be able to release the weights. Adjust the safety pins so that they catch the weight if you are unable to lift it.
2. Place your feet on the sled, about shoulder width apart.
3. Inhale and lower the weight towards you by bending your legs.
4. Lower the weight as deep as possible without rounding your back, and while keeping your glutes on the seat.
5. Press the weight back up again using your leg strength as you exhale.

Lunge

The lunge is a classic move that targets so many muscles that it’s almost unfair. You can do it with nothing but your body weight or use dumbbells, kettlebells, or a barbell to add resistance for greater increases in muscle mass and strength.

Lunges are a leg day favorite, with your quads, hamstrings, and glutes stealing the spotlight. At the same time, your core muscles work hard to keep you balanced and upright.

The lunge is a unilateral exercise, meaning you work one side of your body at a time. That lets it quickly point out if one side is stronger or more coordinated than the other and ensures both legs get equal billing.

Whether you’re a fitness newbie or a seasoned athlete, lunges have something for you. You can start with bodyweight lunges to master the form and gradually add weights with dumbbell lunges or barbell lunges. Or you can try more challenging variations like jumping lunges to keep the gains coming.

In short, lunges are a powerhouse exercise that helps you build muscle, improve your balance and flexibility, and gain functional strength you can use in and out of the gym.

How to Perform Lunges

1. Stand up straight with your feet hip-width apart, holding a pair of dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing inwards or with a barbell on your shoulders.
2. Lower your body towards the ground by bending your front knee and lowering your back knee until it almost touches the floor.
3. Return to a standing position by pushing yourself up with your front leg.
4. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions, switch legs, and perform the exercise on the other side.

Deadlift

The deadlift is a compound exercise that demands effort from muscles all over your body. It’s one of the most comprehensive exercises to build muscle and strength.

• Deadlifts target your posterior chain like few other exercises. They include the gluteus maximus and erector spinae (the muscles along your spine), which are crucial for explosive movements, jumping, sprinting, and most other resistance training exercises you do in the gym. They also work your hamstrings, although more so if you keep your legs relatively straight, like in the Romanian deadlift.
• Although not as primary as in a squat, the quadriceps work hard during the deadlift as you extend your knees to get the bar up from the floor. In addition, the adductors on the inside of your thighs play a supporting role throughout the movement.
• Not just a lower-body exercise, the deadlift also engages the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, and traps, contributing to a stronger and thicker back.
• Even though deadlifts don’t activate your abdominal muscles (the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominis) nearly as much as dedicated ab exercises, they do require a strong core for stabilization.
• Last but not least, holding onto a heavy barbell works your grip strength and forearm muscles.

As you can see, the deadlift hits so many major muscle groups that it’s almost a full-body workout. That’s why it’s a favorite among athletes, powerlifters, bodybuilders, and everyone else looking to increase their muscle strength and build lean mass.

How to Deadlift

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your toes pointing slightly outward. The barbell should be over the middle of your feet, close to your shins.
2. Bend at the hips and knees to reach the bar. Grip the barbell slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. You can use an overhand grip (both palms facing you) or a mixed grip (one palm facing you and the other facing away).
3. Keep your back straight and chest up. Engage your core and ensure your shoulders are slightly in front of the bar. Your hips should be higher than your knees but lower than your shoulders.
4. Pull the bar close to your body, with a straight back, until you are standing straight. Keep the bar close to your body, and your arms straight throughout the lift. The bar should travel in a straight line vertically.
5. Reverse the motion by hinging at the hips and bending the knees. Lower the bar to the starting position in a controlled manner, maintaining a straight back.
6. Reset your position if necessary.
7. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Alternative Exercises

With the trap bar deadlift (a hexagonal bar you stand in the middle of), you keep the weight closer to your body, which can reduce strain on your lower back and emphasize your legs more.

The sumo deadlift, where you adopt a wide toes-out stance, works your quadriceps, glute, and adductor more than regular deadlifts. It also requires a shorter range of motion, which can make the exercise more manageable if your mobility isn’t up to snuff.

Bench Press

The bench press, one of the most popular strength exercises in the world, allows you to handle heavy weights to effectively beef up your pushing muscles.

Here’s why the bench press is often crowned as one of the best exercises to build muscle:

• It works multiple muscle groups at once – chest, shoulders, and triceps – making it a time-efficient way to pack on muscle.
• You can tweak it to target different muscles. Adjust your grip width, switch between a flat, incline, or decline bench, or try the dumbbell bench press instead of using a barbell.
• You can add weight in small increments, allowing for never-ending strength gains. It’s the classic “lifting heavier things makes you stronger” approach, and the bench press lets you measure that progress in cold, hard iron. Today, you’re pressing 50 lbs, but next month? Who knows! It’s like tracking your followers on social media, but you’re collecting gains instead of likes.
• It’s a benchmark for upper body strength. Improving your bench press performance leads to gains in many other exercises that involve your upper body. And a stronger muscle is almost always a bigger muscle.

The bench press might not be the only exercise you need, but its combination of effectiveness, versatility, and sheer satisfaction-making potential makes it a cornerstone of muscle-building routines.

How to Bench Press

1. Lie on the bench, pull your shoulder blades together and down, and slightly arch your back.
2. Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
3. Inhale, hold your breath, and unrack the bar.
4. Lower the bar with control, until it touches your chest somewhere close to your sternum.
5. Push the bar up to the starting position while exhaling.
6. Take another breath while in the top position, and repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Dips

Sometimes called “the squat for the upper body,” the bar dip is one of the classic bodyweight exercises for building muscle mass and strength in the upper body.

Dips are a compound exercise, meaning they don’t just focus on one little muscle group. Nope, they work your chest, triceps, shoulders, and even a bit of your back and biceps. More muscles working overtime equals more strength and size gains.

Dips are great for any fitness level. For example, if you’re new to strength training and find bodyweight dips too challenging, you can make the exercise more accessible by using a resistance band.

Conversely, once you start feeling like the dip king or queen, you can easily increase the difficulty by adding weight with a belt, holding a dumbbell between your feet, or wearing a weighted vest. You can also advance to ring dips, which turns up the intensity even more.

Whether at the gym, at home, or in a park, there’s almost always a place to do dips. You can do them on parallel bars, a dip station, or even a sturdy chair or bench. That makes them a versatile addition to any workout routine to get your muscle-building fix anywhere, anytime.

Pro tip: while many lifters use it as a chest exercise, the bar dip can also be an excellent triceps exercise if you tweak it slightly. Keep your elbows close to your body and maintain a more upright torso to emphasize the triceps instead of the chest. In both cases, go all the way down for a good stretch and up for a full contraction at the top.

How to Perform Bar Dips

1. Grip a dip station about shoulder-width apart, and climb or jump to get into the starting position.
2. Lower yourself with control until your shoulder is below your elbow, or as deep as you comfortably can.
3. Reverse the motion and return to the starting position.

Alternative Exercise

Dips require good shoulder mobility, and if you’re struggling to do them with proper technique or feel them in your joints, try the close-grip bench press instead.

Push-Up

This list of the best exercises to build muscle contains several bodyweight exercises, and the push-up is not the last. It is, however, supremely effective for gaining strength, mass, and muscle endurance in your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

Push-ups don’t require any fancy equipment. All you need is gravity, a floor, and your own body. It’s like nature’s own gym membership that you can’t lose in your laundry pile.

Push-ups have something for everyone. Beginners can start with wall push-ups or knee push-ups until they can advance to the standard push-up.

Research shows that push-ups are as effective as the barbell bench press for building muscle, at least for beginners.^{3 4} It’ll likely give you similar results as you gain training experience, as long as you can keep adding weight as you get stronger. It’s not as simple as adding weight to a bar, but when regular push-ups become as easy as flipping pancakes, there are a few tricks to make them feel like a fresh challenge once again:

• Placing your feet on an elevated surface and doing incline push-ups increases the load on your upper body, making the exercise harder. The higher the elevation, the greater the challenge.
• If you’re feeling adventurous, try adding weight to your back. You can use anything from a weighted vest to a backpack filled with books or even have your pet or a loved one sit on you.
• Use resistance bands to add to the load:

How to Perform Push-Ups

1. Begin by lying face down on the floor. Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, with fingers pointing forward. For regular push-ups, extend your legs back, balancing on the balls of your feet. Keep your knees on the ground for kneeling push-ups instead of extending your legs.
2. Ensure your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels (regular) or knees (kneeling). Engage your core muscles to prevent your hips from sagging or sticking up in the air.
3. Inhale as you slowly bend your elbows to lower your body towards the floor. Aim to lower until your chest or chin nearly touches the floor. Your body should remain straight throughout the movement, with your lower back in a natural curve. Avoid any sagging or arching.
4. Exhale as you push through your hands to straighten your elbows, lifting your body back to the starting position. Maintain that straight body line as you push up.
5. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Pull-Up

More bodyweight exercises? Yes, but not any old bodyweight exercise. The pull-up might be the best of them all to add width to your upper back.

Even though many gyms are filled with high-tech back training machines resembling spaceships more than weight machines, the pull-up remains a staple in the fitness routine of athletes and bodybuilders worldwide.

When it comes to building muscle, pull-ups target many that are essential for both aesthetics and performance.

• Latissimus Dorsi (your lats): These big muscles on your back give you that coveted “V” shape. They are the primary movers when you heave yourself up to the bar.
• Upper Arms: Yep, your biceps and brachialis (a powerful muscle right beneath your biceps) get a good burn, too, helping you bend your elbows to propel yourself upwards.
• Rhomboids and Trapezius: These muscles in your upper back get in on the action, stabilizing your shoulders and making sure everything moves smoothly.
• Rear Deltoids: Your rear delts also helps stabilize your shoulders throughout the motion.
• Forearm Muscles: Your grip strength allows you to hold onto the bar, so your forearm muscles are definitely getting a workout.
• Core Muscles: While not prime movers during the pull-up, your abs and obliques engage to keep your body stable and prevent you from swinging like a pendulum.

Like a chameleon, pull-ups can adapt.

• You can switch up your grip (wide, narrow, reverse) to target the working muscle groups slightly differently and keep your workouts fresher than a minty gum.
• If you struggle with pulling yourself up for a number of reps, use resistance bands or an assisted pull-up machine for just the right amount of help.
• If you find your body too light for the job (the classic dilemma of being too mighty for mere gravity), you can strap on a weight belt, grab a dumbbell with your feet, or wear a weighted vest.

Also, there’s something incredibly satisfying about measuring progress with pull-ups. Starting from “help, I can barely hang on” to cranking out multiple reps is a tangible and rewarding way to track your strength gains.

Best of all, all you need is a bar and your body. That makes pull-ups a no-excuse exercise. You can even find playgrounds or tree branches when you’re out and about for an impromptu session.

How to Perform Pull-Ups

1. Stand beneath a pull-up bar and reach up to grasp it with an overhand grip (palms facing away from you), slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Ensure your grip is secure and comfortable.
2. Hang freely from the bar, fully extending your arms. Your feet should be off the ground.
3. Engage your core muscles by squeezing your abs and glutes.
4. Inhale and initiate the movement by pulling yourself up towards the bar by bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Focus on using your back muscles rather than relying on your upper arms.
5. Continue pulling yourself up until your chin reaches or clears the bar. Keep your torso upright and avoid excessive swinging or kicking with your legs.
6. Slowly lower yourself back down to the starting position while maintaining control and stability, fully extending your arms.
7. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Alternative Exercises

• Lat pulldowns are perfect if you’re not yet ready to hoist your entire body weight or if you’re aiming for specific muscle isolation and controlled movements.
• Chin-ups involve your biceps more than pull-ups, making them slightly more manageable and a solid choice for progression.

Barbell Row

This exercise is a two-for-one special—offering both strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth) benefits. Being able to use heavy weights and easily add plates to the bar means you can progressively overload your muscles, encouraging them to grow stronger and larger over time.

It targets the upper and lower back muscles like a charm, specifically hitting the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, and trapezius. This is your go-to exercise if you’re looking to build a back that could double as a roadmap.

You can vary the barbell row in grip width, overhand or underhand grip, and even the angle of your torso to hit different parts of your back muscles.

That versatility, coupled with the ability to pull a lot of weight, makes bent-over rows one of the best exercises for building muscle: great for your back muscles and to balance out pressing movements for the front of your body.

How to Perform Barbell Rows

1. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Stand with your feet slightly wider than feet hip-width apart, bend your knees slightly, and hinge forward at your hips, maintaining a straight line from your head to your hips.
3. Brace your core and keep your back straight. Pull the barbell towards your lower chest or upper abdomen, keeping your elbows close to your body. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement.
4. Lower the barbell back to the starting position in a controlled manner.
5. Breathe out as you lift, in as you lower, like blowing out candles on a birthday cake, then inhaling the sweet smell of victory.
6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions.

Overhead Press

The overhead press is primarily a shoulder exercise, giving them that broad, rounded look, making your waist appear narrower and turning you into a walking, talking V-shape.

However, it also works your upper chest, triceps, and even your upper back. In addition, when you do it standing up, your abdominal and lower back muscles stabilize your spine to prevent you from toppling over like an inflatable tube man.

The overhead press doesn’t just stop at making you look like a Greek statue. It also builds functional upper body strength by training you for movements you do in real life, like hoisting a heavy box onto a shelf or pushing your carry-on into the overhead compartment on a plane.

It’s a very efficient exercise for building muscle as it can stimulate a lot of growth in a short amount of time. It is a winner in any fitness routine and one of the best exercises to build muscle, period.

How to Perform Overhead Barbell Presses

1. Place a barbell in a rack at about chest height.
2. Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and step close to it.
3. Tighten your abs, unrack the bar and let it rest against your front delts while you step back from the rack. This is your starting position.
4. Push the barbell up, extending your arms fully, while exhaling.
5. Bring the weights back down to your shoulders, slow and controlled, while inhaling.
6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions.

Alternative Exercises

The seated dumbbell shoulder press and the seated barbell overhead press are just as effective for building your delts as the standing variant, although you don’t get the same core muscle activation.

Push presses allow you to use leg drive to move more weight, potentially helping you overcome plateaus and propel your upper body into hypertrophy territory.

The standing dumbbell shoulder press adds further stability requirements to the overhead press and allows for a longer range of motion.

Conversely, machine shoulder presses remove all stability requirements and allow you to focus solely on your delts, which can be helpful for beginners learning the movement and for bodybuilders looking to zero in on the working muscles.

What About Arm Training?

You might have noticed the lack of arm exercises like bicep curls in the above list of the best exercises to build muscle.

Incorporating a lot of pulling and pushing movements in your workout is fantastic because these compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at once, including your biceps and triceps. They provide a solid foundation for muscle strength and growth.

That being said, if you’re looking to get those biceps and triceps to really pop or if you’ve hit a plateau, giving them a little extra attention can be well worth it. Direct isolation exercises allow you to target those specific muscles directly and can make the difference between stagnation and progress if you’re not getting the stimulation you need from compound movements.

The big lifts are the meat and potatoes of your workout, while isolation exercises are the seasoning that can kickstart muscle growth in stubborn arms.

Biceps curls and triceps extensions might not qualify on a list of the overall best exercises to build muscle, but if your arms aren’t growing, you have a good reason to add them to your weight training routine.

Putting a Workout Routine Together

With the best exercises to build muscle in place, we can easily design an excellent workout.

Beginner Barbell Program

This training program covers all the bases for a beginner, and all you need is a barbell, a bench, a squat rack, and a pull-up bar.

You train three times per week, alternating between workout A and workout B, like this:

Week 1:

1. Monday: Workout A
2. Tuesday: Rest
3. Wednesday: Workout B
4. Thursday: Rest
5. Friday: Workout A
6. Saturday: Rest
7. Sunday: Rest

Week 2:

1. Monday: Workout B
2. Tuesday: Rest
3. Wednesday: Workout A
4. Thursday: Rest
5. Friday: Workout B
6. Saturday: Rest
7. Sunday: Rest

This is what each workout looks like:

Workout A

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squat	3	8–10
Bench Press	3	8–10
Barbell Row	3	8–10

Workout B

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Deadlift	3	6–8
Lat Pulldown	3	8–10
Overhead Press	3	8–10

Upper/Lower Body Split Program

Another popular type of workout routine is the upper/lower program. You train four days per week, alternating between sessions for your upper body and lower body.

1. Monday: Upper Body Workout 1
2. Tuesday: Lower Body Workout 1
3. Wednesday: Rest
4. Thursday: Upper Body Workout 2
5. Friday: Lower Body Workout 2
6. Saturday: Rest
7. Sunday: Rest

These workouts are heavily based on the exercises in this article, with additional and optional exercises for balanced development.

Track Your Workouts in StrengthLog

What if you’re unsure how to go about designing your own training program or don’t want to?

Follow one of ours!

Our workout log app has a boatload of training routines and workouts. It’s 100% free (and 100% ad free) to download with the button for your device:

Some of the programs and workouts require a premium subscription, but we offer a 14-day free trial, which you can activate in the app.

Both the Beginner Barbell Program and the Upper/Lower Split are completely free and track. In addition, you’ll find literally boatloads of other effective training programs and workouts to help you reach your fitness goals, regardless of your current experience.

How Many Sets and Reps Should You Do to Build Muscle?

When you hit the gym, you don’t want to do random stuff and hope something works. Random work produces random results.

Instead, you want to do just the right amount of work, meaning the number of sets and reps proven most effective for building muscle.

• In essence, you’re looking at 10–20 sets per muscle per week. The more experienced you are, the higher the weekly training volume you’ll likely thrive on.
• Use the exercises in this article as the foundation of your workouts and do 3–4 sets per exercise, then add assistance work in the form of isolation movements if needed.
• Also, you’ll want most of your sets to be in the 6–12 rep range. That is the sweet spot for most people looking to bulk in the form of lean muscle.

Read more:

>> How Many Sets and Reps Should You Do to Build Muscle?

Final Words

You have reached the end of this guide to the best exercises to build muscle!

Thank you so much for reading.

Now, it’s time to hit the weights. No matter how good an exercise is, reading about it won’t do much. Let’s get it done!

References

1. Strength and Conditioning Journal 45(2):p 162-176, April 2023. Muscle Hypertrophy Response to Range of Motion in Strength Training: A Novel Approach to Understanding the Findings.
2. J Strength Cond Res. 2017 Sep;31(9):2599-2608. Hypertrophic Effects of Concentric vs. Eccentric Muscle Actions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
3. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: January 2015 – Volume 29 – Issue 1 – p 246-253. Bench Press and Push-up at Comparable Levels of Muscle Activity Results in Similar Strength Gains.
4. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness. Volume 15, Issue 1, June 2017, Pages 37-42. Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain.