There are a multitude of best weight lifting exercises that you can do for yourself but I think that the most important thing that you can do is to concentrate on your core bodyparts and try to get exercises that will work those parts. These are the best weight lifting exercises.
First thing to know when choosing the best weight exercises is to understand the difference between simple and compound exercises. A simple exercise is one in which only one muscle group is used, biceps curls for example. A compound exercise is one where you are working more than one muscle group. An example of a compound weight lifting exercise is bench presses which work the chest for sure but are also being assisted by the shoulders and triceps.
Why are Compound the best weight lifting exercises?
Why do you want to worry about the simple and compound? Mostly because using compound exercises will be exercises that will build body mass more quickly than simple exercises because you are working multiple muscle groups at the same time.
The next thing that you want to do in choosing the best weight lifting exercises is to remember that you want to have exercises that you can feel the muscles being worked and therefore know when you have exhausted them. for instance when doing squats you can really feel when your quadriceps are burning and out of strength, therefore able to rebuild and strengthen better than before, or Bench Presses burning your chest until you have nothing left there either.
So now that we have these two keys to judge exercises I will give you the list of the best weight lifting exercises.
Best weight lifting exercises per bodypart
Chest - Best compound exercise is Bench press, best simple exercise is Flyes
Shoulders – Best compound exercise is Military Press, best simple exercise is Side Laterals
Quadriceps – Best compound exercise is Squats, best simple exercise is Leg Extensions
The following muscle groups are more assisting muscle groups so the best exercises are going to be simple exercises. These muscle groups of course were being used in the major muscle compound exercises
Triceps – Best simple exercise is Tricep Pushdowns
Biceps – Best simple exercise is bicep curls, especially 7-21 bicep curls
Hamstrings – Best simple exercise is leg curls on a bench.
These are in my belief the best weight lifting exercises that you can do. Whether your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle it is critically important that you concentrate on these best weight lifting exercises as a core but to confuse your muscles you can change them up on a regular basis.
Great tips and even greater routine laid out here. I think the more we work with freeweights the more we’re going to see results. And that all involves lifting weight as you describe here. Julian
I agree Julian. As the post suggests, compound movements are ABSOLUTELY the best way to increase muscle mass, but beyond that, I’ve found free weights do a much better job than machines. Why? Because with free weights you trigger even more muscle involvement, as your muscles “balance” the weight through the movement. On a machine, there’s no “balance” required, as the machine only moves in one direction!
Very good article.look forward to more informative reads like this.
Very nice guide, thanks for sharing. I was expecting that you also included the number of sets and repetition. I will help us in a big way to improve.
Good article, back squats are the the best overall strength exercise in my opinion.
Weight lifting is very essential if you want to maintain your muscle mass. I see so many people that say thy want to keep their muscle mass but they don’t want to lift any weights at all. This was a good post.
Great job in discussing simple and compound exercises. I have been doing both, but didn’t recognize the difference. Weight lighting knowledge is always good to know for building muscle mass and safety. Thanks.
Always make sure that you stretch before you start lifting weights! I know for a fact that your chances of getting injured are great if you don’t stretch. So make sure that this is the first thing that you do.
Stretching relaxes muscles. The better way to fill joints with fluid and increase blood flow in muscles is doing full-body mobility exercises. They are simple but shockingly effective.
You are right Leonid. Most people don’t take stretching all that serious until it is just too late, and they end up injured.
Hey, Patrick, nice comment. A good discussion is shaping up, lol!
1. Warm-up is crucial
2. Stretching is fantastic because:
Static stretching was found to increase B-endorphin levels. Studies showed B-endorphin injections to increase HGH levels by 25-30 times!
Static stretching burns intramuscular fat. Fat burning rate with intense stretching – up to 24 times faster than during aerobics. That’s why yoga and callanetics are so devastatingly effective.
Weighted stretching causes hyperplasia – muscle-fibers splitting. This allows to blast any muscle and make it grow. And in this case we’re talking hard, dense and strong muscles.
Fact: stretching is a great warm-up as it fills joints with fluid and greatly increases blood flow in muscles. Fact: stretching elongates muscle and thus relaxes it. Relaxing muscle before heavy lifting is a bad idea.
Mobility warm-up as effective for injury prevention as stretching.
Warm-up sets with light weights as effective as any other form of warming up.
Static stretching is the best thing for cool-down.
Leonid:)
I’ve had knee problems in the past. I now incorporate step ups, lunges, squats, pistol squats, and other exercises that work each leg independently. This in itself has really helped to alleviate my knee problems!
Yea I like the post and Im working on such workouts