Bigger Leaner Stronger
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Spencer MR, Gastin PB. Energy system contribution during 200- to 1500-m running in highly trained athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2001;33(1):157-162.
Lindsay FH, Hawley JA, Myburgh KH, Schomer HH, Noakes TD, Dennis SC. Improved athletic performance in highly trained cyclists after interval training. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996;28(11):1427-1434; Weston AR, Myburgh KH, Lindsay FH, Dennis SC, Noakes TD, Hawley JA. Skeletal muscle buffering capacity and endurance performance after high-intensity interval training by well-trained cyclists. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1997;75(1):7-13; Westgarth-Taylor C, Hawley JA, Rickard S, Myburgh KH, Noakes TD, Dennis SC. Metabolic and performance adaptations to interval training in endurance-trained cyclists. Eur J Appl Physiol. 1997;75(4):298-304. doi:10.1007/s004210050164.
Stepto NK, Hawley JA, Dennis SC, Hopkins WG. Effects of different interval-training programs on cycling time-trial performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1999;31(5):736-741; Laursen PB, Blanchard MA, Jenkins DG. Acute high-intensity interval training improves Tvent and peak power output in highly trained males. Can J Appl Physiol. 2002;27(4):336-348.
Billat L V. Interval training for performance: a scientific and empirical practice. Special recommendations for middle- and long-distance running. Part I: aerobic interval training. Sports Med. 2001;31(1):13-31.
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23
The Best Exercises for Building Your Best Body Ever
There is no reason to be alive if you can’t do the deadlift!
—JÓN PÀLL SIGMARSSON
Of the hundreds of resistance training exercises that you can do, a minority stand head and shoulders above the rest.
And of those, a handful are the absolute breadwinners.
This is great news for us because it means we can disregard most of what we see people doing in magazines, YouTube videos, and the gym, and focus on a relatively short list of exercises instead.
In this chapter, I’m going to share those superior exercises with you, and in the next chapter, we’re going to have an in-depth discussion about three of them in particular—the “Big Three,” as they’re often called.
As you’ll see, most of the exercises I recommend are compound exercises, which are those that involve multiple joints and muscles.
Isolation exercises—those that involve just one joint and a limited number of muscles—are included to help develop smaller, stubborn muscle groups like the shoulders and arms and to support the growth of larger muscle groups.
Let’s begin our discussion with how we’re going to categorize these exercises. I like to group exercises by the major muscle group they train, because it helps us better organize and prioritize our workouts based on our physique goals.
Here are the six major muscle groups that you’ll be training in my Bigger Leaner Stronger program:
Chest
Shoulders
Back
Arms
Core
Legs (including calves)
Let’s go over each one by one, learning the anatomy first, followed by the best exercises for developing each.
You’ll also probably notice that some of the exercises are marked with asterisks. Ignore this for now. You’ll learn why in chapter 29!
Chest
The main muscle of your chest is the pectoralis major. Here’s what it looks like:
Its main function is to bring the upper arm across the body, and unlike most other muscles, its fibers aren’t all aligned in the same direction.
As you can see in the image, the pec major has two heads. There’s a sternocostal head, which attaches the sternum (breastbone) and ribcage to your upper arm, and a clavicular head, which attaches your collarbone to your upper arm.
Why is this important? How a muscle attaches to the skeleton influences how it responds to various types of training.
For instance, certain exercises, like the flat and decline bench press, emphasize the larger sternocostal head of the pecs, while others, like the incline and reverse-grip bench press, emphasize the smaller clavicular head.1
Notice that I said emphasize, not isolate, because all movements that involve one head do, to some degree, involve the other as well. That said, you want to dedicate some of your chest training to focusing on the clavicular head for two reasons:
It’s a small, stubborn part of the pec that takes its sweet time to grow.
The exercises that are best for developing it also happen to be great for developing the sternal head.
For many years, I did nothing but flat and decline pressing, and this gave my pecs an imbalanced, “bottom-heavy” look. After a year or so of focusing almost exclusively on incline pressing, however, the imbalance was corrected, and my chest had a much more balanced, aesthetic look.
This is why I’m going to include a fair amount of incline pressing in your Bigger Leaner Stronger workouts.
The Best Chest Exercises You Can Do
Barbell Bench Press (Incline and Flat)
Dumbbell Bench Press (Incline and Flat)
Dip*
Cable Fly*
These are the only exercises you really need to build a strong, muscular chest.
Forget pullovers, push-up variations, machines, and every other type of chest exercise out there. They aren’t as effective as these foundation-building exercises, and they’re most suited to intermediate and advanced weightlifters and bodybuilders who have already developed considerable muscle and strength with heavy pressing.
Shoulders
Your shoulders consist of several muscles, and the three most prominent are the deltoids:
Anterior (front) deltoid
Lateral (side) deltoid
Posterior (rear) deltoid
Here’s how they look:
The deltoids raise the arm to the front of the
body (front delt), the side of the body (side delt), and behind the body (rear delt).
As you can see, there are also smaller muscles that enable the ball-shaped head of the arm bone to spin and roll in the socket of the shoulder blade. These are known as the rotator cuff muscles.
When people talk about developing their shoulders, they’re usually referring to their deltoids. These are the big, visible muscles, and they’re what we’ll be focusing on in Bigger Leaner Stronger.
Exercises done specifically for the rotator cuffs can be supportive but aren’t particularly necessary if you have healthy, functional shoulders, and also don’t contribute much to your shoulders’ overall strength and look.
The Best Shoulder Exercises You Can Do
Overhead Press
Military Press
Seated Dumbbell Press
Arnold Dumbbell Press
Dumbbell Front Raise*
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise*
Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise (Bent-Over or Seated)*
Barbell Rear Delt Row*
As you can see, I’m a fan of shoulder pressing. As with the chest, you just can’t beat heavy pressing for developing your shoulders.
If all you do is press, however, your front deltoids will probably develop faster than your middle and rear deltoids. This is why a good shoulder training routine includes exercises to target each of the three deltoids.
Also, in case you’re wondering, although I’m a big believer in the overhead press, I don’t include it in Bigger Leaner Stronger because it’s a rather technical movement that’s better suited to experienced weightlifters, and it often requires in-person coaching to get right.
Instead, I’m going to have you do seated dumbbell shoulder pressing, which is easier to learn and execute and still highly effective at developing your shoulder muscles.
If, in time, you want to learn how to overhead press, you can easily incorporate it into your workouts.
Back
There are a number of muscles that make up the bulk of your back:
Trapezius
Rhomboids
Latissimus dorsi
Erector spinae
Teres major
Teres minor
Infraspinatus
And here’s how they look:
Collectively, these muscles are responsible for pulling the upper arms toward the torso; stabilizing the shoulder blades, neck, and spine; and assisting with back extension (moving your chest away from your hips).
Many people undertrain their back muscles because they rarely see them. This can create an imbalanced look (everyone else sees your back) as well as an imbalance between your “push” and “pull” muscles that can lead to poor posture and even shoulder discomfort and injury.
A good rule of thumb is to give your back muscles about as much attention as your chest and shoulder muscles, which is what we’re going to do in Bigger Leaner Stronger.
The Best Back Exercises You Can Do
Barbell Deadlift
Barbell Row
One-Arm Dumbbell Row
Pull-Up
Chin-Up
T-Bar Row
Lat Pulldown (Wide- and Close-Grip)
Seated Cable Row (Wide- and Close-Grip)
Bigger Leaner Stronger gives special love and attention to the barbell deadlift.
It’s not only the single best back exercise you can do, but it’s also one of the best weightlifting exercises ever invented because it trains just about every muscle in your body.
If you can’t deadlift due to injury or other issues, don’t worry—you can still do great. If a workout calls for a deadlift, simply replace it with one of the other exercises on the list that you can do.
The barbell row, one-arm dumbbell row, T-bar row, and pull-up are all top choices, which is why you’ll be doing a lot of each in Bigger Leaner Stronger.
Arms
There are two major muscle groups in your arms that we’re most interested in developing:
Biceps
Triceps
The biceps is made up of two muscles, the biceps brachii and biceps brachialis, which look like this:
The biceps’ job is to flex the arm (bring your forearm closer to your upper arm), and to supinate your elbow (turn your hand palm up).
When most people talk about the biceps, they’re referring to the biceps brachii, which also is the focus of most biceps exercises.
If you want to build outstanding arms, though, you want to ensure your biceps brachialis are well developed, too, because they provide separation between the biceps and triceps and push up the biceps brachii, adding to their size, circumference, and “peak.”
There are several ways to emphasize the biceps brachialis in your biceps training, and the easiest is to do biceps exercises that have your hands in a neutral or slightly pronated position (palms facing the ground), like hammer curls.2
Next is the triceps, which has three heads:
Lateral head
Medial head
Long head
Here’s how they look:
As you can see, these parts combine to form the distinctive “horseshoe” that can become quite pronounced when properly developed.
The triceps does the opposite job of the biceps, pushing your forearm away from your upper arm.
You can also see that the lateral head is the largest of the three. This is why it both develops the fastest and most determines the overall look of your triceps. That said, if you want maximum arm size and definition, you want to make sure all three heads are well developed.
The Best Biceps Exercises You Can Do
Barbell Curl
E-Z Bar Curl
Alternating Dumbbell Curl
Dumbbell Hammer Curl
Chin-Up
Short and sweet. You don’t need to do fifty types of curls to build big biceps.
The Best Triceps Exercises You Can Do
Close-Grip Bench Press
Seated Triceps Press
Dip*
Lying Triceps Extension (“Skullcrusher”)
Triceps Pushdown
You’re going to get the most out of triceps exercises that emphasize the lateral and medial heads. These are exercises that have your arms at your side with an overhand (palm-down) grip, like the close-grip bench press, dip, and pushdown.
You don’t want to neglect exercises that emphasize the long head, though, which have your arms overhead, like the seated triceps press and lying triceps extension.
That’s why you’ll be doing a bit of both in your triceps training in Bigger Leaner Stronger.
Core
Your core is the following group of muscles around your midsection:
Rectus abdominis
Transverse abdominis
Internal and external obliques
Here’s how they look:
These muscles work to stabilize and flex the spine (bring your chest closer to your hips).
When people talk about “abs,” they’re usually referring to the pair of muscles that make up the rectus abdominis. Most ab exercises target these muscles. To have the whole package, however, you want to develop the other muscles that frame them.
If you’re properly training the other six major muscle groups discussed here, your core muscles will do plenty of work. This is why many people think they don’t need to do core exercises because they squat and deadlift.
Why, then, do so many of these people have unimpressive midriffs?
Research shows that compound exercises, even when performed with heavy loads, don’t involve the “show” muscles of the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and external obliques as much as people think.3
This is probably why I’ve found that most guys have to do quite a bit of targeted core work to achieve the look they
really want.
Remember too that body fat percentage is crucial here. No matter how much you work on your core or how developed it is, it’s not going to look “ripped” until you’re around 10 percent body fat or lower.
Not sure what your body fat percentage is? Go to www.biggerleanerstronger.com/bodyfat to find out.
The Best Core Exercises You Can Do
Captain’s Chair Leg Raise
Hanging Leg Raise
Lying Leg Raise
Crunch
Cable Crunch
Weighted Sit-Up
Plank
Abdominal Rollout
There aren’t hundreds of ab exercises out there because you need the variety. It’s simply a matter of supply and demand.
People are obsessed with getting abs—“ab exercises” and related searches get over 50,000 Google searches per month. That’s why you have thousands of websites, magazines, and trainers creating list after list of the “best ab exercises ever” in hopes of nabbing new readers and followers.
I’ve kept my list of core exercises short and simple because this is all we really need to get killer abs and accompaniments.
Legs
Your legs consist of three major muscle groups:
Quadriceps (quads)
Hamstrings
Calves
Each one is best trained by different exercises and has “special needs” if you’re going to achieve maximum development and definition.
The quadriceps are a set of four large muscles on the front of your legs:
Vastus lateralis
Vastus medialis
Vastus intermedius
Rectus femoris
(Interestingly, research indicates there’s a fifth muscle involved, so maybe we should be talking about the quintraceps instead!4)
Here’s how they look: