Top 5 Exercises for Size & Strength

If you had to select exercises that have been the most important and physique-altering over the course of your training life, could you choose just five?

We did.

While your list may be different, we think these are the go-to, must-include movements in any workout routine where size and strength gains are the ultimate goal. That’s something to appreciate in a day when so many choices of methodology,equipment, and exercises are too numerous.

Can you imagine starting out wanting to build a body from scratch today? It’s like an old country road having been all of a sudden paved with ads, billboards, signposts and neon flashing lights. That is to say,capturing the attention of anyone starting out in the iron game today - and instilling a good foundation of basics - is incredibly difficult given the number of choices bombarding them.

Obviously, any list has to feature exercises that are compound movements involving multiple joints, because five exercises must represent as much of the physique as possible.

Powerlifters will tell you that the squat, bench and deadlift are indispensable when it comes to size and strength. We defer to them on those first three because we can’t argue:

Squats – By far the most serious exercise for ultimate mass, squats also build great strength because they reinforce all of the supporting tendons that surround joints and create a trunk-like lower body – a foundation for everything that sits onto. The greatest thing about the squat is how surprisingly versatile it can be and how far-reaching its benefits are to all areas of the leg. From glutes to hamstrings and, of course, quadriceps, entering the squat cage means within months you’ll walk out with size and strength unparalleled.
Unlike deadlifts or bench press, the squat enables a great many variations, change in stance, and manipulation of development in the areas that are affected by this exercise. A narrow stance means greater outer leg sweep, better mastery of proprioception netting greater balance, and more lower glute and hamstring work. A wider stance means greater gains in the upper glutes and hips, and more development of teardrops on the inner thigh. A full-squat with a normally spaced stance nets overall balance and better hip flexor development, while a partial squat nets more forced glute and upper thigh work.

The other advantage to the squat is the flexibility it affords to work on different apparatus. Smith machine squats give lifters the ability to control weights – a distinct advantage for people new to the gym - for self-spotting, and for trying out new weights before risking stepping into the squat cage without benefit of assist or mental confidence.

The Smith also allows unusually forward or backward body and foot placement to enable extreme focus on one part of the leg or glutes to a greater degree than might be humanly possible in a squat cage where balance must work in concert with gravity for safety. Some say the leg press is equal to squats because it works all four sides of the thigh and a bit of glutes, but it is not, and does not deliver near the results. However, it’s a great choice for those with chronic back injuries, for whom the squat is an impossibility.

Bench – Just as squats work every last muscle from the waist dow
n, including tendons in the lower leg near the heel, the bench press works chest, core, shoulders and arms. The only thing left unturned is the back, and that’s captured in deadlifts.
The bench is a very specific movement without any variation,and other than grip (regular and false – thumb on top) and bar spacing (wide or narrow), should be performed in much the same way each time. For this exercise to hit the chest as its main target, and not deliver an abundance of triceps or shoulder work, the position will vary little. Every man or woman may have their own style, and more or less back arch, but this movement mostly always requires the subject to have the center of his or her chest just beneath the center of the bar.

There is great flexibility with grip width, to work outer or inner pectorals, however, and false grips offer the ability to leverage and push more solidly. Bench positioning offers more variance (high back or low back) to move the focus of the work to the upper or lower chest, but the best position for bench is still flat, centered with a moderate shoulder-width grip for less injury potential and the best results overall.

To get a bigger stretch, or to warm up for the bench, use dumbbells that allow a greater range of motion to allow a stretch beyond the point where a bar would hit the chest.



Deadlift – From hamstrings, to glutes, to low back, to middle and upper back, as well as traps,this is the king of all posterior body movements. And the beauty of this exercise is that one never has to vary a thing to get results in all these areas – and in fact, doing so would hinder results (or risk injury). A regimented movement that requires good preparation, warm-up, and a good sense of body - along with a tight core and a lot of focus - deadlifts done properly eliminate the need to do much else for the back, and particularly for the hamstrings and glutes (since those were also addressed in squatting).

A sweeping movement once it is mastered, in the beginning it is best to learn the deadlift in parts with a lighter than normal weight. Beginners would do well to master the movement of the stiff-legged deadlift first, before there is much back involvement, in order to grasp the concept of not buckling the lower back, keeping the eyes up, and tightening the hips. This partial movement will also enable the new lifter to gain flexibility in the hips so that stability is ensured when moving from a deep squatting position to standing, while keeping the bar close to the body. The ability to stay injury free should be the greatest goal for anyone new to this exercise.

Once mastered, this movement is not only about lifting maximum weight, it can also be about fine tuning body parts along the way with an extra squeeze of the glutes on the way up, and a squeeze-roll at the top for trap and shoulder development. The potential to develop the core is also quite good with this exercise and can amply develop abs, lower obliques and upper regions of the intercostals.

The Final Two

Remember, this is a list of exercises that only pay attention to size and strength, not total body development. Much of the body is covered in workouts with the first three, but ancillary body parts - such as calves, biceps, abdominals, forearms,neck, and middle back - aren’t addressed.

Keep in mind, we didn’t say you could only do five exercises the rest of your life, we said we think these are the best for overall size and strength. The fact that they just happen to be versatile is a bonus. However, you’ll still have to include other exercises in your arsenal, even as you place greater focus on this list.



Military Press – Powerlifters may say “push-press” but we find this to be too much of a wild card for new lifters. Enough can go wrong with the deadlift for newbies, to encourage push-press. But a reasonable facsimile would be the military press – the best shoulder exercise for mass known to man.

Grip width is about the only variation here, but you don’t want to adjust anything else because the risk of injury is great. Using a barbell has its limitations,including the tendency to lean back too far and bring the bar back too far –risking tears in the rear delts. Never keep a “bench-press” arch in your back, and you won’t risk bringing the weight too far back. At any given time, we recommend you also only use about 75 percent of your one-lift maximum. That also ensures you can use this exercise for great gain for a long time to come.

Remember, wide grips equate to broader shoulders, and shoulder width grips equate to overall balanced development. Never go narrow here – it compromises your shoulders’ ability to do the lift correctly and risks injuries.



Barbell Curl – We included this because for the most part, a bench press will more than cover the triceps (though you’ll need to supplement a bit) and the deadlift doesn’t really address anything but the length of biceps heads. The brachial head is not really touched in the deadlift and this does with shifts in width and grip.

We suggest using pre-loaded straight bars and alternating with EZ curl bars, then moving to loaded and collared bars once you gain enough strength. The extra grip necessary to handle the heft of the self-loaded bar will also benefit forearms. Look for lower and higher angles in training(keeping elbows high or low) grip variance, false and normal grips, and variance in set types (drop set, superset, and so on).

Want to know another reason we included this exercise? Let’s face it, the biceps are the hallmark of bodybuilding and bodybuilders. After all, wasn’t it Arnold's arms that first attracted us to this sport – we know it was for us!

Via PMXFIT.com