What separates a good muscle-building exercise from a bad one is the way you perform it. If you bounce weights off your body, swing your hips for momentum and do not use a full range of motion, you risk injury and hinder working your muscles to their full potential.
To get the best bang for your buck, resort to compound exercises. These involve more than one joint and muscle at a time. By doing compound exercises, you recruit a maximal amount of muscle fibers and get the fastest results.
Push-Ups
Push-ups are old school body weight exercises that work the chest, triceps and shoulders all at the same time. What makes this an adequate exercise is the fact that you can do it anytime, anywhere.
To do push-ups, lie on your belly, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and put your feet together behind you. Steadily push yourself up until your arms are fully extended, slowly lower your chest close to the floor and repeat. When doing these exercises, keep your abs contracted and your back as straight as possible. Perform variations by placing your feet or hands on a bench or chair.
Shoulder Press
The shoulder press, also known as a military press or overhead press, works the anterior deltoids, triceps and trapezius muscles. The anterior delts are on the front of the shoulders and the traps are on the top of the shoulders.
To do these moves, hold a barbell at the top of your chest with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Steadily push the bar above your head until your arms are extended and slowly lower it back down. This exercise can be performed from a standing position or seated position on a workout chair. For a variation, use dumbbells instead or a barbell.
Pull-Up
The pull-up is another body weight exercise that works that latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, biceps and lower traps. The lats and rhomboids are the upper back muscles.
While hanging from a pull-up bar with your hands in an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, pull yourself up as high as you can and slowly lower yourself back down. When pulling up, keep your abs tight and do not swing your body back and forth. For a variation, place your hands in a wide grip or reverse your grip so your palms face you. To increase the resistance, wear ankle weights or a weighted vest or pinch a dumbbell between your shins.
Squat
Squats work the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and abs simultaneously. To do these, stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart while holding a weighted barbell across your shoulders. Slowly lower yourself down by bending your knees and stand back up. Throughout this exercise, keep your core tight and back straight. Do not let your knees go past your toes, and try to get your thighs parallel to the floor on the descent. For a variation, hold dumbbells at your sides instead of holding a barbell over your shoulders.
Deadlift
A deadlift works the same muscles as the squat, but it also works the erector spinae. This is a long strip of muscles that runs from the base of the skull to the sacrum, which is at the bottom of the vertebral column.
To do deadlifts, place a weighted barbell on the floor and stand behind it with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Slowly lower your body by bending your knees and hips, grasp the bar with a shoulder-width grip and lift it off the floor as you stand up. Keep your core tight and back straight throughout. For a variation, use a set of dumbbells.
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