Size adds a great deal of aesthetic to your physique so it’s no wonder that a lot of people are always looking for ways to to trigger muscle hypertrophy and get bigger.
So you’ve started on your bulking phase… maybe you’re on a stricter clean bulk… or maybe you favor the dirty bulk which gives you more freedom to eat whatever you want. But what you need right now are some exercises so you can trigger muscle hypertrophy and put on some serious gains.
The question is: what exercises can you get on now to begin putting on some serious muscle mass?
What is Muscle Hypertrophy?
In simple terms, hypertrophy is an increase in muscle size. This is largely due to the increase in tiny contractile muscle elements known as myofibrils.
This increase occurs as a result of muscle adaptation to frequent muscle stress which is activated by resistance training i.e. training with weights to build strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles.
How Does Resistance Training Trigger Hypertrophy?
When you use resistance training and lift to failure or to the point where you can no longer complete the set, you focus stress as well as tension on the muscle group you’re targeting.
With resistance training, your focus should not be on the amount of weight you’re lifting or on the number of reps but rather on training to failure.
With just 3-5 reps all to failure, you can successfully trigger muscle hypertrophy and eliminate other factors that may hinder muscle growth when you do a higher number of reps such as a lapse in form and concentration and exhaustion which can take your results away from a hypertrophy workout to a conditioning one.
Enough talk… What Exercises Can You Start Doing NOW?
Now that you get the background information, here’s the best exercise selection that you can use to get a bigger size when you train to failure.
Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises are a great way to stress out target muscle groups, providing a great workout for muscle groups that are hard to train with compound exercises like your neck, abs, forearms and calves.
Isolation exercises you can do:
Also Read: 5 Exercises For A Stronger Back
- Pullups
- Lat pulldowns
- Straight arm pulldown
- Inverted rows
- Seated cable rows
- Incline dumbbell row
For quads:
- High bar squats
- Leg press
- Front squat
- Bulgarian split squats
- Hack squats
- Leg extensions
- Goblet squats
- Calves
- Seated calf raises
- Standing calf raise
Chest:
Also read: 5 Exercises For A Bigger Chest Here
- Smith machine bench press
- Incline dumbbell fly
- Cable fly
- Barbell bench press
- Machine bench press
- Push ups
Biceps:
- Barbell curls
- Alternating dumbbell curls
- Two-arm dumbbell curls
- Cable curls
- Preacher curl
Triceps
- Cable pulldown extensions
- Dips
- Machine dips
- Dumbbell kickbacks
- Band tricep extensions
Compound exercises
Heavy lifts also contribute greatly to muscle hypertrophy due to their heaviness and wide range of motion, especially when we bring them to true muscle failure.
Compound exercises you can do for size:
- Deadlifts
Also read: How To Deadlift Properly
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Lunge
- Bench press
- Dips
- Lying pullover
- Push ups
- Pull ups
- Lat pull downs
- Shoulder press
- Jump rope
Conclusion
In addition to our recommendations, there’s also been talk about which of the two exercises are the better option for size.
So which is it really? Find out in our next blog post.
Until then, here’s some of our highest rated, best selling NSP Classics to boost your muscle growth and give you added energy for workouts.
