This is how to build more muscle mass

Want to tighten your body, build fuller muscles, and achieve more definition without necessarily reducing your body fat percentage? Then strength training is definitely for you. But which exercises work best? We've got the heavy lifting covered for you: our 8 favorite strength training exercises!

First, let's cover the basics: how do you build muscle mass?

Strength training, nutrition, and rest go hand in hand as a package deal:

1. Strength training challenges your muscles, causing small tears in your muscle fibers. This is often the muscle soreness you feel after a workout.
2. After your training, it's time to rest. This allows your muscles to recover and become stronger.
3. When it comes to building muscle, paying attention to your nutrition is also important. Make sure you consume more protein. We'll delve into this further shortly. 

Compound exercises

If you want to build muscle mass quickly, it's best to focus on compound exercises.

• In a compound exercise, you perform a movement that involves more than one joint, targeting multiple muscle groups compared to isolated exercises.
• With a compound exercise, you train all muscle groups. On your rest days, you'll feel muscle soreness throughout your whole body, a sign that you've engaged many muscles.

Best exercises for more muscle mass

Compound exercises are the ones that stimulate muscle growth the most. Below, we'll give you our favorite exercises. The most important tip is to combine them. This way, you'll train your whole body in one session!

1. Deadlift

The deadlift is hands-down the best exercise for more muscle mass. It engages the most muscle groups out of all exercises. You train your arms, legs, glutes, calves, abs, hips, and back with it. The deadlift should not be missing from your workout!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op9kVnSso6Q

2. Squat

You can perform a squat with or without additional weight. Without weight, you train your legs, glutes, hips, calves, and abs. And by adding weights, you also work your back and arms.

3. Bench press

Bench press primarily targets the chest muscles, front shoulders, and triceps. When you lower the weight back down, you also engage your back muscles and biceps (to a lesser extent) to stabilize. This exercise is a great all-rounder for the upper body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSza8hVTlmM

4. Lunge

With lunges, you mainly train your legs and glutes. But you also engage other muscle groups like the back, hamstrings, thighs, and calves. By varying with different types of lunges, you target different muscles each time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8fvypPrzzs

5. Shoulder press

As the name suggests, this movement mainly targets your shoulders. You train your entire shoulder and a bit of your upper arms, back, and abs with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yWaNOvgFCM

6. Barbell bent over row

An exercise to really train your back. This powerhouse also doesn't neglect your elbows and shoulders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKFeB7ST830

7. Dips

Dips primarily work your triceps, but also engage your shoulders, chest, and abs. The great thing about dips is that you can do them without weights, and you can always find a spot to dip somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kALZikXxLc

8. Chin-ups

Chin-ups target your biceps, back, and forearms. For an extra challenge, you can add more weight gradually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T78xCiw_R6g

Boost that protein intake!

Proteins are the building blocks of our body. Including your muscles! When you're dedicated to strength training, you can increase your normal intake to 1.6 to 2.0 grams of protein per kg. Luckily, there are many protein-rich foods to choose from. An protein shake is convenient and complete. Orangefit Protein shakes contain all the amino acids for muscle building and are the highest-rated in all of Europe.