Ian's Top 10 Mass Makers
The best exercises for scary size gains!
by Ian King

No Limit ThinkingHave you ever said, "I don't want to get, you know, too big"?
Well, don't worry about it. With that attitude you never will! Not
everyone wants to be massive, I understand. Some just want to develop a
quality visual appearance in selected muscle groups. I don't know why,
but perhaps Dr. Phil does... But before you switch off because
you may be in the "I only want to look big when I have my shirt off and
no one is standing beside me" category, allow me to let you in on a
little secret:Any limiting belief about your desire for size will limit the outcome of whatever you pursue. When
I hear statements like "I don't want to get too big," I believe that
person is putting the brakes on his results before he even gets
started. In essence, what he's really saying is "I don't believe I can
get big, so why not aim lower and not be disappointed?" Don't go there. Understand that being massive isn't that scary, and yes, you can do it!What
I'm encouraging you all to consider and accept is your right to get
massive if you want. Don't allow limiting beliefs about your potential
to smash your results to pieces before you even get started!

Size MattersBack
in my rugby days we joked that if you weighed less than 220 pounds, you
couldn't get on the team bus. As you can imagine, I'm still a little
biased in favor of mass. What do I mean by "mass?" I mean you should
look big even with your shirt on. You shouldn't need to be asked, "Do
you lift weights?" It should be readily apparent! An
experienced lifter can see a physique and make an educated guess at a
number of variables, including what exercises that person has dominated
in and how long he's been training. Where I believe many fall short is
the long term planning of their mass program. What works in the short
term and what works in the long term aren't necessarily the same thing.
Developing mature, deep muscle mass will take time, but even time won't
make up for poor exercise selection.I know the jury of political
and scientific correctness is still out on the ability of an exercise
to shape a muscle, but allow me to share with you from an empirical
perspective: there are certain strategies that will give you greater
mass long term than others. In this article I'll touch upon exercise
selection as one of the variables within this long term mass
development strategy.I'll start out with discussing and
explaining a simple underlying concept I have in relation to mass
development. It's very simplistic (which may not be impressive enough
for those pursuing complexity); it may not be currently scientifically
supported (which may not be impressive for those who want the comfort
of being able to say "research shows... "); it may not be original, as
I can't claim to be the first to make this conclusion; and it may not
be popular (which may not turn on those who want to do what everyone
else is doing). This final point is critical, because what I'm
about to share with you doesn't conform with instant gratification, and
that may be a hard pill to swallow. Let's do it anyway. Let's imagine
you have only two muscle groups. I'll call them core and peripheral.
Peripheral muscles are the ones further from the spine — lower arms,
lower legs, upper arms and to some extent shoulders. Core muscles are
the ones closest to the spine, the biggest ones of the body. Think
lats, quads, spinal erectors, chest, etc.Core muscles are
bigger; peripheral muscles smaller. Increases in core muscles make more
difference and have greater impact on visual size and total bodyweight.
These are the upsides. The downside (at least the downside to those who
want instant gratification) is that prioritizing the core muscles isn't
going to give you the instant recognition you may believe you need. Before
I go any further, let's clarify this — when I say "core" I'm not
talking about that over-rated bullshit involving irrelevant abdominal
exercises and other stabilizer/control drills. Leave that to the
brainless herd of sheep who don't have a clue and don't want to develop
one. My definition of "core" is more likely to appeal to the old-world
lifter than the new age, brain dead personal trainer. Most
people starting weight training pursue instant gratification. They want
to experience the "Golly, you have big arms" phenomenon as fast as
possible so they start out with prioritizing what I call the peripheral
muscles. Or perhaps they do this because there's less pain and effort
involved? Either way, if you start there and don't shift your focus to
prioritizing the core muscles for the majority of the time, you'll
never optimize your mass.I'm not saying you can't have periods
of peripheral muscle focus, just that you need to spend more time
prioritizing the core muscles. And I'm not going down that path of
bullshit which suggests you need to increase your total body mass by
"X" amount before you can add "X" amount of upper arm mass. And just in
case you misunderstand this, I'm not supporting the concept (usually
presented as a fact) that the abdominals are the key to transferring
lower body power to the upper body. That's another over-rated myth that
we can chat about another day.What I'm saying is that to
maximize your total body weight, and more importantly to develop the
look that you obvious lift even when fully clothed, you're going to
need to respect the concept I'm discussing: that look of power. To get it, you need to focus your efforts on the core muscles. Period.

Long Term MassNow
that I've laid out my underlying concept of mass development and before
we get into some exercise examples, let's go through some examples of
long term plans. A powerlifter who abstains from bodybuilding
movements at all times is the extreme example of this core development.
The opposite end of the continuum is occupied by the bodybuilder who's
never done less than fifteen reps and avoids spinal loaded movements.
Everything else is in between. All you need to do is get a visual image
of those two extremes and decide where between them you want to fall on
the continuum:

Continuum of mass development as influenced by long term training balance between core and peripheral lifts. Non-bodybuilder Bodybuilder Bodybuilder Bodybuilder Powerlifter Powerlifter using core lifts using high reps & avoiding core lifts
After you make that decision you can plan the long-term training
allocation — as a balance between core and peripheral lifts —
accordingly. Remember, it's not what you do in a program, workout, week
or month; it's the balance of your training over the years that will determine to a large extent your shape and mass.

Movements for MassTime
to talk exercises. Some of the exercises I'm going to recommend will
come as no surprise. Some will. The order I'll progress through them
will reflect to some extent how I rate them, but in some cases it's
difficult to say one is better than another. Also, you'll see the
inclusion of peripheral exercises, but only those with the greatest
ability to contribute to mass development.

#1 DeadliftWhen I think about mass, thickness, and unadulterated bulk,
I think of the deadlift. And no, I'm not talking about the stiff leg
deadlift or any fancy variation. I'm talking about the bent knee,
rip-the-weight-off-the-floor deadlift — the real thing! Why
did I list the deadlift first? Why not the squat? Well, it could've
gone either way. What swayed me was the fact that fewer people deadlift
than squat, so if I raised the awareness and perceived value of the
deadlift, it would benefit many.Keep in mind that if you
deadlift like a circus freak and are only concerned with standing up
with as much weight as possible, then I wouldn't rank this exercise
number one. But if you do it the way I teach the deadlift, then it
deserves its place at the top. Do
I say this just to give myself a feeling of self-importance? No. I say
it because the way I teach the deadlift optimizes muscle recruitment
and gives you the greatest transfer to life and sport (not to mention
safety.) For a refresher course, check out my old Question of Power column.

#2 SquatNow
this comes as no surprise. You've probably heard that 67% (or something
like that) of total muscle mass is recruited during a squat. As per the
deadlift, I prefer my approach to squatting: seeking to optimize muscle
recruitment. See my article, Five Ways to Go Deeper, for more info. Now,
when I say "squat" I mean back squat. The front squat is a nice option
with similar results, but not the same as the back squat when selecting
the number one most beneficial variation.

# 3 Bench Press I
know I don't need to justify the selection of this exercise. (Well, at
least not unless you have defected to the cult of "bench pressing isn't
functional or specific.") In fact, I suspect many will race to exercise
#3 and pretend I listed it as #1! Generally speaking, I don't need to
reinforce the inclusion of this lift, so instead, I think I'll get on
my handy soapbox and hold court! The first time I heard about
the "You should only go half range because it's too dangerous to go
full range" cult, I nearly fell over backwards. Let's not give any
further credibility to that one! But if that wasn't enough, the human
over-reaction appears to have infected the bench press with theories
presented like facts, suggesting that the bench is either not
functional or not specific to human movement or sport. Those who
believe this think the lift should not be done (or only be done lying
on the floor). Poor souls. The greatest losers here are the athletes
training under these morons! Okay, I'll step off the soapbox now. Remember,
this list isn't about ensuring injury prevention or muscle balance;
this list is about ranking the greatest contributors to overall mass.
The bench press deserves its place here. It's your challenge, as with
any lift, to negate the muscle imbalances the bench press presents. If
you deadlift, that generally won't be a problem. If you don't deadlift,
you're going to need to become very strong in the bent over or seated
row! Notice anything about the first three lifts I've chosen?
Does the word "powerlifting" give you a hint? It's no surprise that
these three lifts are the chosen ones for this sport. It's also no
surprise that those who train long term in this sport have great mass
development in the core muscles!

# 4 The Clean I
could've placed this exercise higher but I wanted to allow at least
some upper body lifts higher on my list! I know some may wonder why
this exercise made the list at all.Firstly, from purely a muscle
mass perspective, it's similar to but perhaps a poorer cousin of the
deadlift. "Poorer" only because most won't lift anywhere near in the
clean what they can in the deadlift.But the key that really
attracts me to this lift from a mass development perspective is my
respect for the development of the upper back. There's no other single
exercise that'll give you upper back mass like this lift (well, except
for the snatch lift, but I've selected one that may be easier for you
to master). Just look at the upper back of elite Olympic lifters and
you'll see what I mean. I've seen great bodybuilders train like
powerlifters to gain that mass advantage, but it's rare to see anyone
pay their dues in the Olympic lifts. If learning is an issue (there's
this dominant belief that these lifts are tough to learn), get a coach
or order my video or DVD set titled "Ian King's Guide to the Olympic
Lifts" from www.getbuffed.net. Another
alternative is the substitution of the clean with one of the many
Olympic pulling assistance lifts, e.g. power clean or snatch pull (or
even the high pull). If you're going down this path and using the high
pull, consider taking the wider grip option (snatch pull) as it'll be
easier to get more range in the high pull.I'm not the only one
to value this lift. Although perhaps for different reasons (he may have
been thinking of the athletic transfer), Bill Starr in his classic
1970's book The Strongest Shall Survive replaced the clean for the deadlift as part of the big three — clean, squat, and bench.In short, cleans and Olympic lifts build mass. Do them!