7 Best Exercises For Men To Get A Lean And Muscular Body

Try exercises to get a lean and muscular body! (Image via unsplash/Intenza Fitness)
Try exercises to get a lean and muscular body! (Image via unsplash/Intenza Fitness)

There are exercises for men to get a lean and muscular body. In this article, we will be discussing seven such exercises so that you can start working out today itself.


Best Exercises For Men To Get A Lean And Muscular Body

Here's a look at seven such exercises for men:

1) Squats

Squats are one of the best exercises for men to build a lean and muscular body. They work your entire lower body, including your hips, glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings.

They can be performed with barbells or dumbbells.

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However, dumbbells are better for beginners, as they allow more control at the bottom position, where most people struggle when squatting with a barbell.


2) Incline Barbell Bench Press

Here's how to do an incline barbell bench press:

  • Place your back and glutes against the bench, with your feet planted firmly on the floor.
  • Hold a barbell in front of you at arm's length, and lift it off the rack by extending your arms fully upward.
  • Hold the barbell close to your chest as you lower it down, stopping when it touches just above your chest.
  • Inhale, and exhale as you push up again, lifting the bar off its resting place till it reaches chin height (or as far as it feels comfortable).
  • Repeat these steps for one set of eight repetitions. Take a break before performing another set of eight to ten reps in this same manner.

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3) Deadlifts

Deadlifts are one of the best exercises for men to get a lean and muscular body. They're a full-body exercise, meaning they target many different muscle groups in your body, including the glutes, hamstrings, quads, lower back and upper back.

Deadlifts are also a compound movement, which means they involve multiple joints working at once (hip extension/ knee extension) instead of one joint doing an isolated movement, such as bicep curls or leg extensions.

Compound exercises for men use multiple muscle groups to perform movements like squats or deadlifts.

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That means they're more effective in increasing strength than isolation exercises, like bicep curls or leg extensions.


4) Standing Overhead Dumbbell Press

This is a very effective exercise for working your shoulders and triceps. A lot of guys tend to ignore their shoulder muscles when they work out. However, if you want a lean and muscular body, you need to incorporate these best exercises for men like this one in your routine.

The standing overhead dumbbell press is performed by holding two dumbbells at shoulder level with palms facing forward and arms fully extended above your head. Slowly lower them back down while keeping your elbows stationary till they are at 90 degrees.

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Raise them back up again till they're fully extended above your head again. You can do this exercise with one or two weights at a time, depending on whatever feels most comfortable for you.


5) Lat Pulldowns

Here's how to do lat pull-downs

  • Sit on the pull-down machine with a wide grip, hands facing forward.
  • Your knees should be bent and feet flat on the floor. If you have shoulder issues or any other injury, exercise caution, and make sure to get advice from a certified trainer before proceeding.
  • When starting out, use a weight that's comfortable for you so that you can focus on perfecting your form (you can always increase that later).
  • Start by pulling the bar down behind your head till it touches your shoulder blades.
  • Pause for a second at the bottom of each rep, and slowly allow the bar to return to the starting position.

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6) Barbell Bicep Curls

Biceps curls are a great exercise to build big biceps. You can do them in the gym or at home, standing up or sitting down, with a barbell or with dumbbells.

To perform barbell biceps curls:

  • Stand straight up with your back against a stable wall and your feet shoulder-width apart from each other.
  • Your arms should be hanging by your sides with an underhand grip on the barbell (palms facing forward).
  • Slowly bend your elbows so that the weight comes up towards your shoulders till they're at 90 degrees; don't let go of the bar yet.
  • Slowly reverse direction, and come back down till you're back to where your arms are straight.
  • Make sure when you're doing the exercise, you don't swing them out to either side.
  • Keep them close to your body throughout its entire range of motion so as not to use momentum instead of working your muscles.

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7) Tricep Cable Pushdowns

Triceps cable pushdowns are an isolation exercise that targets the triceps. This exercise is an effective way to build bigger and stronger triceps, as it allows you to focus on the muscle group without other body parts getting in the way.

Triceps cable pushdowns can be performed using two different grips - a narrow grip (palms facing each other) and a wide grip (palms facing away from each other).

The narrow grip variation emphasises more of the lateral head of your triceps, while the wide grip variation focuses more on your medial head.

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Choose whichever version best suits your goals.


Takeaway

Working out is an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it can be difficult to know where to start.

The exercises for men listed above are great for building muscle and strength, as well as helping you lose weight.

It’s important that all these exercises for men are done correctly, so make sure you have someone to show them to you if possible.

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Edited by Bhargav
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